Dallas Roberts is at the top of prime-time’s “Most Wanted” list.
The veteran actor is currently juggling roles on two hit series, “T
he Walking Dead” and “The Good Wife” — and will compete against himself tomorrow night at 9 when those two shows go head-to-head on AMC and CBS, respectively.
“I feel certain that, unless you count the late-night reruns of ‘Law & Order,’ this is the first time two prime-time episodes of shows that I’m in are showing side by side,” says Roberts, on the phone from the Atlanta set of “The Walking Dead,” where he plays new character Milton, a scientist (maybe) who’s part of the governor’s (David Morrissey) inner circle on the zombie apocalypse series.
Roberts, who played a wife-killing doctor in the series premiere of “Elementary” on CBS — and who co-starred on AMC’s short-lived spy series, “Rubicon” — says he’s been introduced to the rabid-fan world of “The Walking Dead,” the biggest series in cable TV history, since Milton debuted last month.
“Coming into the third season and having [the show] be as popular as it is, has sort of been like being in the eye of the hurricane for me,” he says. “There are people who stand outside the sets and look for autographs; I’ve walked past them for a long time, but as my episodes have started to air, they’re starting to catch me a little bit.”
So far, viewers don’t know much about Milton, beyond the perception that he’s a scientist who apparently experiments on zombies in Woodbury. Whether he’s a good guy or a villain is anyone’s guess.
“They just sort of plopped me down in Episode 3 and set me off running,” says Roberts. “I sort of gathered information about Milton the way viewers are gathering it — one scene at a time, one word at a time, one script at a time.
“He’s in the governor’s inner circle and he’s an advisor . . . he’s in sort of the research arm . . . but I’m not sure he’s a guy who would have managed to survive as long as he has had he not found himself in league with the governor — or until he proves he can make himself valuable.”
Milton is the polar opposite of Roberts’ characeter on “The Good Wife”: Owen, the openly gay younger brother of series protagonist Alicia Florrick (Juliana Margulies) who makes his first appearance of the season tomorrow night.
“When Owen shows up it gives Alicia that sort of brotherly vibe; she’s allowed to drop some of the stone-faced stuff she’s gotta go through,” Roberts says. “He . . . allows viewers to see Alicia in a more human way.”