'The Walking Dead' star Teo Rapp-Olsson hoped to kill off one of the show's main characters. He was
- Warning: There are spoilers for season 11, episode 18 of "The Walking Dead," "A New Deal."
- Teo Rapp-Olsson spoke with Insider about the shocking twist to his character, Sebastian.
- He only expected to be on the show for three episodes and thought he may kill off a main character.
"The Walking Dead" star Teo Rapp-Olsson was just as surprised as anyone to learn about Sunday's big twist from the comics.
Near the episode's end, Eugene (Josh McDermitt) pushes a walker into Sebastian (Rapp-Olsson) who ultimately bites and kills Governor Milton's son. That's a huge change from the comics where Sebastian doesn't only survive the entire series, but also kills off the series' protagonist, Rick Grimes, in a shocking moment.
"Honestly for most of my time on the show, I was sitting there theorizing the same way fans were like, 'Ooh, who would I kill? Would it be Aaron or would it be Ezekiel?'" Rapp-Olsson told Insider over a Zoom call on Friday in a discussion about who he thought could take Rick's death.
(Ross Marquand, who plays Aaron, told Insider that as far as he knows, there were never discussions to give his character Rick's comic death, despite him resembling the comic version of Rick at this point.)
Originally under the belief he would only be on about three episodes of AMC's apocalyptic drama, Rapp-Olsson quickly became a character fans loved to hate as the spoiled son of the Commonwealth leader.
Insider spoke with the actor about his death episode, how he learned that he was getting killed off (he was being sneaky), how he had to go home commando after getting drenched in walker blood for his death scene, and how he's aware that Sebastian's show death is satisfying for comic fans who were upset with Rick's comic murder.
Rapp-Olsson never imagined that Max and Eugene would be responsible for Sebastian's death.
It takes a lot to surprise me with "The Walking Dead" since I come at it as a comic reader. I gasped when Sebastian was killed, because, as you probably know, Sebastian survives the comics. This is a huge change. Did Sebastian ever think that Max and Eugene would get the upper hand on him? And did you, Teo, ever think that Max and Eugene would get the upper hand?
No and no. I mean, I guessed when I was reading this script, but it's also just that Max plays this so well. She gets him in such a personal moment where I don't think he is being cruel or evil with what he says to her in his last private speech to her. I think it's actually the closest he's come to the truth.
He probably trusts her so much that he would be willing to say this to her because there's a certain level of, you watch how the sausage gets made, too. You can't be this naive. You understand that this is a broken system.
Now we can all agree there might be a reason for it being this broken because, regardless of the morality of all this, this is the largest nation state in the post-apocalyptic world.* Most of these people don't have to deal with zombies on a day-to-day basis. It might not be a great look, I agree, but is it better than the outside world?
[*Editor's note: The Civic Republic Military is technically the largest nation in "TWD" universe right now with over 200,000 inhabitants. The Commonwealth has approximately 50,000 citizens.]
That close-up shot of Sebastian was a last-minute addition.
Does Sebastian regret tossing Max into that walker? Because if he didn't do that, he would probably still be alive. Because of that, Eugene pushes that walker into Sebastian.
I'm sure he regrets it in the last couple seconds. The big weakness to Sebastian is he's quite smart. He can be calculated when given the time, but I think in push-comes-to-shove moments, he's impetuous. He's still young.
And this is a prime example of that. When faced with the recording, he now knows there are no other options. This isn't like before where mom can step in and be like, "Oh, that wasn't my son. That was Hornsby." He's caught red handed and his first reaction is so primal and simple. I want to grab that person and hurt them.
There's not even really a plan. It's not like I have a weapon or something. What am I gonna do when I catch her? There happens to be a zombie there. I'm just trying to harm her.
Let's take a scenario where the zombies don't come in. I'm gonna have to answer for that, too, now. So we're at a point where I think all of this is out the window in terms of what's next on the docket. Once I hear this recording and know I am screwed, I say to her, "You bitch," and I sprint after her with, I think, nothing but the simple intent of harm. And it just so happens for the zombie to land in the way.
And you feel that because there's that close-up shot of Sebastian charging after Max like a bull. It's kind of terrifying.
