Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter in season five of The Walking Dead. Photo by Frank Ockenfels and copyright of AMC.
Zombies, zombies and more zombies; everywhere you turn nowadays, these unfortunate dead-but-not-totally-dead souls are ambling about in search of their next meal, and much to the delight of their legion of fans. In the popular AMC series The Walking Dead, our harried yet brave heroes have spent the past four season literally on the run and trying to avoid becoming the zombies’ plat de jour. This group of determined survivors was joined, albeit reluctantly so, in season four by Dr. Eugene Porter, a scientist who is more at home in his lab as opposed to out and about in this post-apocalyptic landscape. Despite any reservations his character might have had, actor Josh McDermitt, who plays Eugene, could not wait to jump right into the fray.
I’m a huge fan of The Walking Dead and it was my favorite TV show before I booked my role on it, so the fact that I got a chance to even audition for it was mind-blowing,” says McDermitt. “That doesn’t really happen with shows that I actually watch and keep up to date with. It seems that most things I watch now are binge-watched. So it actually gives me a leg up to be current on a series like The Walking Dead and know that world so well when I walk into an audition room.
“Conversely, this was still a difficult audition because they don’t give you any material or an actual script from the show to work from. It’s all very cryptic. They change the characters’ names and write a whole set of script pages to read from. It’s mostly backstory that doesn’t really have anything to do with the apocalypse. I didn’t even know what character I was trying out for, but I did get a callback. Prior to that [second] audition I had an actual conversation with Scott Gimple, our show runner [and one of the series’ executive producers], and that’s when he revealed to me that the character was, in fact, Eugene. He liked what I did in my previous audition and just wanted me to tweak a few things. So I went into the callback with his notes and feeling really good about it. Finally, a few weeks later I found out I got the job and it was a dream come true.”
In The Walking Dead comic books (on which the small screen version is based), Eugene Porter is a high school science teacher who pretends to be a scientist and claims to have vital information about the plague that led to the zombie apocalypse. On the TV series, his credentials carry much more weight. Eugene is, indeed, a scientist with classified information on the pandemic and has a way to end it. He was being escorted to Washington, D.C. to meet with surviving government officials but their convoy was attacked by “walkers” or zombies. Only Eugene and two of his escorts, Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) and Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos) survived, but, unfortunately, neither of them can guarantee his or their own safety now that they are out amongst the walkers. Suddenly, Eugene is very much out of his element, and that provided McDermitt with one or two initial acting challenges with his character, which he relished.
“I think Eugene is a little bit socially awkward,” notes the actor. “He’s the type of person who probably didn’t have many friends outside of his workplace, and even those friends at work maybe weren’t necessarily friends. They were just coworkers who didn’t treat him like crap. I think he’s definitely the smartest person in any room he steps into, but when it comes to my portrayal of him, I’ve got to go back to his social awkwardness. Eugene doesn’t move his arms when he walks, he talks very quickly and tries to use logic in places where he does not need to, and that’s because – and this ties into the acting challenges – his emotional spectrum is so small.
“As actors train, we learn to play a wide range of emotions and, for example, to weep and then get angry in a particular scene and do this and that. From there, you make your acting choices, but with Eugene, it’s all pretty much flatline. So his tone as well as the way he sounds and his physicality was fairly easy for me to get a handle on, but I find myself constantly fighting, although it’s getting easier, wanting to burst out and say something with a little different inflection because that’s what I, Josh, would do or maybe what another character would do in the same situation. With Eugene, though, it’s just very even keel; he’s rather dry and almost one-note in a sense, and that’s kind of been the biggest acting challenge for me with him, but, again, it’s gotten a lot easier for me, thankfully.”
Eugene, Ford and Espinosa are introduced at the very end of The Walking Dead season four episode Inmates. They meet Tara (Alanna Masterson) and Glenn (Steven Yeun), who is focused on finding his wife and the rest of their group. In the following episode, Claimed, Abraham explains to the two of them how important it is to get Eugene to Washington, but Glenn refuses to go along with them. He and Abraham end up getting into a fight, which attracts the unwanted attention of nearby walkers. Eugene picks up a rifle and attempts to scare off the walkers but, instead, shoots up the gas tank of the group’s vehicle. Not surprisingly, this is one of McDermitt’s favorite scenes involving his character.
“That was a lot of fun,” he enthuses. “My call-time was earlier than all the other actors, so when I arrived on-set they actually filmed me shooting the truck and all that stuff before the other actors got there, It was kind of a special moment for me where I thought, ‘Wow, I’m not buried in the background with 15 other castmembers or just standing off to the side. It’s just me and I’m having to carry this whole piece of the scene by myself.’
