Ross Marquand, Seth Gilliam and Josh Hamilton – The Walking Dead

By starrymag | October 2, 2022

By: Kelly Kearney

 

 

 

Q)  Thank you so much for everything you’ve done over the years. The show has been such a fun ride; and once upon a time, it used to delve into the histories and backstories of these characters. Now we have a vehicle to do that with “Tales of the Walking Dead.” I just saw Samantha Morton’s incredible performance as Dee instead of Alpha. If you had an opportunity to come back and bring a story from your character’s past to life, is that something that you’ve thought about and might be interested in?

 

Ross:  I like the idea of having a background story. One of my favorite episodes of the show was when we go back into Abraham’s (Michael Cudlitz) background and kind of exploring what he was doing right at beginning of the apocalypse with his family, and one of the things that always stuck out for me was the great character note in the first – no I think it was the second episode I was in when I’m talking to Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and he’s basically interrogating me and trying to suss me out and asking me why I feel so comfortable with guns pointed in my face and I say, “Well, before the world ended I worked for an NGO,” I think in Nigeria or something where he was having warlord’s point guns in his face all the time so he was used to violence and all this terror long before the world ended. So, I think it would be cool to do a mini-series of all of our series regulars to see where they were immediately right before the apocalypse. I think that would be cool just before that; it would be a neat idea.

 

Josh: Yeah, I agree. I think right before and during is the most interesting because, yes, you want to see how everyone reacts to it because humans have an amazing capacity to adapt to anything but watching them make that shift is always interesting. One of my favorite episodes is with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his wife and them dealing with all of that in the beginning. So, yeah, that’s what I’d like to see.

 

Seth: I don’t know how interesting a story about Father Gabriel in church would be before the world fell. It feels like a lot of the character development happened after that event for Father Gabriel and I think he is a far more multifaceted and dynamic character as the show goes on and I am not sure how much of that I would be able to bring forth before the world fell. I mean, unless he secretly has a body hidden in the basement.

 

Q) For Josh, You’re the closest thing I’ve seen to the Governor in multiple seasons You kind of share mannerisms and I see a lot of parallels between Woodbury and the Commonwealth as well. I was wondering if David Morrissey was an inspiration and if Seth and Ross see those similarities between the two too.

 

Josh: I don’t remember talking about that as an inspiration, but you know, the Governor is so tall! [laughs] Isn’t he like eight feet tall? No, I think David Morrissey is an amazing actor, and I would happily admit to stealing from him if I had thought of it. I kind of wish I’d stolen from him more. It’s very different though because his whole relationship with his daughter is so dark and twisted and I feel like Lance has ambitions and reasonings for wanting to have some more power and they come from just your everyday normal ambition. I think the Governor had a little bit of a darker backstory, right? I don’t know what I just said.

 

Seth: I think you said you weren’t aware that you were stealing another actor’s performance but that you wish you had taken more choices from him.

 

Josh: Well, if that’s how I come across I guess I wish I had more blatantly stolen from him because he was such a great villain.

 

Q) I recently spoke with Bear McCreary, your composer, and he said he was conducting an orchestra when it hit him that a big part of his life was coming to an end, and I feel like maybe the equivalent for you guys as you were in the middle of stabbing someone and you got this feeling of nostalgia. Did you have these sorts of moments pop up when you are filming your remaining episodes?

 

Seth: I only had one moment pop up and that was the last exchange I had with Andrew Lincoln between Rick and Father Gabriel before he left the show. It was a simple line and I said to Andrew, “You know, this is the last thing we say to each other,” and he said, “Oh, is it really?” And then we did another take and It was way over the top dramatic and then we said, “I think I’m putting too much into it because it’s the last thing I say to you.” And that was a few years ago. So, I didn’t have any of those moments in these last episodes but that does stand out to me as a funny moment in terms of the last of something.

 

Ross: We were killing a lot of things; killing people up until the last night. Hopefully, that’s not too much of a spoiler since we kill a lot on this show, but once I killed my last person I think that last hour of shooting I was like, “Aww! I won’t be stabbing someone in the head for a while! That’s kind of sad.” So, hopefully, I will get cast in something where I can stab people in the head at some point because it’s fun and it felt good to do that for eight years. [laughs]

 

Q) For Josh, your character is the villain in this final run, and in maybe the deadliest decision he’s made so far, he’s decided to cozy up to Carol (Melissa McBride). Out of all the newcomers welcomed into the Commonwealth, what was it about her that Lance was drawn to, and what has been like working with Melissa McBride because it seems like everyone in the cast just loves to work with her?

 

Josh: She’s one of those actors that just makes you better because she has no pretense she just is. She’s one of those actors who doesn’t act, she just bes, and so when you talk to her if you feel yourself forcing something or putting something on it that is extraneous, you’re automatically aware of it because she is just so present. She just makes you a better actor. In terms of why Lance is attracted to Carol – or I should say drawn to her, I think he appreciates and spots right away that she’s incredibly capable and she’s someone who can think three, four or five steps ahead, which is what I think is how he sees the world as he tries to navigate through the world. So, he appreciates that in others, and he’s also looking for someone who can do things for him, and then he’ll do something for them. I think he’s sort of a fixer and like someone who cultivates relationships with people who can get things done. You know when she got the wine for him back in that episode – I forget which one it was, but I think he thought, “Wow! She figured out how to get out of The Commonwealth, find wine and get back in with it,” and I think right away he thought, “Well, this is someone I want to work with.”

 

Q) For everyone, I was just wondering when you got to Season 11 did your opinion about your characters possibly dying change? Did you just want them to go out in a blaze of glory?

 

Ross: I thought I was going to die almost immediately after getting onto the show,; so, I never assumed I was going to last as long as I did, and I was obsessed with it because when I first got on the show I had a mountain of debt and I was like, “Oh, work! I hope I don’t die.” And Josh McDermitt kind of beautifully pulled me aside one day and said, “You know, you worry so much about whether or not you’re going to lose your job and be killed off. Is that actually going to help you enjoy this experience?” And I said, “Well, no, it’s not.” And he said, “Well then, don’t worry about it. They’ll kill you off when they kill you off and there’s nothing that you can do about it,” And I think that advice was not only really great for the show but also great for how to live your life. We don’t know when we’re going to have our tickets punched, you know? So, just enjoy it while it’s there and have a good time. But it was a scary thought thinking about, “Oh, man, this might be the end of the show for a lot of us,” and if that was the case then I definitely wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.

 

Q) How about you, Seth?

 

Seth: I did not read the comics – I do not read the comics, so I thought Father Gabriel was a device to get a major character killed off and I wouldn’t last more than three episodes, quite frankly. So, I was prepared to do three episodes, make my guest appearance, put it on the resume and move on. I’ve been playing with house money ever since. So, whatever they have in mind for the character, I’m down for it.

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*