I'm so happy you saw that. On the day of shooting, we were about to wrap something and we had — for the first time in recorded film history — two extra minutes of time and the camera department was like, "Hey, we have one of these rigs that we can attach to your chest. Would you have any interest in that?" And I was like, "Yeah, obviously. That sounds really cool."
We recorded it like twice — literally as everybody's prepping to run to lunch — watch it once on a tiny DSLR LCD monitor and they're like, "That looks really cool. Hopefully, it makes it in, but you never know." Watching [the episode] myself, I was like, "Oh!"
Rapp-Olsson found out he was getting killed off the show after poking around and getting a copy of the script
When you learned that Sebastian was going to be killed off "The Walking Dead," often it happens early, but it sounds like this happened as you were reading the script. How early in the process did you know that the show was going to make this massive deviation from the comics? Did you know from the moment that you were cast?
No.
Did you learn your fate when reading this episode?
When I wound up reading it.
The producers keep a lot of those cards close to their chest and I respect a lot of those aspects because it forces you to play your scenes much more organically.
Normally, you will get the call from [showrunner] Angela Kang, letting you know the sad news. I was being a nosy actor and had talked to somebody in one of the other departments who was like, "Oh yeah, I got a copy of this script. Crazy things that happened to you." And I was like, "Oh, cool. Crazy things are gonna happen to me."
I got a copy of the script and it was like, "Wow, that's a very crazy thing that happened."
When I first came on, it wasn't even necessarily gonna be the case that I would be in it more than three episodes. To slowly carve an arc in the final season — which is already difficult enough when you have so many other arcs that need to come to an end — to even begin to start fleshing something out is so difficult. I was so grateful that we could create something so that people would be surprised when I meet my untimely demise.
Rapp-Olsson knows what Sebastian's TV death may mean to comic fans who were upset the comic version of the character killed Rick
Are you aware of how satisfying this character death is for comic readers who have wanted revenge on Sebastian for years for killing Rick crimes? A lot of people were upset in 2019 when —
Yeah.
— the comic version of your character barged into Rick's room while he's sleeping, wakes him up, and basically guns him down, defenseless. I remember when you first got this role, you had told me you immediately reached out to a friend who was invested in the comics. So I wasn't sure if they had filled you in on Rick's comic role and if you thought that there was a chance that you might kill off someone else.
Good memory. That person and I actually talked again fairly recently.
Once I got the part, I bought the entire compendium and read through it all just because so rarely do you get the opportunity to base your work off of source material, let alone something as cool and as big as a "Walking Dead" universe. Honestly, for most of my time on the show, I was sitting there theorizing the same way fans were, like, "Ooh, who would I kill? Would it be Aaron or would it be Ezekiel?" And thinking through why or how that would be an interesting thing.
To speak to the satisfaction point, I know what this character has meant to so many of the fans, especially the ones who read the comics and, even by now, ones who have watched the show. First and foremost, I will say everybody has been super nice. I have not received any kind of negative feedback. Everything has been very much like, "I love to hate you. I hope you take that in the right way." And I was like, "Fair. Then I've done my job well."
So, I know that there's satisfaction in that.
Obviously, this is a big divergence from the comic, but I think that's something "The Walking Dead" has stated from an early point. Sophia, in season two, dies where she stays on in the comics. Carol, obviously, dies early on, but even just down to the way that they do Glenn's death. They first give you Abraham['s death] and you think he's safe and then they actually do follow exactly how the comics do it. I think they've always shown they are not opposed to completely throwing a wrench in there and changing up expectations.
A lot of people who have read the comics are obviously like, "OK, who is he gonna kill?" It's not a matter of if [Sebastian's] gonna kill somebody, it's "Who's he gonna kill?" For him to die so prematurely and his death be more of a point in the broiling tensions of the Commonwealth is gonna be a complete 180 for a lot of the fans in terms of what they expected.
I also thought that maybe you could have killed off Aaron or Ezekiel because Aaron looks like comic-book Rick at this point.
[Laughter] He's got the hand for it, man.
Exactly! But you never really interacted with Aaron.
Rapp-Olsson had one chance to get his death scene right. He was forced to go home without underwear after being drenched in blood.
What was your reaction to learning how Sebastian died, getting a walker tossed onto him and getting bit? Were you happy with your character's death and what was it like getting bit in the neck? I'm sure you were wearing a prosthetic.
