Andrew J. West on Gareth, the Guy You Love to Hate (Plus a Killer Poll)
So over the break you might have built up a wee bit of smoldering resentment toward Gareth, the leader of the Terminus who locked most of our favorite survivors in a train car and seems to have some not so nice intentions.
But Andrew J. West, the actor who is playing Gareth, says he doesn’t think of his character as a “bad guy.” Instead he sees him as a person who will do whatever he has to to survive and a kindred spirit to Rick.
“I think he’s definitely a practical guy. And I think he’s a guy who is concerned with surviving. He’s very much concerned with figuring out a way to live in the new world. What’s interesting about the character, too, is that Gareth isn’t really the Governor. Really he’s more like Rick or even Glenn in a lot of ways. He’s a guy who’s searching and struggling for a new way to exist, because he has acknowledged and accepted that the old way just doesn’t work anymore. Society is different now. The world is different now. And the old rules just need to be reexamined. And he’s willing to do that. And I think that’s where the leader qualities come in. He is willing to sort of abandon certain ideas about the way the world used to be and find what the world needs to be now. And he’s he’s sort of a strong-willed guy, too. So, to answer your question, I don’t think of him as a bad guy. And really, when you’re playing a character, you can’t really think of them as a bad guy,” West told Entertainment Weekly.
West hinted that Gareth’s motivations are more complex than they might have seemed in the season finale.
“No one’s just trying to be evil, or walking around saying, ‘I’m just trying to do good.’ Everybody, of course, wants to believe that they’re doing good, but you’re thinking about what it is that you’re trying to accomplish. And that’s what I love about Gareth. He’s got things that he’s after. He’s got things that he’s trying to accomplish and things that he’s trying to do,” West said.
None of those things, however, will stop Rick from ripping his throat out, so we have a little poll, inspired by this thread on our forums. Vote and tells us how you want Gareth to go out.