Entertainment

‘Dead’ serious

Michael Rooker, Dallas Roberts and David Morrissey on the Atlanta set of “The Walking Dead.” (
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Fans of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” — and there are more than 10 million of them now — finally have met two of the graphic novel’s most iconic characters: Michonne and The Governor. And while the series’ third episode was full of revelations, the question every viewer had to be asking when the credits rolled was: what was the deal with all those heads?

At the end of the episode, The Governor retired to his private chamber, where he poured himself a nice glass of scotch and settled to ponder — wait for it — a room full of live zombie heads floating in fish tanks. Seriously.

David Morrissey, the accomplished British actor who has taken the notorious role, says while that scene was certainly in keeping with the series’ creepy tone, it’s not as evil as it may seem.

“If you live in this post-apocalyptic world, you are going to have to take things in,” says the 48-year-old, who’s come over from England to work on the series in Atlanta. “In this world, you have to emotionally deal with things that you wouldn’t have to deal with in normal life. That needs some sort of desensitization process. I think he was normalizing something, creating a steel wall around himself.”

That steel mirrors the thick wall that The Governor has placed around the community of Woodbury. The haven of 74 residents is protected against walkers, as “The Walking Dead” calls its zombies, by the makeshift wall and a goon squad hand-assembled by The Governor. The end result is a place where people can live a semblance of a normal life; those places are few and far between in this brave, new, zombie-filled world.

“Very rarely in a leader do you get the whole package,” says Morrissey. “Leaders in this world will promise you security but that security comes at a very high price.”

The suspicious Michonne (Danai Gurira) already is uninterested in paying any price for the type of security that The Governor offers, while Andrea (Laurie Holden) is just happy to be somewhere where she can finally let her guard down.

“[The Governor] sees Andrea and Michonne as valuable people he can add to this society,” says Morrissey. “If they could survive out in the world for 8 months alone, they are important people who can teach him and his people a few things.”

He doesn’t see everyone that way. When The Governor learns there’s a contingent of National Guard soldiers just down the road, he ambushes them in order to claim their guns and ammo.

“There was no way he was going to let the National Guard into Woodbury. That would be a threat to his leadership,” Morrissey says.

The actor started watching “The Walking Dead” from the comfort of his home in the UK, which he shares with his wife, novelist Esther Freud, a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, and their three children. Family life kept Morrissey from accepting many parts in the US, he says, but now that the kids are a little older, he has more flexibility.

“The Walking Dead” initially interested Morrissey because his friend, Andrew Lincoln, was playing the show’s lead, Rick Grimes. “I was a big fan,” he says. “It’s a show that really respects acting, even though it has this premise about the zombie apocalypse. At its heart it’s a character-based show. I was hooked from day one.”

When Morrissey’s manager told him the casting directors from “The Walking Dead” wanted to meet him, he got on a plane.

“To be a fan of something and then get to be in it, I pinch myself all the time. That’s one of the great things about being an actor — if you love a show, you might actually get to be a part of it,” he says.

It’s not the first time Morrissey has been a fan of something he eventually got to be a part of: in 2008, he guested on the BBC’s wildly popular “Dr. Who,” an appearance that had fans wondering if he would be the next Doctor.

All Morrissey knew when he started auditioning for “The Walking Dead” was that the show was considering him for a “substantial” part. “Once I was offered the role of The Governor, I became very aware of the function of the character inside the show,” he says.

In the graphic novels, The Governor is a post-apocalyptic evil dictator. He has Michonne repeatedly raped and he keeps those zombie heads on hand for the sheer pleasure of looking at them. His run also was short-lived in the novels, concluding in a showdown with Rick that doesn’t end well.

The character won’t necessarily have the same trajectory in the TV show, though. “He has a take on humanity that is not my own,” says Morrissey. “But Woodbury offers electricity, food, produce, medical facilities, education facilities. I don’t think anyone would look at that as an evil empire. I think it’s a successful community.”

It will be interesting, however, if Season 3 of “The Walking Dead” wraps up with that collision between longtime friends Morrissey and Lincoln. Morrissey wouldn’t reveal anything about where the show is headed, but he offered two clues.

First: “One thing that The Governor has over Rick is that Rick has no time. The Governor has time to relax and plan.” Second: “I wouldn’t look too closely to the comic books for reveals about where this is all going. Darryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) is one of the show’s great characters and he didn’t even exist in the comic books.”

One thing is sure though: the massive audience of “The Walking Dead” has lots to look forward to. Promises Morrissey: “There are lots of twists and turns this season.”

THE WALKING DEAD

Today, 9 p.m., AMC