Exclusive: The Walking Dead's Josh McDermitt Talks Eugene's Mullet and Super Heroes

03/01/2015 12:40 pm EST

Earlier this week, ComicBook.com caught up with Josh McDermitt who plays Eugene on AMC's hit series, The Walking Dead. McDermitt, who was previously known for his comedic roles, agreed to an exclusive interview with us to talk all things from zombies, to mullets, to Marvel heroes.

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Eugene's mullet… I know that's not your natural look. When you're sporting that mullet do you have anyone you aspire to match, like Joe Dirt or Billy Ray Cyrus, when you're rocking that bad boy?

Yeah, when I have the mullet it's kind of funny to have a little fun with it and play it up a little bit. I always love to get into my regular clothes, wearing the mullet not in Eugene's costume… Then I really start rocking it like Joe Dirt. People are constantly saying you do this or you'd be perfect for this role, you know a guy with a mullet. People will ask if I'm gonna do Joe Dirt 2 or something like that. It's like, I'm gonna let Eugene be Eugene and I'll figure out what to do outside of that. I'm not gonna put myself in a mullet box and only do mulleted roles and people think I can pull that stuff off, but I think Eugene is the only one who's gonna have the mullet for me for a while.

Did you have to walk out in public with the mullet after you first started the role?

It was kind of a bit of a baby mullet. I had to get a bit of a hat because our hair dresser, God bless her, she was cutting my hair and I was adjusting in the seat and she took a little more off the top than she had planned and so she had to fix it by going a little shorter with everything else. And it was completely my fault, you know? But then I'm walking out like, "oh my gosh, I can't believe this is my hair." It wasn't what it looked like when the mullet was in, it was what it looked like when the mullet was out that I had a problem with. I went to Wal Mart and I was so embarrassed and I went in to get a hat. I saw three or four people with the same hair cut and I was like, "Oh, no, I'm alright."

You might be one of the most famous people off camera. I mean, Rick has that beard but Andrew Lincoln doesn't, Danai has those dreads on. You're really walking around with that mullet!

Yeah! I mean, I like look as ridiculous as possible when I do a role. I did this one where I had, like, lamb chop sideburns. There was no justification for it, it's just how they cut it. They were like, "Oh, we should trim them up." I was like, "No! They're fine!" She's like, "nah," but if you look as stupid as possible you end up sticking out more. As long as it doesn't end up back in my personal life, I'll be okay.

I think we would all do it for a chance to be on the show. I'd cut my hair any way they asked!

Oh, yeah, I've been given a gift, really. I mean, I kind of make jokes about the mullet, "it's crazy, I have to live with this thing," or whatever. I'm really happy I got the mullet, it's great. I could be a guy in the background who no one noticed or I could be the guy with the mullet!

That's a great way of looking at it.

Yeah.

Do you have any other projects or comedy pieces coming up we can look for?

I have a movie that's in the film festival circuits right now. Life In Color. It's over at the South By Southwest Festival coming up next month which is kind of fun. I'm gonna see what else. We have some other invitations to do other projects. We have a couple other projects coming up, I don't want to give anything away if I can't do it. It's a constant battle with schedules. Like, if something pushes to next December, I'm like, "I can't do that, because I got this other thing." A lot of things on the horizon, but nothing I can necessarily talk about.

Sure. One last thing that caught my eye on IMDb. I saw you did an Iron Man 2 Tableread?

Oh, yeah! That was just a little sketch. I was in a little sketch and improv group in LA called Robert Downey Jr Jr and we just did like a little video sketch that went viral I guess through Funny or Die. I think I was like Jon Favreau or something, we each were a character in Iron Man 2. I don't even think it had come out yet but we were just being goofy and silly. Someone in our group probably made the IMDb page. We've done so many videos, so for that one to be the one to make the IMDb, that makes me laugh because I have a hard time remembering exactly what happened in it.

Oh, okay, I thought you might have been in the running for Tony Stark.

I could play fat Tony Stark.

Throw a mullet on Tony Stark and there you go.

Hey man, that's a different movie. That's one I will do! If I saw a Marvel super hero with a mullet, I'll do it. Mullet Man!

I'm sure there is one. If I ask people to send you heroes with a mullet you could play, I'm sure we would come up with plenty.

Yeah, that would be great. I love the whole Marvel Universe. It's gonna be a sad day when Stan Lee leaves us but hopefully I'll be able to take over his role in all the Marvel movies, just a cameo, a guy with a mullet standing there.

Talk about a dream role. He gets to be in every single Marvel movie.

He gets to be in every Marvel movie!

Meanwhile, Wolverine can't cross over into the Avengers, but he gets to be in everything!

Yeah, Stan Lee… It doesn't matter. He's the master of the universe. Oh wait, that's He-Man, nevermind.

We have more from this interview right here, but be warned, it contains some spoilers from season 5 episode 12, "Remember."

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