'Fear The Walking Dead's Garrett Dillahunt Reveals Details On His New Character

Fear the Walking Dead is aiming to introduce a new fan-favorite character with Garret Dillahunt's [...]

By Brandon Davis

Fear the Walking Dead is aiming to introduce a new fan-favorite character with Garret Dillahunt's gun-slinging John Dorie.

Though much of Fear's Season Four has been kept a secret (likely to preserve The Walking Dead Season Eight spoilers), AMC has been proudly touting new cast members around in recent months. Now, Dillahunt has finally offered a bit of perspective regarding his role on the AMC show, besides just a name and photograph.

"My character of John was was a trick shooter for fun before the thing happened, so he's employing those skills now," Dillahunt told EW. "We don't want him to be like a cartoon, but that's his weapon of choice, so I think the comparisons are inevitable. But it's not like I have cowboy boots on, you know what I mean?"

In fact, John is such an impressive shot, it's requiring Dillahunt to put in a bit of over time to accurately portray the gun play. "I'm practicing a lot, but the other thing is we decided he's more of a good shot than just, like, juggling guns," Dillahunt said. "Because zombies aren't that impressed with the twirling, so that might go out the window pretty quick. So, the main thing I asked for was that I'm a good shot. It's a pet peeve of mine when people with machine guns can't hit a thing."

With the actor having thoroughly displayed his dramatic acting chops and Deadwood and comedic timing on Raising Hope, Dillahunt's John will be shaking up the tone of Fear and the Dead universe, as a whole.

"I don't know how much [humor there is], but I like it when it shows up," Dillahunt said. "There are always moments, even in great tragedy. I've been at funerals where you crack up. There's dark humor. I think it's how you survive, and it might be more his modus operandi. We didn't want him to be just another brooding badass on the show, waiting to stab some zombies, and so there's optimism and guilelessness and hope. I think a lot of it's he's lying to himself, but it's how he's coping."

A touch of comic relief, however, wasn't enough to convince Dillahunt the part of John was for him. First of all, this is the guy who was once lobbying for the part of The Walking Dead's Negan. So, it took a quality character arc to finally seal the deal for Dillahunt.

"They've told me quite a bit, because they're trying to seduce you into doing the show," Dillahunt said of John's arc. "They don't know I'm sold from the jump, so I pretended like, 'Well, I don't know. Where's this going to go?' And they told me the arc that's going to happen and who I'm looking for and the interactions there, and I like it. I like it. I like being a likable fellow, I like being a little funny, but capable. I like those kinds of people. So yeah, they clued me in quite a bit."

In the end, Dillahunt does hope to make his way over to The Walking Dead, as well as seeing other cast members from the flagship zombie drama join the sibling series as Lennie James has.

"Yeah, although Rick's pretty cowboy. He's got that low-slung-y thing. I'm hoping for more crossover, I think that'd be fun, eventually," Dillahunt said. "Like, we all cross over all the time. It's great to have Lennie [James] here kind of leading the way, and it'd be fun to go on the other show, too."

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. Fear the Walking Dead will debut its fourth season after The Walking Dead concludes its eighth, at 10 pm ET on April 15. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.

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