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[SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Sunday’s season 6 premiere of

, everybody! Now say goodbye to Ethan Embry, everybody! Embry — a regular on Netflix’s

— showed up on Sunday’s season 6 premiere as Carter, an Alexandrian who was not on board with Rick’s aggressive plan to clear out the walkers.

Carter’s brief stay included a failed coup to kill Rick, lots of second-guessing of plans, a feeble attempt to protect himself from oncoming walkers, and, finally, a gruesome death after having his face bitten off. We chatted with Embry to get the full scoop on his life — and death — in Alexandria.

(Read through both pages for the entire interview. Also make sure to check out our premiere Q&A’s with Andrew Lincoln, