Terry O'Quinn shares intel on “Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” character

Look for lots of face-offs between Rick Grimes and Major General Beale.

Major General Beale. He has been spoken of. And even spoken to (on a phone). But when The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres Feb. 25 on AMC, he will finally be seen. And he may look a bit familiar.

Terry O’Quinn (of Lost, Hawaii Five-0, and Patriot fame) will be playing the Civic Republic Military (CRM) leader first introduced on The Walking: World Beyond, and EW has your first exclusive photo of the actor in character. Not only that, but we sat down with O’Quinn to learn how he ended up on the show alongside Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, what he knows of Walking Dead lore, and what he can tell us about the man who may be shaping up to be the big bad of the latest (and greatest?) TWD spinoff.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So tell me how you ended up on this show and how the casting process went for you.

TERRY O’QUINN: It just came out of the blue. I was informed that somebody was interested in me playing this character, and then I talked with [showrunner] Scott Gimple and I said, “Tell me about him.” And I had to say I didn't watch The Walking Dead, but I heard all about it and I know that there were a lot of really avid fans.

So I talked to several people without giving them any particulars, because I didn't really know particulars. And they all said, “Oh my God, you're kidding. You're so lucky. Yeah, go on it! Absolutely!” And so I thought, well, alright, that sounds good. And so I talked with Scott, and we had a long conversation where he told me plenty about The Walking Dead and about the history. And so based basically on that talk with him, I said, “Sure, I would love to do it.” So here we are.

So did you then go back and look at old episodes or did you just want to go straight in?

Not really. A couple of things. We watched a lot of Daryl Dixon here. I sort of tend to be that person who says, “Tell me if I do something wrong. Tell me what I need to know.” Because there's only so much room up here. [Points to head.] My brain cells are in decline, so I keep the stuff I need to know. And that worked out. That was actually pretty simple because much of the work I did was just with Andrew Lincoln, and so he was always there to tell me stuff and to remind me of the history. That was wonderful.

We have heard about this character of Major General Beale before on The Walking Dead: World Beyond, so what kind of background did Scott give you on him?

Not a terrible lot, because it was more about his current situation as being the leader of the Civic Republic military. The Civic Republic has around 250,000 people, which is an exception in the world because everything's getting overrun. So he's sort of an independent person who runs this, but I'm in the present now so I don't know much about it except that that name had reverberated through the series here and there.

So what you can say about him now and the character we will finally be meeting?

He is the leader of the Civic Republic military and it operates pretty independently of the Civic Republic government. So he doesn't really have to deal with them very much. And he's held in high esteem. He's kind of a hero. He has a long military history. He served two terms in Vietnam and went to officer training school. And he's had to make some decisions in terms of who lives and who dies and how to deal with the mass of walking dead.

He has a big army, but he has about 2,000 of his front liners. They're his elite corps and they do most of the work, be it dirty or not dirty. He makes decisions based on what he thinks will help his community survive. And it's completely that he's trying to make sure that this city survives, so he makes some tough decisions.

I know you have experience playing a military leader going all the way back to Harsh Realm, so what were the personality traits of this character that you tried to dig your claws into?

I think that he's very hidden. He's a hidden guy. I've always been intrigued by characters that you don't know exactly what their agenda is, what motivates them, or how they will be motivated. And I think in my understanding of him and the way that I tried to play him is somebody who will do whatever is necessary, but won't be threatening about it.

He seems like a completely reasonable person and the decisions he has to make are all explicable to him. He understands why he has to do what he has to do, whether some people agree with it or not. So I think personality-wise he has a history with all of his troops, and with the Civic Republic, he’s sort of a military, George Washington in the eyes of a lot of these people. And then when he starts dealing with Rick, we don't know exactly what to do with him, or who he is, or what he is. And so he plays coy with Rick a lot, and I think there's a lot to be found out there. So Rick helps discover the heart of the man, I think.

Every set has a different vibe to it. What was it like filming on this one?

There are two basic categories and It's kind of like black and white for me: Is this a happy and functioning set, or is this an unpleasant set? When I wake up in the morning, do I look forward to going to this set or not so much? A lot of that has to do with the writing and the character and all of that stuff. A lot of it also has to do with: Who am I working with and how do they work?

And working with Andrew Lincoln was easy and pleasant. He's a pro, and that's really the closest thing I can say about anybody in terms of working with them because that involves being there, being prepared, being respectful of everyone, and being as helpful as possible. And he was that. He was always helping to explain the history of the thing to me. And he was a forever patient. So all in all, it was a very happy experience for me. And Scott was helpful. Everybody was trying to be as helpful as possible.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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