Josh McDermitt as Eugene in ‘The Walking Dead’ (AMC)
“The Walking Dead” gang may have encountered more psychological challenges than physical ones since moving into Alexandria, but it looks like things are about to change.
As the show begins its march toward the Season 5 finale (on March 29), the most recent sneak peek (at the end of last Sunday’s episode) seemed to hint that things are about to heat up. A quick moment in the clip featured Abraham running into a conflict with a machine gun, another revealed Glenn curled up against a window looking lost, and still another showed Josh McDermitt’s character, Eugene Porter, looking frightened while pointing some sort of gun.
For hints at what’s ahead, Access Hollywood put our questions to Josh. But, before getting into what we can expect in Sunday night’s new episode on AMC, and his thoughts on beard-free Rick (which are hilarious), we had to ask the actor if he had any pre-“Walking Dead” connections to newcomer Ross Marquand (who plays Aaron).
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Access Hollywood.com: Let me just ask you first, did you happen to know Ross, because you guys both did ‘Mad Men’ [not at the same time]?
Josh McDermitt: No, I didn’t know Ross. … He’s such a great guy. … His first episode this year was the same episode [as] my first episode last year, so I was out there around the same time. I think it was Episode 10. So, by that time, the season’s been going, everyone’s kind of clicked in and everything, and I remember walking in thinking, ‘Oh boy, I’m gonna be an outsider, ‘ and Andy Lincoln wasn’t in the episode and he drove down to meet with me and Mike Cudlitz and Christian Serratos and to have lunch… And that always left a huge impression on me [and] when I saw Ross for the first time, I thought, I’m gonna do the same thing. I’m gonna make sure I welcome him into the fold, because I know how difficult it can be, and the moment I started talking to him, it actually did feel like I’d known the guy forever. He’s super chill, super cool. We both kind of have comedy backgrounds and that sort of thing, but no, we hadn’t really met beforehand, and I’m just – I’m looking forward to what our friendship holds for the future.
Access: Very cool. … So let’s talk about what’s coming up on the show. We’re getting close to the season finale and judging by the trailers, it seems to be [ramping] up. Would you say that the pace is going to pick up in this Sunday’s episode and go from there?
Josh: Look, in the trailer at least, the preview, Eugene gets a gun…. Before all that, Eugene’s not been allowed to have a gun. He’s had guns taken away from him, so the fact that he has a gun, I think the pace is automatically gonna get ramped up just from that situation alone, you know? I also think pace is all relative and everything. I do feel like a lot of questions are gonna get answered and a lot of crazy things are gonna unfold, if I can just put it that way, because they’re living in this weird community right now and everyone’s trying to act like outside of the walls, everything doesn’t exist, and only what’s within the walls exists. And it’s really hard for this group to come in there and act normal all of a sudden after being on the road for so long, so I definitely think it’s gonna intensify and get crazier as we wrap out the season.
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Access: We haven’t got to spend a lot of time with your character inside of Alexandria. We haven’t seen what his home decoration skills look like or who he’s even living with nowadays. Are we going to get to see a little bit of his home life?
Josh: Yeah, we’re gonna kind of check in and see what his status is within this community because the group is so big, and granted, we’ve really had to focus on Rick and Carol and Daryl and some of these major players character-wise, in terms of how they’re adapting, how Michonne’s adapting. I mean, Sasha, we saw her have the meltdown last week. These are vital things that we need to be peeking into. We are gonna find out a little bit about what Eugene’s been up to and kind of how he feels about the community and that sort of thing… but not just Eugene. Some of the other characters that we really haven’t seen much of since we’ve gotten into Alexandria, we’ll check in with them too.
Access: Obviously Eugene has developed a closeness with Tara. Can we expect some scenes between the two of them? That is an interesting bond. That’s one of the few friends he’s made – true friends.
Josh: Both he and Tara kind of feel like outsiders to the group in a way, even though Tara’s probably on better terms with everyone than Eugene is. I think she can empathize with him a little bit, but that doesn’t mean she’s not upset with Eugene for his actions and his behaviors. But yeah, I think that she still kind of remains one of his closest friends, especially after having his back turned on him – and rightly so – by Abraham and Rosita. So, I think they will kind of come together and we’ll get to see more of that relationship and see how they’re moving forward and maybe even also check in with how they are adapting to this life within these walls, despite the fact that Eugene did lie about having the cure.
Access: One of the things people are starting to pay attention to is the ‘W’ thing, the ‘wolves’ on the wall. … Are the carvings on the heads – is that something we can look forward to exploring or finding out answers to? Is that one of the questions we might get an answer to as we go forward?
Josh: Well, I mean, I don’t think that ‘The Walking Dead’ is like the show ‘Lost,’ in that they do weird crap and then never explain it. I always think there’s a reason for what [Robert] Kirkman and [Scott] Gimple and all our executive producers and great writers do, and I’m excited to see more about that.
Access: I did sort of mention as kind of a joke Eugene’s decorating, but what do you think his decorating is like? Do you think he is a hoarder? I’m assuming he got a house in this whole [Alexandria] deal and he’s moved in.
Josh: Eugene – I always kind of pictured him before the apocalypse as kind of living in a dark apartment, by himself, maybe with his mom, and not so much a hoarder of everything, but just a hoarder of just like weird items that mean something to him that would mean absolutely nothing to someone else.
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Access: Like Andrew Lincoln’s beard?
Josh: Yeah, like he would have Andrew Lincoln’s beard in the freezer. I think that’s where Norman [Reedus] got the idea. So, I think it would be fun to explore and see what Eugene’s life is like within his home in Alexandria to see if he’s able to – if it turns into a junkyard or if it’s clean. I feel like Eugene’s clean, but he might have hubcaps and stuff laying around because he might need them to build some machine or something to tinker with.
Access: Beard-y Rick or Beard-free Rick?
Josh: Oh, his beard got so great towards the end. I was really upset that they shaved it. I didn’t realize that he can grow such an epic beard. … I would say like the week or two leading up to that last episode, he just let it go and I was like, ‘Holy crap, that thing grows so quick!’ But then, when you see him without his beard, which I don’t think anyone’s seen him without his beard in so long, you’re just drawn to it. You’re like, ‘Man, he’s such a handsome fellow, and look, he’s got little dimples!’ and it’s like things that we’ve missed for years. I don’t know, I think I would take unruly beard Rick over any other Rick any day.
“The Walking Dead” continues Sunday at 9 PM ET/PT on AMC.
— Jolie Lash
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