Nick Gomez on The Walking Dead, Working with Rock, HHH

This is Fred Richani of the Sports Courier. I am joined today by actor Nick Gomez star of The Walking Dead. He is starring in the new Sundance Channel original series, The Red Road Nick Gomez and very warm California is nice enough to join us this morning Nick. Thanks so much for the time my man. My pleasure good morning everybody good morning to you, Fred? Oh man, dude. You guys are so lucky right now in California? I hope you know that? Yeah. No, no polar vortex over here, man. It’s beautiful. It’s another beautiful day blue skies, you know, it’ll probably get up. You know, it’s a little chilly it’s like, you know, upper 60s low 7s.

So, you know, I might have to put on a light sweater and you’ve been seeing some beautiful days lately as I mentioned earlier. You were starring in the Red Road on Sundance Channel how’d that come about and what can fans expect on February 27th? Oh man. I’m really excited about this show. It’s a some dances. I think just second scripted show. It’s from the guy who wrote Prisoners, the film that came out last year with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal haal. Aaron is his name. Aaron how would butcher his last name, if I said it something Aaron something anyway, red Rogue. Really excited about the show really great cast.

Tom seore is in it Martin Henderson Jason Momoa Lisa Bonet. Starts in February. It’s about a small town in New Jersey. Actually there was a documentary made about about this story about this group of Indians that live on a reservation, right outside of New York actually. And nobody knows it. I mean, they’re like 20 minutes from downtown Manhattan is this reservation of these these Indians and there’s sort of clash going on between the Indian population and the Caucasian population there and the sheriff is having to try and make peace with everybody. But great show the ride Aon is amazing. And lots of really great actors on it.

I’m pretty excited about it now. You were on The Walking Dead as Tomas some people would say spoiler alert that you got killed off way too quickly because your character did show some nice depth. And, you know, would have made for an interesting Dynamic with Rick, but hey, it’s all good. You ended up on The Walking Dead. You also ended up on Dexter last year. How has your life changed over this last year, especially now with conventions being as big as they are and The Walking Dead craze not going away anytime soon. It’s crazy. I really had no idea the scope of what I was kind of getting involved in, you know, I was a fan of Walking Dead.

Before I did it. So you know, I got the call to do the show. I’m like, yeah, like I’m going to be on The Walking Dead. I love that show I go I do it. It’s really honestly it was one of the best acting experiences of my life because I was a fan of the show and on top of that the character was so much fun to play and on top of that all the other actors were so great to work with cuz it was like being on a winning football team, you know? So everybody was so happy to be doing their job. The best experience of my life.

So when I finished the show. I thought great, you know what a you know, awesome thing to be a part of and then just once the show aired. I had no idea how that would really change my life what I was how big it was that I was a part of that show. I mean, the doors that opened the people that I’ve been able to meet the work that I’ve been able to do it just kind of I mean because I’ve been doing this for a while. I’ve been, you know, I’ve been a professional actor for quite a while, but nothing kind of prepared me for the aftermath of Walking Dead, which is pretty awesome and have you then to jump right from Walking Dead, which is such a cult show to Dexter, which is such another cult show was, you know, pretty awesome.

That was my first that was my first thing I did out here in LA. And it kind of just fell in my lap and what’s amazing too is. I mean, like I said before I mean, the convention scene. You are appearing in a couple months at horor Hound in Cincinnati, which we’ll talk about but before that have you had a chance to really experience the awesome convention scene obviously, it’s a new Revenue stream for actors like yourself, but I would imagine it’s pretty cool to see fans go up to you and say Tomas Tomas. Yeah. Well, they come up to me all the time. They’re like, oh my God.

You’re tamas. Oh my God, I hated you so much. Thank you, I guess that means. I was doing my job. But the whole convention thing is pretty pretty wild, man. I mean, I really had no idea the first time I went was in New Orleans. I went to go see Norman Reedus cuz he was doing one there and that was the first time I’d ever even been to one. And it was really kind of I don’t know amazing and pretty damn cool. So I saw him doing that. And I was like, you know, I talked to his agent, then we started doing some last year and they’re just fun, man.

They’re a lot of fun the fans are so great everybody dresses up, you know, everybody’s super cool. It’s just a really it’s usually a pretty wild weekend. That’s great. And hor hound and Cincinnati tell us a little bit about that? I know you’re going to be appearing in March Cincinnati March end of March I’ll be there Norman Reedus will be there. Scott Wilson will be there John barenthal will be there. Bruce Campbell will be there. So that should be that should be a good weekend, and how’d you feel when they told you that you were going to yet killed off because you were a fan of the show, you know, and you’re like, yes, I’m on Walking Dead.

