Andrew J. West, who has worked in both film and television since 2006, may be known best for portraying everyone’s favorite cannibalistic hipster, Gareth, for four episodes of “The Walking Dead.”







Since Gareth got his comeuppance from Rick, West has landed parts on “Hot in Cleveland,” “Justified,” and “Under the Dome.” He also starred in the indie movie “Nightmare Code,” a thriller about a facial recognition program gone awry.







We recently caught up with West to discuss the dynamics of indie films, his favorite TV show, and “The Walking Dead.”







The Swerve Magazine: “Nightmare Code” was shot in 2012, when not too many people outside of the technological industry had heard of facial recognition. When you were reading the script, how was it dealing with something that not too many people knew about? Did you do any research into that?







Andrew J. West: In terms of research, no. I was fascinated by the script. I thought that it was very interesting. It was terrifying. It was all of these things, but in terms of some of this technology now being widely available, it wasn't anything that deterred me or confused me or made me feel like I had to find out if this stuff was plausible in order to play this part.









My character's obviously a very technical guy and he understands a lot about programming and a lot about the way that computers work, but I don't necessarily need to understand all the details of what goes into programming a facial recognition program in order to get that reality of the scene across.





Talking with Mark Netter, the director, and discussing the script and the character was all I really needed. Then we rehearsed, which was nice. You don't always get a chance to do that with these little films because you're on such a time crunch and there's so little money, but Mark made it a point to get the actors together and rehearse.







SM: This is his directorial debut. Was this your first time working with a first-time director, and how was it?







AJW: I've worked with several first-time directors, and the one thing they have in common, which is great, is that there is just this overwhelming enthusiasm and optimism, at least at the beginning, and Mark certainly had all of that. It was his baby, his passion project. It was something that he wanted to get his filmmaking career started with, so he was going to pour everything that he had into it. I think that kind of enthusiasm and dedication is maybe sometimes more important than years and years of experience.







SM: Speaking of experience, most of the cast for the movie are younger actors or actors that did not have much experience. How are the dynamics working with an ensemble like that, as opposed to other shows and movies you've done with veteran casts?







AJW: You definitely see a little bit of a difference among veterans in the way that they approach a set and the way that they move about a space, and the way that they communicate with the director about scenes, but again, what was cool about “Nightmare Code” was that everybody was just really excited to get together and make a cool movie.







The reality of independent films is that a lot of them don't even ever get finished. There are just thousands and thousands of these movies that are coming out every year, you never hear about most of them, but when you have a bunch of new actors who really love the project and who are excited to be there, their attitude is, “This is going to be the coolest thing ever.”







The main thing at the end of the day is just if they're good actors or not. The actors that I worked with on this I felt like were all really good. Mei (Melançon) was fantastic, and the rest of them as well.







SM: Speaking of actors that you've worked with, I found an old interview where you were asked your favorite TV show, and you said “The Wire.” Fast forward a few years and you're working with three actors from “The Wire” on “The Walking Dead.” Needless to say, you're up close and personal with one of them. How was it shooting that scene with Lawrence Gilliard Jr., especially because I imagine you were a fan of his coming into that show?







AJW: When I started reading the scripts and realized what I would be doing, I saw how much I'd be working with Lawrence. When I first met him, it was surreal. You try to act like it's not, but when you're a fan of someone, it's always pretty cool to not only get to meet them but also get to start doing scenes with them.







He immediately struck me as not only a really good actor, but just to see how fun of a person he is, and just how nice he is. When I would come home from working or on the weekends, I re-watched the entire first season of “The Wire,” mainly just because of him. I hadn't seen it in a handful of years, and I wanted to go back because I loved it so much. It was interesting to be watching these episodes at night and then going to work the next day with him.







I never really got to do scenes with Chad Coleman or Seth Gilliam, but one of the coolest moments from just being on set and hanging out, was there was a scene that we were doing, the church scene, in episode 3 of season 5, in which Lawrence, Seth, and Chad are all in the scene. You don't see them. They're hiding in the back room, and then I and the rest of the Termites are coming into the church, so all of us were on set and we were all talking, and “The Wire” got brought up.







