- Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for season 10, episode 19 of "
The Walking Dead ." - Robert Patrick joined Sunday's episode playing twins scarred and changed by the zombie apocalypse.
- Patrick told Insider it was fun filming 20-minute takes with Seth Gilliam and Ross Marquand.
Robert Patrick made his debut on "The Walking Dead," playing not one, but two characters on Sunday's episode.
His time on the show didn't last long, though, as the twin brothers he played were killed off by the episode's end.
Insider spoke with Patrick Friday afternoon over the phone to find out how the "Terminator 2" star got involved with the show, of which he's been a fan of for years. He was good friends with some of the series early stars, including Laurie Holden and the late Scott Wilson.
With the star at home in Atlanta, Georgia, where the
Patrick was able to join the show as they filmed during the pandemic because he lives down in Atlanta. He's also known producer Gale Ann Hurd for forever because of her work on the 'Terminator' franchise.
Kirsten Acuna: Your casting caught me off guard. When I first heard you were going to be on the show, I was so excited. I figured there was no way that Robert Patrick was joining "The Walking Dead" and wasn't going to play some sort of villain. I'm so curious. How did this come about? Have you been a fan of "TWD"? Are you friends with some of the people on the show?
Robert Patrick: A bit of all of the above. I've been a fan of the show. I've watched the show. Being filmed in Atlanta, that's my birthplace. The whole concept was very interesting to me. So yes, I was aware of it. Of course, I know Gale Anne Hurd from the "Terminator" franchise, so I was curious what she was doing. Glen Mazzara was one of the writers and showrunners for a while. Scotty Wilson was an old friend of mine. Laurie Holden, I worked with on the "X-Files," so thematically I was very curious about it and was a fan.
I often wondered, well, maybe someday I'll get a shot to get down there. I've been busy doing other things, as well. And I'm just glad it finally fell into place where I could actually do it. They wrote such a great role that I read it and I went, "Oh my God, how can you not want to do that part?"
Acuna: I'll come back to Mays in a second, but I forgot - of course you and Gale Ann Hurd go way back. I have to wonder then, was there ever considerations for you to play a villain earlier on the series?
Patrick: If there was, I never heard about it.
Acuna: I had to ask because I could've seen you being - I don't know - the Governor or bringing some of that other energy elsewhere onto the show.
Acuna: Mays seems like a character study on what can happen when you're in isolation for too long. Something that I think a lot of people have experienced over the last year during the pandemic. What were the conversations you had either with Angela Kang or "TWD" crew in developing this character?
Patrick: They didn't really come at me with a lot of advanced notes or comments on the character. I really had such a visceral reaction to it when I read it. It hit me on all those levels, what you just mentioned, isolation. I also looked at it from a spiritual point of view. I'm a practicing Episcopalian. I go to church. To let yourself wander and think about your faith being challenged to the point where you turn your back on God was a really heavy concept for me and something I wanted to play, you know? It hit me on so many different levels. I was kind of glad that they didn't come in and layer on a bunch of some backstories and other things for me to think of that I had to consider as I was putting together the performance.
I'll tell you what - they kind of gave me a rope and kept it loose, and let me go hang myself.
Patrick said filming his scenes with Seth Gilliam and Ross Marquand was like doing a play. It was all one long take.
Acuna: I was wondering how much they let you improv here - if at all.
Patrick: There was no improvisation. Maybe a couple times I might've slipped a "padre" in there. There must have been a few little things that I slipped in there.
When I read it, I went, "Oh my God, how are they going to shoot this?" I contacted [episode director] Laura [Belsey]. I said, is your intention to have some cut beats here where we're gonna reset and do this part of the scene and then do this part of the scene? She said, "No. We're going to shoot it as a oner." Beginning, middle, and end, it's a big one act. It was very much like doing a play. And once I realized that's what was going to happen, Seth and Ross, we were all off book and we were ready to rip it. And it was just fun, you know, take after take 20 minute long takes.
Acuna: I have to imagine some of those concerns were because of the pandemic?
Patrick: Yeah. My thing was for the mechanics of the props. We had a gun we had to fire, we had the bullets, moving Aaron out of that room. [You had] all those practical beats that were in there. I was concerned that we weren't going to be able to do it all in one long take, but we did. And it was so much fun. I can't think if I've ever done a television show where I've had that long of a take in one scene. It was like a 20-minute take.
Patrick says Gabriel made the wrong choice in killing Mays and that he proved Mays' point. He's a murderer.
Acuna: I love a good hypothetical. If Aaron and Gabriel let maze live, do you think he could have turned out to be good and be an asset to Alexandria? Or do you think he would have endangered the group? Did Gabriel make the right call in killing him?
Patrick: I think Gabriel feels that he made the right call. My contention is that, no, I was a lost sheep. I let myself be vulnerable in front of the Father. Help me bring me back in. Like, you would go to a priest - bring me back into the flock. And I looked at him for that leadership, and I laid it out to him like that.
You don't know yet about my brother that's up there in the upper crawl space. I've done some things, but I want to come back. Please forgive me, allow me to come back in. And he doesn't. He's a judge, jury, and executioner right there. He takes me out. I said that to Seth the other day - I think [Gabriel] messed up. I really do. I think he should have brought me back to the flock, let me bring my brother back in. Let me find redemption with him. I could be an asset, and he said, 'No, you're, you're just too crazy. You would have been a threat to the group."
Acuna: By having Gabriel kill Mays, it feels like Mays winds up being right in the end. His world view was that the only people left in this world are murderer and thieves. Was Mays right?
Patrick: I think you are correct. I think that Gabriel proved that he was a murderer in this episode and this episode was to service his character, to be honest with you. And Aaron as well. He proves that he's a murderer. Mays is willing to take that step. I think at this time, Mays is just tired. He's kind of done and just stressed about the whole situation. So let himself be vulnerable. He let his guard down.
You can follow along with our "The Walking Dead" coverage here.