This is great. This is a huge break for me and then it’s like you’ll at the script and a couple episodes later Tomas doesn’t end up so well. Yeah, well, you know, I didn’t really well the thing is I didn’t know the role that I got was different than the role I really was doing because they’re so tight lipped with the show. So this the role that I auditioned for which I thought I got didn’t actually even exist that wasn’t even an actual role, which I didn’t know. So, it was kind of weird cuz I was very prepared or I thought I was very prepared when I got to set I thought it was this I had these three scenes.

I worked them. I was so ready to go and then I got to set and I met the director. And the writer and, you know, they were like, hey, Nick welcome glad to have you here. We know you think, you know what you’re doing, but here’s the script. This is what you’re really doing and I was like, okay, so I’m reading it, and I’m like, oh, I’m Tomas. Okay. Sounds like a really good. You know, upstanding nice young gentleman. So I’m reading and I’m like, oh. Oh, damn. Oh God, and I’m reading the script. And then I kill, you know, Big Tiny spoiler aler alert and I’m like ah ow and then I get to the death scene and I’m like ah damn well, but you know, I mean, if you’re going to go out why not go out on Walking Dead.

And what a better way to go out than like a machete in your head and exactly and you mentioned how being on The Walking Dead. I me it was kind of like being on a winning team and you see some guys sometimes when they’re role players a lot of guys end up raising their game. And when they go on to another team they end up being awesome after after being on that winning team like say the Chicago Bulls Dynasty Miami Heat Dynasty. You’re guy that got to be on The Walking Dead for a couple episodes got to be around the great Cas and crew of AMC.

What’s one thing you learned from being on The Walking Dead, you know that you don’t have to be a complete dick to be the lead in a TV show. That you can actually work and play well with others, you know, like for a while like, you know, I thought that maybe you know, there’s so many just jerks in the industry. You know, and you sometimes you feel like God. Do you have to be that way to get ahead like maybe you just have to be that way. And one thing that was completely cemented for me. Because of Andrew Lincoln because it starts with him was just how good of a person.

You can be and how humble a person. You can be and how well you can work with others to make good work. He was one of the nicest men i’ I’ve ever met. And so giving as an actor and it just made everybody else fall into line. And it was just a it made a great made it a great place to work. And so now I just approach everything else with love, you know, and it just makes it for a better experience. And I know you were on only for a couple episodes, but just judging by like, you know, on Twitter and stuff like that.

It really seems like that whole crew is a big family. Yeah, no, they all, you know, like I said, you know, it’s easier. I guess when you’re on a winning football team, you know, everybody loves winning. So, they all love their job everybody’s down for the cause there’s not a bit of ego nobody’s a diva there. And I mean, even when they’re not on, you know, we’ll be doing a scene. And if the camera’s just on me the other actor is giving 110% every single time and that doesn’t happen a lot of the times. And I don’t know if you could reveal the secret at all.

If you even know it, but you worked on a show like Dexter. You worked on The Walking Dead. I mean, those shows. You were on another level as far as you know, casting goes, I mean, everybody in their role is just so good. I mean, is there a method to that Madness of casting is it a luck is it a little bit of everything, you know, I think it’s a little bit of everything. And I mean with these shows. It’s not like theater where you all get together a couple weeks beforehand and you read through the script and you kind of talk about about ideas.

I mean, when you’re on a show like walking dead or Dexter. We had a little bit of, you know, a brief quick little meeting about a few things, but you really they’re when they cast you they’re trusting that, you know what you’re doing because when you get to set. It’s just, you know, it’s new stuff happening all the time. You have to think on your feet and it’s just you have to be ready to go. So, they’re putting a lot of trust into the people that they cast that when they get to set they’re going to know how to roll with the punches and figure it out and you’ve been an actor for quite a while now, but I also understand that you’ve done some stunt work in the past.

Oh, yeah. I’ve done quite a few quite a bit I’ve been shot and stabbed and run over quite a few times would you say that’s helped prolong your career a bit and open the door for other opportunities when say maybe acting isn’t always there. Yeah. Well, it prolonged my career is in the, you know, I was able to still pay my rent and continue on my path of being an actor, you know, that definitely helped. Yeah. And you did work with The Rock Dwayne, The Rock Johnson on GI Joe. What was that like to well, man, he’s awesome. That is a that is a cool.

