Warning: This interview contains storyline and character spoilers for the Season 6 premiere of The Walking Dead.



Dang, we thought that dude was gonna hang around for a spell. Alas, Alexandria resident Carter didn’t get much backstory, didn’t show up until well into the episode, and didn’t even get a last name. He, and his death, are certain to have a lasting impact on Rick, however, as well as Rick’s friendship with Morgan and his already shaky relationship with the rest of the safe-zone citizenry.

Yahoo TV talked to Carter portrayer Ethan Embry — an actor we already love from movies like Vegas Vacation, That Thing You Do!, Can’t Hardly Wait, and the new horror film The Devil’s Candy — about landing a key role on one of his favorite shows, how he brought some nuance to what could have been a rote role, shooting that gruesome death scene, and whether or not there’s any chance of him returning to the TWD universe.

First of all, you are already a big fan of the show, right?

Yeah, this group of friends, we all get together every Sunday and have a potluck and watch the show. I was trying to keep [my casting] a secret from this group of friends. I went out to Atlanta and shot it, and my wife and I were joking about how great it would be … “I’m not going to tell them about it, and I’m going to be sitting there and eating the macaroni and cheese that I brought, and I just can’t wait to see the reaction in the room.”

But [TWD EP Greg Nicotero] had the plan all along to present this as a new character that you think is going to be with the family a lot longer than he manages to survive. Which I think is great, because as a fan of the show, there’s a lot of disappointment when one of your loved characters dies … It makes for good television as far as the suspense and the lead-up to it, and the scare factor. By bringing in this brand new character and building him up and making everyone think he’s going to be around for awhile, and then pulling the plug, you get the shock, the gore, and all of those great things.

Related: Take a Bite Out of Our ‘Walking Dead’ Recaps

How did the role come about for you?

I’ve been wanting to be on the show for a while. I auditioned for the pilot, for the role of Shane. I remember reading that pilot and being a big fan of 28 Days Later, and knowing that this show, if they got close to pulling off what was on paper, it was going to be something special, and they did. I didn’t know how close I got to it, but there was another [character] that’s on the show now that I auditioned for. I guess it was down to the wire on that one, too, so when the role of Carter came up, Greg and [showrunner] Scott [Gimple] thought of me and sent out the invitation. I was stoked — really happy.

Can you say who the other character was, the second one?

No, I wouldn’t, because it’s very different, the way they went. To me, it’s also a great example of how, no matter how great an actor does, it comes down so much to the amount of their own personality that they bring to the character. It’s totally different. You know? You could put Ethan in Daryl, you could put Ethan in Rick, but I would never be able to do what [those actors] do. It would be completely different. The [actor playing the character I auditioned for], I’d never be able to pull off what he does. It’s amazing.

In the comics and the TV show, we don’t have the benefit of much backstory on Carter. Did you imagine one for him when you got the role?

Well, he’s responsible for building the wall around Alexandria, and so what I came up with is that he’s a regular man. He’s a capable, working-class man, who probably, when he was a teenager just out of college, slung a hammer and hustled a shovel, and worked his way up to being a contractor, and made a good living actually organizing the gigs. He went from a dirty T-shirt to a blue collar. He’s a capable guy in [that] world.

But because he’s been living inside the bubble of Alexandria, he is leagues behind Michonne, and Daryl, and Rick. They’ve matured into something else, and he doesn’t realize that. That’s something that Carter doesn’t fully comprehend. But he does at the end … that’s, to me, what he is realizing. To survive in this world, you have to change, you have to let go of certain parts of humanity to be able to survive. But he’s kind of living in a bubble.