“I never had to do anything like that before, and I also never fired a gun on-camera before. I’ve had a lot of weapons training myself, but I figured that Eugene hadn’t, so I enjoyed having to kind of unlearn any training I previously had. In fact, I pitched to the producers the idea of Eugene shooting into the ground a couple of times and they loved that. So I got to do that, and then fire blanks at a walker that’s coming at us and watch as it reacts. To be honest, there was a moment where I said to myself, ‘That looked real. Are we sure these bullets are fake, because that last thing I want to do is really shoot someone on the first day of filming.’ That was a very memorable day for me and I often think about it.”
Having ventured out into the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead as a recurring character towards the end of the show’s fourth season, Eugene Porter returns to fight zombies again in season five. Along with his increased screen-time, McDermitt put his additional time behind-the camera to good use as well. “Last year I showed up in Atlanta in August or September to start working on the show, but this year I’ve been out here the whole time, which means I can go to set and watch other actors at work,” says the actor.
“I think some people have this misconception that once you make it on a hit TV show, you’ve reached the level that you’re going to be at. However, the truth is you still have to keep trying to get better at your craft. So it’s been a real treat to be able to observe as well as learn from the other actors when they film their scenes and then incorporate those lessons into my own work.”
One of six children, McDermitt was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, which is where he took his first leap into the entertainment world. “When I was 14 years old I began calling into a local radio show using different funny voices,” he recalls. “I ended up getting a job at the station, but even before that in the back of my mind I thought, ‘I can be an actor.’ It’s something I always wanted to do, but I never took acting classes as a kid or tried out for school plays and stuff like that. Instead, I was the kid who, along with his buddies, would make fun of anyone who tried out for those plays. I’d be like, ‘Hey, let’s go watch the show so we’ll have more to tease them about.’ All I really wanted to do, though, was just watch the show instead of being one of the cool kids who made fun of the ‘theatre geeks.’ Secretly, I wanted to be one of those geeks.
“So again, it [acting] was one of those things that was in the back of my mind. I feel very fortunate that it eventually came to the front of my brain and I decided to move to Los Angeles to give it a shot. I never thought it would work out, but, happily, it seems to be going just fine now.”
The actor made his TV debut as a semi-finalist in the fourth season of The Last Comic Standing. He then booked roles in the made-for-TV movies Rehab for Rejects and King of Van Nuys before being cast as Brandon in the TV Land series Retired at 35. McDermitt also guest-starred in Work It and Mad Men, while his feature film credits include Madison Hall and the upcoming Life in Color. Having worked in both comedy as well as drama, what does he feel sets the two genres apart challenge-wise?
“The challenges with stand-up comedy, in particular, are that you’re up there alone, reciting material from your heart and that you’ve also written,” says McDermitt. “Even great comics have bad shows, and that’s not good. It doesn’t feel good because you’re ‘naked’ up there onstage and bearing your soul. The great thing about film in general is that if something doesn’t feel quite right, you can stop and try it again. Also, it’s usually not your material, but someone else’s, so it’s definitely more of a collaborative effort. I certainly love stand-up comedy, but I feel like I fit better into the film acting realm.
“In terms of drama and comedy, I always thought drama would be a lot harder, but comedy is harder, at least that’s how I feel, especially if you’re on a sitcom. It’s fast-paced and you still have to have real moments as the character and feel something, but not for too long, because it’s comedy and it’s got to be fast-paced. With dramas, though, you can slow down a bit, take your time and breathe. I’m not saying drama is a walk in the park, but rather that it just creates different challenges. I still feel that comedy is more difficult, at least to do it well.”
When it comes to what makes this type of career rewarding for him, McDermitt puts one thing right at the top of the list, “It’s got to be the people,” he says, “and by that I mean the people you meet as well as those you’re not necessarily expecting to meet. When I did Retired at 35 I had the opportunity to work with George Segal and Jessica Walter, two legends in the business, which was amazing. It was like going to the best acting school imaginable. On top of that, we had wonderful guest-stars, all of whom I got to meet and work with. That type of stuff you expect, but the people who you don’t necessarily expect to meet, and if you’re lucky build relationships with, are people like the props master, the grips and the camera people. To then take those relationships past the lifespan of the TV and still stay in touch with those people and do things with them is fantastic.
“Los Angeles is big but everybody knows everybody in Hollywood, so it’s really cool to be able to grow your family network so to speak with the people you work with and are checking in with from time to time. That’s been a great blessing in my career so far, and I truly believe that’s the stuff that helps create longevity in this business. It’s just about being a good person and being able to have good relationships with others. More and more, I think producers, studios and networks don’t want to put up with crap anymore, or divas, attitudes and those types of things. Every once in a while you’ll see someone behaving like a baby. Everyone knows it and they just ignore it and go on with their business. Then you see those people who are good and genuine and who are rewarded. That’s where the longevity comes in. So surround yourself with good people.”
Steve Eramo
Season five of The Walking Dead premieres Sunday, October 12th @ 9:00 p.m. EST on AMC. As noted above, photo copyright of AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