Awesome individual. And a big hulking individual, but super nice. Super cool. I think he killed me like four times. In GI joe2. I always had like a different turban on or a different thing. So I looked different, but he shot me like I think five times nice. And hey, you made movies with The Rock and Triple H. And you LIF a tell about it. You also did The Chaperone with Triple H doesn’t have as much acting experience as The Rock, but he’s a great performer himself. What was it like working with him again, super nice guy. You know, I mean just a really just super nice guy was really willing to like listen to other people because it was he was kind of new to that whole the whole acting thing.

So he was really trusting other people to kind of push him in the right direction and we had a lot of fun, you know, in our scenes together. It was always it was always a lot of fun. He was always down to play now, have you heard anything at all about the new WWE network? No. Okay, well, they’re actually launching it as a 247 all streaming Network in addition to being on demand and a lot of people are talking about how this could open up the doors for a lot of original content. You know, not just with wrestlers, but with actors as well. If oh, you know, wait, you know, I do remember kind of I feel like when I was on the chaperon.

They were talking about something like that to where they can make all these movies for that channel specifically. Yeah, it was originally going to be a TV network. And then they decided to go All Digital withl Advanced media and I’m just right and I’m just wondering your opinion as an actor should that succeed. You know, this year and in the coming years. Do you think that’ll open the door for more actors and different kinds of programming since it won’t just be relied upon on netw. I mean, they’re hungry for Content man. They need they’re going to constant constantly need content and you know, with the wrestling world they have tons of different characters to play and choose from.

I mean, it’s its own sort of Marvel comic DC Comic, you know, roster. You got tons of guys to choose from they’re going to need the content I can imagine they’re going to have, you know, tons of work for those guys. And with like Netflix, too, you know, purchasing House of Cards, you know, right out of the gate, you know, not releasing one episode at a time, but releasing like full series for people to binge watch do you see that being the future of TV. Totally. I mean, I’m just I’m on House of Cards Right Now talk about binging I’ve just like knocked out the 12th episode last night.

I’ve just been back to back like two days almost finished the first season? Yeah, I mean, it doesn’t look like it’s going away it looks like it’s just getting bigger. I think Amazon’s doing the same thing now. Everybody’s creating their own original content and for somebody like me. I mean, the more the marrier, the more work that’s out there the better for actors like me they’re going to need us. Yeah. And Frank Underwood, man. He’s a boss a scary boss, but a boss. Oh man. Yeah, I know he’s awesome. He’s I mean from the beginning when like you know, he takes that little dog out you know that you’re messing with some some guy who like you know he knows what he’s doing.

He’s great. He’s great to watch. So is Robin Wright She’s fastic in it. Absolutely show great. Now, we got a few questions last couple weeks about your background, I interviewed Vincent M Ward your colleague AKA Oscar from The Walking Dead, the other day. He had a very he had a very interesting story on how he broke into the business. I feel like anybody I interview always has their own unique story there’s not one that’s the same. How did you break into acting? Yeah, you know, it’s always just different for everybody because it’s just it’s such a weird thing to like kind of get involved in and just to make your living at it started for me pretty young.

I grew up in a really small little trailer down a bunch of dirt roads in Arizona and pretty much the middle of nowhere there was like nothing out there, but dirt roads my little trailer and behind us. There were these giant mountains, but in between my house and the mountains was this old western film set that had been abandoned they built it in like the ‘ 50s for like when they were doing doing westerns and it had been abandoned since then. But when I was in fourth grade westerns kind of started making a comeback there was a TV series called Young Riders with Steven Baldwin and couple other people and young they did Young Guns 2 out there.

And so I was about fourth grade and I would I used to go out there anyway just to play around on the old western film set, but they started filming out there and I would bike out there after school just to kind of watch, you know what they were doing. And I out there so much they ended up just like, you know, making me the I became the go-to poor Mexican Village kid, you know, who didn’t have shoes and was just running around. And so I just did a, you know, I did a ton of westerns as like the poor Mexican Village guy and I remember the first time I got my first speaking line.

It was on Young Guns 2 and the director, asked. If anybody wanted to say anything and I was the first one to raise my hand and I said one word. I said watch and that increased my paycheck like 20 times. And I thought well this would be a good way to make a living. Yeah, it’s worked out for and kind of just I just kind of kept at it. And I kept doing it. And as soon as I graduated high school. I moved right to New York and studied a ton of theater and been at it ever since that’s awesome, man. Now, we really do appreciate the time.