[joking] No, that was my real neck. They got me back from the dead. It was a close call. SAG was not happy about this.
It was obviously wild reading it and taking a second and being like, "Whoa, that's crazy."
This journey, which has been unbelievable, like all journeys, sadly has to come to an end. The more I thought about it, I was like, that's gonna be a so much fun to shoot. If you get time on "The Walking Dead," I don't think there's much of a better way to go out than gruesomely being eviscerated by a zombie.
I was speaking with [executive producer] Greg [Nicotero] as we were wrapping 1117 and I had just read 1118 and I had the best time working with him. I thought he was just an amazing director. I said, "I hope I'm gonna see you before my time wraps up," and he gives me this very knowing smile. He said, "Kid, I'm gonna be the one that's pumping the blood through you."
He's on set with an upside-down fire extinguisher with a hose that's attached through this prosthetic system that goes into the neck. This neck takes like an hour and a half to put on. This is a no-joke thing, not to mention it's gonna take about an hour to take off. The part that I think a lot of people always kind of forget is you really get one shot at this. You could do it again, but that's gonna take the better part of a day.
Even on a show of this scale and magnitude, that's a lot to ask from everybody. So there is a lot of weight that comes behind set pieces like this and it's not something that you necessarily learn at acting school when the one shot is incumbent on you screaming for your bloody life.
When the moment arose, what I didn't totally understand until doing it is just how much of the work is done for you. You look down and you're just streaming with blood. I turn around and there is a very convincing zombie behind me making very convincing zombie noises who has to bite into a thing that is glued to my neck. You are feeling something here and there is kind of a sense of like, "Oh God, this is horrifying." As an actor who, prior to this, got to play Romeo and die, which is fun, but all you do is drink poison and flop over, this is pretty cool. You get to go out with all this blood.
One of the costumers, when I came to set that day, was like, "Oh, I hope you brought a spare set of underwear." And I was like, "Why?" He was like, "Really?" And it just obviously hadn't even occurred to me that I'm gonna be drenched in blood. I'm gonna be walking around like I just jumped out of a pool of blood. I lived with that regret as I went home commando. It was definitely a moment of learning for myself and if I ever have another bloody death, I will remember.
It was a comfort for Rapp-Olsson to work with Jeffrey Dean Morgan since they're both dyslexic.
I was so happy to see that you got a scene with Negan, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan. That was one of my favorite interactions on the premiere. I wish that there was more of you and Jeffrey. Did you have any extra scenes that didn't wind up making it onto the show?
No, nothing was deleted or anything. But I can't agree with you more. That was one of my favorite scenes to shoot.
We just got back from hiatus and I had met JDM in passing, but never actually talked with him for that long. So this was just such a cool opportunity to work with him.
On a personal note, I am massively dyslexic and so is he, and so he's always been kind of an idol in terms of just like what a good working actor who dyslexia is a part of his personality looks like. It's not every day you get to work with a person that you've already looked up to long since coming on the show.
He swiped some clothes from the show and Commonwealth pins
Teo, is there anything that you took as a souvenir from your time on the show or that you were given?
I obviously stole some of the clothing because I loved some of Sebastian's fashion.
I got some of the Commonwealth Founder's Day flag pins, which I'm gonna try to put up somewhere in my place because I'm team Commonwealth all the way. I don't see what the protagonists are all complaining about. It's pretty good.
Rapp-Olsson will appear next on season two of Fox's 'Fantasy Island'
What are you going to take away from this experience and is there anything that you can share about what you're working on next?
I'm jumping on the show "Fantasy Island," which is on Fox. It's coming back in January and I'll be in the fifth episode. It was super fun.
What I'm gonna take away from this — This is the first time where I was gifted such an arc and such a a time on a show and especially one where there's already expectations of this character. There was a lot of learning to really trust myself and the work because before I could ever show this to any fan, I had to, just for myself go, "You know what? I think this is good."
Even if the fans somehow told me this was terrible, this is a god-awful rendition, I have to personally say, "No, I did think this was good work and I put my seal of approval on it." To turn around and get positive feedback on it was a very grounding and humbling experience. I was grateful to be able to share something on a scale of this nature.
You can follow along with "TWD" universe coverage here. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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