David Morrissey: Survival of the fittest

David Morrissey as The Governer in The Walking Dead.

David Morrissey revels in his Walking Dead role and hopes his character will last the distance. He talks to Nick Grant.

David Morrissey says he leapt at the chance to play the Governor, the main non-zombie antagonist facing Rick Grimes' band of survivors in the monster TV hit, The Walking Dead.

Morrissey a, long-time acquaintance of series star Andrew Lincoln, who plays Grimes, as well as "great friends with Lennie James, who was in the original pilot", had been watching the show from the start.

"I loved it," he says in the Scouse accent that gives away his Liverpool roots. "It was a really big show with all the bells and whistles and zombies, but I thought it was also about human nature, really.

"I mean, we live in a volatile world and I think the question we ask ourselves a lot is, 'What would I do when the chips are down?' Most people have this romantic idea of themselves acting in a heroic way, but we know from history that good people can do terrible things when they're put in threatening situations."

The zombie apocalypse of The Walking Dead gives you a heightened situation to examine that notion.

"I just thought it was an original piece of work, so when my manager called and said, 'Listen mate, The Walking Dead are interested in you for a role', I just went, 'Yes'."

It was a great opportunity for Morrissey who, although highly regarded for his work in British television shows including State of Play, The Deal and The Red Riding Trilogy, had seen his Hollywood prospects evaporate in the wake of the terrible reviews he received for 2006's Basic Instinct 2. One critic described him as having "the charisma of beige wallpaper" and opined that: "The producers could have replaced him halfway through shooting with a handsome mahogany coat-rack and nobody would have been able to tell the difference."

Even so, before accepting the part Morrissey quizzed Lincoln about the atmosphere on the show, perhaps wary of media reports about the abrupt and acrimonious departure of original showrunner Frank Darabont.

"He said it was wonderful," Morrissey says, "and so it's proved to be. I think that's something Andrew has to take a lot of credit for - he's a very professional actor who sets the bar high and is also someone who cares deeply about the show and the people on it, which is an attitude that's passed on to everybody around."

The fact that Glen Mazzara, the showrunner who replaced Darabont, was also unceremoniously shown the door at the end of last year hasn't soured things on set, he says.

"Glen was the person who took a chance on me when he cast me and I'll always be grateful to him for that," says Morrissey. "But we film the show in Atlanta and the writers' room and quite a lot of that other stuff happens in LA, so we're not privy to whatever goes down there.

"When Glen's leaving was announced we were sad, of course, but the person who took over, Scott Gimple, is a great writer who's also emerging as a great showrunner.

"What Scott has overseen in season four is wonderful and we'd hope that would continue into the next season because he's such a great guy."

It's tempting to see this sentiment as a hint the Governor will survive into next season as well, but Morrissey's not saying. Nor is he willing to be drawn into any detail about what we can expect from his character in upcoming episodes.

"It's a very difficult show to promote, The Walking Dead," he says, "because of the potential for spoilers. What I can say is that at the end of season three, when he commits that terrible massacre of his own people, he's not happy with that. It's not a premeditated act; it's like a red mist that falls upon him. And in season four we see a man in trauma who's having to deal with the fact he has the capacity to go to such a dark and violent place."

The smart money had been on the Governor becoming zombie chow before now, in keeping with the character's fate in the comic series on which the show is based. That he's still alive and kicking is largely down to Morrissey's rejection of the comic's depiction of the Governor as a "full-on psychopath" who dresses like a roadie for Black Sabbath in favour of a more nuanced approach.

It's a decision that's clearly paid off. "There are so many colours to his performance. In the comics, he's pretty one-note, but here, he's got so much more humanity," says executive producer Gale Anne Hurd. "Do I want to keep David Morrissey? Yes. Do we? I can't tell you."

Who: David Morrissey as The Governor
What: The Walking Dead
When and where: Tuesdays, 9.30pm, on TV2

Follow @nzherald_ent on Twitter for all the latest entertainment news.

- TimeOut