Teo-Rapp Olsson talks about Sebastian's gruesome death on The Walking Dead

Warning: This article contains spoilers about Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead, titled "A New Deal."

We figured not everybody would make it out alive before The Walking Dead wraps things up with its Nov. 20 series finale, and the first domino fell on Sunday's "A New Deal" episode. A very jerky domino.

Yes, Mr. Jerky McJerkface himself met his gory and gruesome end. Sebastian Milton — son of Pamela, preppy posterboy, and overall entitled pain in the butt — was first humiliated and then killed as chaos erupted in the Commonwealth. The commotion began at Founders Days when Max and Eugene played a secretly taped recording of Sebastian admitting the system was rigged against the poorer inhabitants of the Commonwealth.

Jace Downs/AMC Teo Rapp-Olsson as Sebastian Milton on 'The Walking Dead'

As the tape played, a zombified maintenance crew entered the town square eating anything and anyone in sight. Seeking revenge on Max, a furious Sebastian hurled her at a walker, only to have Eugene push the walker right back at him. Sebastian's pleas for help fell on death ears, as the zombie chomped on his neck, causing blood to spurt out of his neck and pour out of his mouth until he choked on it and died.

It was a shocking end, made even more surprising because Sebastian actually does not perish in the original source material. In The Walking Dead comic book, Sebastian is actually the one who kills Rick Grimes, and then spends the rest of his life behind bars as a result. But with Rick now off the show (at least until his upcoming spin-off) there was apparently no reason to keep the character around.

We spoke to the man who played jerky Sebastian to perfection, Teo Rapp-Olsson, to get the full scoop of his big death: how he found out, what happened during filming it, and which famous pop culture jerks he used as inspiration for the role.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First off, you are by all accounts a nice guy, so what was it like playing such a detestable, entitled little brat?

TEO RAPP-OLSSON: It was so, so much fun. It's one of those things where it sounds silly to say, but you get paid to show up to work and literally scream at somebody like Michael James Shaw, who plays Mercer. And then after a take everyone's like, "Oh, great job!" You had a good day at the office when that's what you get to do for a living. So it was the time of my life.

Were there any famous preppy a-holes you based your portrayal on, or how did you come up with Sebastian's overall jerkiness?

The big thing that I looked at was American Psycho. Because I really loved the way he talked, the intonation, and the way the second even just a syllable left his mouth, you knew he thought he was better than you. And that's what I felt Sebastian would do with just about anyone, except maybe his mother. And then you go look at some other royal a-holes in the world. Joffrey's [from Game of Thrones] a great one.

But a big thing that was very interesting with this was that we haven't seen a preppy a-hole on The Walking Dead. So there was a lot that was kind of left up to me to decide, what does that look like in this universe? And then the other part I really have to give credit to is Vera in the costume department, because when I showed up on the first day, she showed me what she was thinking for Sebastian, and that actually cemented in a lot more just knowing "Oh, this is what he dresses like. Yes, I know exactly who this guy is now." And being from New York originally, I have obviously met some of these kind of preppy guys. So there's certainly some people in there from my own world as well.

Jace Downs/AMC Margot Bingham and Teo Rapp-Olsson as Sebastian Milton on 'The Walking Dead'

When and how were you informed of Sebastian's untimely demise?

[Showrunner Angela Kang] is amazing and does like to run around to everybody. Being a very sleuthy and annoying actor on set, I had talked with somebody on the crew and gotten a copy of the script, because the thing is, you don't find out until basically the scripts come out. So I found out by reading through it and was like, "Oh my gosh!" And Angela was mortified because she wanted more than anything to be the one to drop it to me.

So it was completely my bad. But it was one of those things where reading through it I was like, "Oh God, this is horrifying." But it also lends itself to an amazing twist at that moment, especially as we're gearing up in the last episodes of the entire series.

Were you at all surprised, because Sebastian does not die in the comic?

I actually read through the entire comic book series once I had gotten the part. So obviously I had some other ideas in mind. But what really hit me in the days following is that The Walking Dead from day one has said we're never gonna follow the comics directly. And you see that with things like Sophia dying in season 2 of the show, or Carol obviously dies very early on in the comic books. But even just down to the way they'll do twist reveals, like with Abraham dying before Glenn in that moment. And I think this is kind of along those same lines.

