Colman Domingo Explains Fear The Walking Dead’s Victor Strand

Late in Fear the Walking Dead‘s first season, audiences were introduced to a new, mysterious character: Victor Strand.

Strand would quickly become a member of Travis and Madison’s group of survivors. He lead them to his beach house and yacht, on which they would set sail and attempt to escape the apocalypse.

All of that – two sentences – is pretty much all we know about Victor Strand, so far. The character is very mysterious. He is dark and seems to keep everyone at an arm’s length. Unlike The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead doesn’t have comic books or other source material from which we can pull information about characters ahead of it being revealed on television.

Luckily for those craving some info on Strand, ComicBook.com had the chance to talk with Colman Domingo, the actor who brings Strand to life on our screens.

The first thing we wanted to know is where he got his fortune.

“What if he was just born with it?” Domingo teases. “You never know. What I think is interesting, it’s already interesting how many impressions we have about wealth, in particular, and how that’s associated with something nefarious. Because people are so concerned with, how is this guy so wealthy? And why? And of course it can’t be good in some way. It’s almost as if like maybe, It seems a little too seductive that this man has got it all together. And I think it’s just bringing something out, in him too, but, I you know, it’ll be revealed how Victor Strand got his money. But I think that he’s a very smart, resourceful human being and I think it also caters to the survivalist skills in the new world.”

Then, we turned our attention to why Strand seems to remain so distant from other characters.

“I was talking to the cast before and I said, ‘It’s not important to me for Strand to really smile,’” Domingo explains. “Because I think that’s also, it’s you know, that smile says many things and it’s… And you know people smile just because they’re nervous, they smile because they’re uncomfortable, they smile, all the time, we smile. But I think what’s more powerful is that there’s a character, who, you have to earn his smile. He doesn’t start at the warm and fuzzy place.”

As for the character of Strand, he’s a mystery to us, but Domingo has him down to a science.

“He is very practical,” the actor explains. “And that’s really important and it’s very black and white with him. And I think it’s once you get to know him, and you get to the source of who he is, he might open up a bit more. But I think that’s not part of the skill set. He just has a bit more of an ironclad veneer, which has been useful helping to move into the world, helping him to gain the wealth that he’s gained, helping to gain access in a way that others don’t.”

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 PM ET on AMC.