Dallas Roberts has his work cut out for him in the third season of The Walking Dead between working for the governor, sipping on tea, and conducting weird experiments on the undead. Is the seemingly lone scientist type in this post apocalyptic world working for mans best interests or has he got some other sinister plan up his sleeve?
Originally from Houston, Roberts attended Juilliard and currently lives in New York. He was nominated for a Drama Desk award for his work in the Off-Broadway play "Nocturne". He has appeared in movies such as Joshua and 3:10 to Yuma and on television shows like "Rubicon" and "The Good Wife.".
How did you get the role of Milton in the Walking Dead?
Yeah, I am an actor and I audition for a ton of stuff. It was another one that we auditioned for and it was a known product and an exciting product and then they sent me a ten page scene between a guy whose name was not Milton and he was talking to a woman whose name was not Andrea or Lori or any of the other women on the show. I played that scene and sent it off on tape. Then a couple of weeks later I heard back that they wanted me around, which I was super excited about.
When I got to the set, I realized that the stuff that I audition for was never going to be a part of the show and I was going to start learning from square one and square one was his name was Milton.
Did you sign a multiyear deal or with a show like this, is it a one year and will talk after kind of thing?
The show itself, isn’t even picked up for number four so it doesn’t make sense to sign the people to years beyond which the show has been planned and it’s better to have that moment by moment exploration if you will.
Does it give you more freedom as an actor to portray this character that was created specifically for the show with no specific back-story for people familiar with comic to critique?
I haven’t thought of that before, but that is true. No one can say “oh no, he is playing Milton horribly because I have all of these notions of who Milton is”, so that is an advantage for sure.
It does sort of give you freedom and it has been a real joy to work with the writers and learn a little bit more about Milton through every scene that he is in. I learn who Milton was and is one scene at a time the way the viewers do. That does provide a great amount of freedom and a greater amount of flexibility to say which way he will go.
Since we were first introduced to Milton, he has appeared to be the polar opposite of Merle. Can we expect to see a confrontation between you two in the future?
I think they live in confrontation with each other (laughs). That is a real fun dynamic to play with Michael Rooker. Milton and Merle have completely different values and completely different outlooks on life. You put them in a room together and it is fun to watch the fireworks go off.
From what we have seen so far, it seems you are trying to figure out the behaviors of the zombies and maybe even try to reverse the process. What can you tell us about your experiments?
Yeah, I think ideally reversal would be the ultimate goal. Milton is on his back foot certainly, there is a limited amount of electricity and he certainly doesn’t have all of the state of the art medical equipment that you would need, but he is making his way toward that idea and at this point he is just trying to gather information and study the undead and see what he can learn about them. Sort of the same way a biologist would study a new species. He is in the information gathering stage at this point.
What can you tell us about the tea? It almost seems like that scene was filmed with a purpose? Like maybe you had some secret formula in there to test on someone?
Well you know that is the favorite question of the day. I can tell you it is based on a lovely English black tea and it is delicious and beyond that I can’t say much more (laughs).
Is duct tape now the number one prevention of zombie bites?
It has proven to be effective and I would suggest highly, at least putting it on your sleeves and anything else you can think of covering with duct tape. You know duct tape never let us down before the apocalypse and I don’t know why it would start after. (laughs)
I hear that you are an avid gamer and comic reader. What are you currently playing and reading?
You know I have been so busy with the show and away from my home that I am missing the fact that Call of Duty is out and Halo 4 is out and I am going to be so behind all the fourteen year olds, so I screwed that up. My kids and I play Minecraft together when I’m away. I have setup a little server and we build stuff and blow stuff up and knock stuff down. That’s how I am spending my gaming time.
What about comics? Are you reading anything currently?
As soon as I got this part, I put that interest on hold so I could devote myself entirely to this idea and not dilute that in anyway with too much information that is in that area.
Can you give our readers just a hint of what's to come in the remaining episodes of this season?
Violence, despair, love, hope, and ass-kicking zombies every frame! (laughs)
The Walking Dead airs on Sunday nights at 9PM on AMC.