Tell me about filming the big death scene and what that day was like?

I think it was almost two days to shoot all of that from the speech into the running around into the death sequence. But amazingly, Greg Nicotero was like, "Hey, I'm gonna be the one pumping the blood through your body." And he was not lying. He was standing there with basically an upside-down fire extinguisher that pumps all this fake blood through. I have never experienced getting to die in anything like on a TV show, let alone in such a gruesome way.

It's one of those weird things where obviously you don't really have a lot of preparation. You know, NYU doesn't teach you how to do a blood curdling scream when you're getting your neck ripped open. But what is really crazy is it's one of these moments where you realize, we've really got one take at this because it takes an hour-and-a-half or so to put the prosthetics on, and it takes about an hour to get it all off. So if for any reason we had to redo that, that's another day at the very least. And I'm sure I don't need to tell you that on a film or TV shoot, time is money.

So the VFX department is sitting there like, "Okay, we gotta get this in one shot." They had a moment where Greg actually got a little too excited and he prematurely shot his wad with the blood. [Laughs] And so it soaked out a little bit and I kind of felt like a president in an assassination attempt where eight people from VFX ran over to me and were stopping the blood. They're quickly bringing in a new shirt and they're like, "Clean him off before we can get the new one on and get it all set up again." It was a very surreal experience, but it's one of those highlights that no matter what I do in my career, this is gonna be on that top list for always.

Jace Downs/AMC Teo Rapp-Olsson as Sebastian Milton on 'The Walking Dead'

What did that fake blood oozing out of your mouth taste like?

I'm happy you asked that because I'm gonna toot my own a horn here. After we did like the initial take of the neck ripping up, I turned to Greg and I was like, "Hey, I feel like I would probably have blood spitting out at this point." And Greg was like, "Oh, do you want blood? We can get a blood. Let's get some blood."

And so they take a cup and it's very syrupy and sugary tasting. I have worked in plays and stuff, and like any other weird morbid actor I've been like, "What does it taste like?" Cause I've heard that it's supposed to be sugary. I've never had a mouthful of it before. And so a makeup artist is coming by and painting in the blood in your teeth, And then I have it in my mouth and as we yell action, I just shoot it out! [Laughs] It is a super gross thing, and you keep that weird sugary minty taste for the rest of the day. So there's a little bit of regret around dinner time when you're like, "Yeah, I'm still tasting that on the burger." But it was worth it when you get to see it in the camera and it looks just so gruesome.

What was it like when they wrapped you and saying goodbye to everyone?

It's so bittersweet. But a lot of people showed up. [Ross Marquand] was on set that day and ran up to me. I believe he was the one who lifted me off the ground after we've finished shooting. I didn't even realize he was on set, but he was just there to congratulate me. By all rights and measures, being on for one season, I would be totally understanding if nobody showed up for my ending moment, so to have so many people from the cast be there to lend support was really, really sweet. It was just a ton of hugs. Greg was willing to hug me in all my blood. It was really sad, but I was so grateful for the whole experience and I just felt so full when we were done.

Josh Stringer/AMC Teo Rapp-Olsson as Sebastian Milton on 'The Walking Dead'

Even the most villainous characters usually have some sort of redeeming quality. Were you able to find one for Sebastian?

I'm a huge proponent that unless you're playing a demonic being from the seventh rung of hell, that person perceives themselves to be good, or they perceive something about themselves to be just. And so a big thing for me was that this felt to me like a kid who was being over his head. I'm not actually sure that Sebastian would've gone down this path if he wasn't born into the Milton legacy. Those are really big shoes to fill. And I think there's a world where if he just lived in small town America and had a much more natural and easy going life for a young kid, he might have not turned out to be this way.

I think a lot of what he does is kind of lashing out because he's given the ability to. Nobody ever tells him no. I mean, it's really only Max in that last conversation they have before he goes on the stage that he ever even hears somebody say "You're doing the wrong thing." Nobody other than his mother — who is the most powerful, dominating, and scary woman — can ever tell him no. And that's something that obviously all of us need to hear once in a while. And he was lacking that.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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