Do you have a few minutes left for some fan questions. Yeah, sure awesome. All right. Here, here’s one right here from George is the governor really dead. You never know. I don’t know. I mean you never know with that show. I mean, when I got killed I was really hoping that like I was like I was talking to the producers and I was like so maybe like you know what happens if like the machete kind of didn’t go right through my brain, but just to the side. And I come back as like a vengeful zombie or maybe my twin brother. Like I have a twin brother that comes back or like maybe in a dream sequence, you know, cuz there’s always a way to come back in show.

But the producers were like no, you’re dead. So, I don’t know about the governor. I don’t know anything can happen. All right, Vita wants to know how long does it take for makeup as far as the zombies go, man. You know, as extensive as it is they’re pretty good at that I mean, it’s pretty Clockwork, but it still takes quite a while. I me it’s quite a bit quite a bit of latex and they’re doing so many people they have like a couple different groups of people they have the people that are going to be right up front the camera. And those guys take a good hour hour two hours.

And then they have the people that are a little further away in the back and, you know, they don’t acquire as much makeup, but I mean they have it down pretty well. And what’s amazing is the fact that they’re doing that every day with those zombies. I mean, what they’re doing every single day. And it looks. So real. I mean? Like legitimately in that prison. It’s dark and it’s scary. And then all of a sudden you have these very realistic zombies jumping out like there wasn’t a lot of acting required I was legitimately quite scared. That’s awesome. Now, this person asks Tomas is in pretty damn good shape.

What’s your wor workout regimen like well, I did I was in quite good shape for like sitting in that room the whole time I guess you know, trying to keep Big Tiny off of me from rolling over on top of me while we were sleeping in his snoring ass. You know, lots of push-ups. I guess that would pretty much be it. I guess they were referring to you too. Oh, me too. Lots of push-ups and sit-ups, It’s All I Got Time for cool. All right, let’s see what we got right here. Okay, okay. This is kind of an awkward question. So, you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to great.

Sounds great. All right. You have very nice hair. Do you use Herbal Essences. No. Herbal Essences. No, I only wash my hair like once a week cuz if I wash it all the time. It gets really poofy cuz it’s there’s a lot of it up there. I got this one stuff this shampoo from hair play was called it some tea tree oil kind of thing, but I use it very sparingly. I think the trick is to not wash your hair very much that’s my trick. All right, biggest misconception of actors as far as like maybe how hard or how easy it is to do something in the business?

Well, it’s always funny to me when somebody says? Oh, man, I can never be an actor because I just can’t memorize all those lines. And I mean, that’s just it’s funny. But that’s just such a u that’s just not part of the job that you worry about, you know, that’s like saying to like somebody like oh man. I can never be like a heart surgeon, you know, because I just couldn’t get those gloves on those plastic gloves. They seem difficult to get on cuz it’s just so not what is the hard part about being an actor is memorizing lines. It’s just persistence. It’s persistence and you know, whoever wants to stick it out the longest.

What’s one rookie mistake every actor should avoid trying to do what they think other people want, you know, like in an audition or for work. The one thing that you never want to do is try to make somebody else happy, you know, cuz you have no idea what the casting director or what the director. You have no idea what they want. So really it’s all about. You just having your own personal take on it and doing what you find interesting and what you think is funny and what you want to see on screen and you can’t worry about what other people want cuz you have no idea wise words.

Now before let you go, man, what else you got going on. Obviously, you got Red Road, which premieres on February 27th on Sundance Channel. What’s next on the docket for nomez. Yeah, really excited for that. Well, I have a few of my own projects work that I’m working on. I have a two TV shows that I’ve written that are in the process of you know, possibly talking pre-production. So, a lot of writing on my own. I also I’m in a band. So the band is going to start performing in or around La. It’s a Mr. Roger in the neighborhood. So, I’ve been doing a lot of writing a lot of music and a lot of writing my own stuff a little bit of everything, man modern day Renaissance Man.

Gotta stay busy, man. Absolutely now, where can fans find you online if they want to keep up with everything you’re doing Twitter Nick s Gomez. I’m on Instagram Uncle Jungle Jim Facebook, I think you can just look up Nick Gomez official. Facebook page that’s a those, you know, get a hold of me there. Awesome, man. Thank you. Thank you so much for the time. Really appreciate thank you bye everybody. All right. Everybody that was Nick Gomez. Thanks so much for the time, man. Folks. I hope you enjoyed this interview? I also have an interview up with Vincent M ward of The Walking Dead AKA Oscar if you like acting if you like entertainment if you like reality TV, if you like Combat Sports.

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