I did not bring it up, but somebody started talking about it, and Chad and Lawrence and Seth were all like, “Man, this is so cool that we're all here right now, somebody's got to take a picture.” Somebody pointed at me and they're like, “Andy, do you mind taking a picture of the three of us real quick?” I was like, “Oh my God, yeah, of course.”







I just remember holding the three of them in the viewfinder, and it was just such a weird moment, that I was about to take that shot. Then I remember seeing that picture popping up online, because they had posted it, and I had this secret pride that I was the one who took the photo of the three dudes from “The Wire.”







SM: Going into “The Walking Dead,” I am sure you knew of its popularity, but now that you've been off the show now for over a year, are you surprised of just how popular the show is, especially when you do all the conventions and see all the fans coming out to see you?









AJW: I knew that it was a popular show, but I had worked on some fairly popular shows in the past. Certainly nothing like this, but when you come in as more or less a recurring guest star, I never expected to have the popularity of the show rub off on me in any way. It was just like “I'll do my little job and try to make my contribution, and the show will continue to be what it is,” but it doesn't work that way with this show.





It's like anybody who's involved just gets wrapped up into this world. All of a sudden, you're getting invited to go to these conventions all over the world. You go to these things, and these fans are just lined out the door. Of course, they want to see Norman (Reedus) and Steve (Yeun) and Lauren (Cohan), but they want to see everybody. They want to see you, and they want to see everyone involved and they want their action figures signed. I never expected that. The action figure thing is something that blew my mind.







SM: Yeah, I was just going to ask you that. How was it seeing yourself in action figure form?







AJW: It was amazing. Being a kid growing up in the Midwest, you had tons of GI Joes and He-Man figures and WWF figures and every kind of action figure you can imagine, and to get to have that, it's a dream come true. It's really like a bucket list kind of thing.







SM: There were flashback scenes with you and some other Termites in a train car, about how Terminus was before the reign of Gareth but did you guys ever shoot more? Were there ever plans on being a stand-alone episode, or, at least, half an episode devoted to Gareth's back story?







AJW: To be honest, no, not that I know of. Everything that we shot, you saw in the episodes.







If you look at the cannibal story line in the comic, it's about as long as it is in the TV series. It's set up very differently. Terminus doesn't exist and it introduces characters in a different way, but what I always understood, just from talking to Greg Nicotero and Scott Gimple and even reading some interviews with them, is that it was just a moment in the comic that they really wanted to pay homage to and get in there, but it wasn't ever something that they wanted to necessarily spend more time on than what they spent in the comic.







SM: It is just interesting, a hipster-type guy like Gareth could turn into a murdering cannibal. That was always a back story that I would have thought would have been interesting.







AJW: I agree. I think there is something cool about the mystery that remains with that.







When I first got down to Atlanta and I didn't know exactly what part I'd be playing, they started putting me in this very military kind of garb. I was like, “Oh this guy's a tough guy, this is going to be interesting.” Then they came back and they were like "No, no, no. This is all wrong.”







Then they put me in this very unassuming outfit, which is what you see me wearing when my character's introduced at Terminus. After that, Scott Gimple called me into his office for a meeting to break down who I'd be playing and the story line.







It's cool that they set it up so you meet this character who does seem very unassuming. Very nice, normal, not a tough guy, not a scary guy, this just this guy and then you find out who he is and what he's become.







SM: You are in two movies slated to come out soon.







AJW: One is coming out sometime this year. It's called “Middle Man.” It stars Jim O'Heir from “Parks and Recreation” and myself. Josh McDermitt from “The Walking Dead” is also in it. It's going to be a very bizarre, fun, super dark comedy.







It's about an aspiring stand-up comic who moves to Vegas from the Midwest. On the way to Vegas, he picks up a hitchhiker in the desert, my character, who sort of forces him to become an accomplice in this murder spree. Meanwhile, also forces him to continue to practice his stand-up routine.







His routine becomes about the details of essentially murder and what it takes to get away with it. His comedy begins to become very popular because everybody thinks it's a shtick. Meanwhile, they're being tracked by the cops and it's just this really wild, fun, super dark ride thought he desert with these two guys who are just causing mayhem.







I did another film. I have a much smaller role in this one, but I think it will be a very cool film called “Rebirth” that stars Adam Goldberg and Fran Kranz. It's sort of a thriller. That should be coming out this year as well.





