‘Fear The Walking Dead’: Garrett Dillahunt Endured Serious Training For Season 4

Surviving the set of a post-apocalyptic zombie series was no easy feat for Fear the Walking Dead‘s John Dorie actor Garret Dillahunt.

Dillahunt joined AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead in its fourth season. The unique character brought a cowboy attitude and gun-slinging skill the the post-apocalyptic world but to play the role convincingly a serious bit of training was called for.

“I was terrified about that, because I do have a lot of experience,” Dillahunt told ComicBook.com. “I’ve met a lot of great people over the years. You probably have, too, running in this business. When I have a job that requires me to use some kind of weapon, ‘Oh, let me introduce you to So-and-So. He’ll teach you this.’”

When it comes down to it, Dillahunt might is going to the best of the best to make sure he looks like he can hang with them. “I wanted to look expert at what I was doing,” the actor explained. From there, Dillahunt linked up with a specialist but the humble actor claims he still wouldn’t be able to hang with the best of them. “Look up any quickdraw artist on YouTube and John Dorie’s dead,” Dillahunt said. “Those guys are insane. They’ve been doing it their whole lives, and their guns are modified and greased and they got all kinds of incredible technique.”

Heading into a new season, Dillahunt’s second with Fear, the training will only continue. “I’m just going to keep practicing, I’m going to do as good as I can, but I like that stuff,” Dillahunt said. “I like to fight. I train in that stuff like everybody seems to under the f—ing sun these days. As I get into my full-on middle-aged years, which has good things and bad things about it, that’s for sure, one of the best things is that you just don’t care so much about what people think. I don’t worry about offending people or telling people they’ve done stupid things. I appreciate it when someone does it to me. I just wanted to work as hard as I could not to disrespect those people that actually do it.”

Dillahunt’s work seems to be paying off as he quickly became a beloved character on Fear the Walking Dead (which may have been bolstered by the popular story which saw his John Dorie fall in love with Jenna Elfman’s June). Still, gun-slinging wasn’t the only talent Dillahunt had to display.

Though the shoot-em-up style of his character was new to Dillahunt, other aspects such as kayaking through the post-apocalyptic landscape were more familiar. “Another good thing about being older is you’ve done a lot of stuff in your life. I used to row crew in Seattle,” Dillahunt explained. I was in one of the clubs there, so being on the water, rowing the boat… not tricky for me. I enjoyed kayaking. What was refreshing was that you get a chance to use it, that they would actually put us in on the show. I love my stunt double. I got a great one. He can do as much for me as he wants, but I also love when we did a shot to do it, too, basically.”

Fear the Walking Dead Season Four is available on Blu-ray and DVD now!

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.