Fear The Walking Dead: Interview With Frank Dillane On The Upcoming Finale And Season 2
Is Nick the new Rick?
Fear The Walking Dead is boiling up to the season finale with a whole load of questions yet to be answered. At the heart of everything is actor Frank Dillane, a British 24-year-old who you might also recognise as 'orphan Voldemort' from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - and is also the son of Steven Dillane a.k.a. Stannis Baratheon from the world of Game of Thrones.
WhatCulture exclusively spoke to Frank Dillane, the man behind walker-discovering, heroin addict Nick, about the upcoming finale, the plan for Season 2, and what life is really like on set, filming the end of civilisation.
WC: Fear The Walking Dead already has an audience that numbers in the millions. What's it like to be a leading man on a show that size?
FD: I don't really see myself as a leading man as such. Nick is certainly not conventional, bog-standard leading man material. Yeah, I suppose he's a bit of an anti-hero at the moment. I've just never really thought about him as a leading man. And I try not to think about it to be honest.
WC: How important is it for Fear to break away from The Walking Dead and become its own show?
FD: Well, it's called Fear The Walking Dead, so we're really just one word away from actually being The Walking Dead. One of the very first things I had to come to terms with was that this was a companion series and it would therefore share some similarities. It's a lot to live up to in one sense. It all sort of comes under the one genre. Also, in this day and age, in TV and film, it's about recycling and using something that is definitely good rather than just remaking anything. It's not too different from the prequels or sequels to Star Wars, I suppose. I don't dwell on it too much, after all it's just my job.
WC: Do you take any inspiration from The Walking Dead at all?
FD: Is Nick the new Rick? I'll be absolutely honest with you here, I haven't actually watched The Walking Dead so I don't know. I've never even heard of the show... Maybe I will get onto it, but I'll admit I haven't actually got through watching this one either. It's all very good though isn't it? It's all good.
WC: You're on a set full of zombies walking around and the world is ending. Is it surreal at times?
FD: Yeah, what really is incredible is when you really look at how much stuff is going on around your little scene that you've spent weeks scrutinising, and then you see everyone, all the zombies, all the helicopters and everything and you realise actually that you're just a very small cog in a huge operation. So yes, it can be quite daunting when you think about how much money they're throwing at things around me. That can be quite scary.
WC: The end of the world is a pretty grim subject, what is the mood like on set?
FD: The mood's great on set, but it's television so we do move so fast and we're not always on set together. There'll be weekends where we're all on there together and we can properly mix, but I was actually on a different set to a lot of the others for a time. It's also pretty boring on a television set if I'm honest. It certainly isn't all fun and games, and at times it can be dull, you know what I mean? Sitting there repeating about three words. But no, it's good.
WC: Things aren't going well for your real-life dad in Game of Thrones, is there a Dillane rivalry going on?
FD: Oh yeah well I've never watched Game of Thrones either. There's certainly no rivalry with me and my old man, he does his own thing and I've never shown any rivalry, I hope he doesn't...
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