‘The Walking Dead’ Season 6 Premiere: Ethan Embry Got The Ultimate Fan Experience


Ethan Embry got the ultimate fan experience in the Season 6 premiere of The Walking Dead. Not only did he get cast in a show he loves enough to watch every week with a group of friends, but he got the chance to work alongside Andrew Lincoln.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains information on Episode 1, Season 6 of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Please proceed with caution if you have not yet viewed all available episodes.

While many fans were expecting Ethan Embry’s character, Carter, to hang around a little longer than just the Season 6 premiere episode (entitled “First Time Again”) of The Walking Dead, alas it was not to be. Embry can be delegated to the “Oh, look, it’s a new character. Oh, look they’re dead already,” pile of zombie folder that is getting increasingly large. (Perhaps that is why the quarry was so full in Episode 1 of The Walking Dead?)

But Ethan Embry is totally okay with his short role in The Walking Dead. After all, it is a show he has auditioned for three times already he told Talking Dead after the Season 6 premiere. Plus, with his work schedule, a long character story arc was not going to work anyway. Ethan Embry is currently starring in Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, so he only has limited time to film extracurricular acting. When he was approached to a one-episode arc on The Walking Dead, he jumped at the prospect, even knowing his character would not survive, he told Entertainment Weekly. However, he does have one regret about working on The Walking Dead.

“I get to do everything a person would want to do if they got invited on a show. The only thing I’m bummed I didn’t get to do is kill a zombie; I wish I could have got one of them. But other than that, I get to go and wrangle a posse against Rick, I get to do a conspiracy against him, I get my face bitten off — it’s great!”

AMC's The Walking Dead Season 6 EPisode 1 First Time Again Rick Grimes and Carter Ethan Embry Andrew Lincoln
Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

While Ethan Embry got to work alongside Andrew Lincoln (who plays main character, Rick Grimes) in The Walking Dead, a character he has been excited to see develop since the pilot episode (of which Embry auditioned for), it turns out one scene didn’t go completely to plan. When Carter discovers Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and is threatening to shoot him for overhearing Carter’s plan to kill Rick, Rick arrives just in the knick of time to break things up. But that scene had to be re-shot thanks to Andrew Lincoln getting into character prior to entering and punching a hole in the wall beforehand. Because the hole was completely in the shot, it had to be redone.

So how was it working with the likes of Andrew Lincoln anyway? After all, the actor is known for being just as intense off camera as he is on camera when it comes to getting into character, as evidenced by the hole in the wall incident. According to Ethan Embry, Andrew Lincoln asked him about his boundaries before they started working together on The Walking Dead.

“He asked me my boundaries — we had just met and he wanted to be sure not to cross my line. And I told him ‘I don’t have any. There are no boundaries. Please feel free to go.’ And he did. Because you can’t fake that. I think that’s why people love the show so much, because he doesn’t fake it — he goes there.”

And that is how you end up begging to be killed when Andrew Lincoln AKA Rick Grimes is pointing a gun at your head. However, Andrew Lincoln was sad to see Carter go, telling Entertainment Weekly in a different interview that Ethan Embry is just “the sweetest” and “such a talented amazing guy.”

A walker is wrapped around a tree in season 6 of AMC's The Walking Dead
Photo Credit: Greg Nicotero/AMC

When asked, Ethan Embry was more interested in talking about the fact he was killed by the coolest walker ever. Liking the zombie to a dog on a leash that had gotten itself tangled, except in the walker’s case, the leash was actually its own intestines. However, Embry did explain how the face bite was created. He explained to EW that half his face was actually a prosthetic. A tube was then run from under the prosthetic and down his leg, under his clothes. That tube is attached to a pump pack of blood. And the first time the walker bit his face off, the pump pack was so highly pressured that Ethan Embry likened it to a Monty Python scene when he was interviewed about it on Talking Dead. However, once that was corrected, they got the required result. Which was killing of Carter on the very first day he arrived on set. But, that’s okay because for Ethan Embry, he now has the coolest story to tell his friends when they meet up to watch The Walking Dead next week.

Season 6 of The Walking Dead returns to AMC with Episode 2 (entitled “JSS”) on Sunday, October 18, 2015.

What did you think of Ethan Embry’s character, Carter? Let us know by commenting below!

[Featured image credit: Gene Page/AMC]

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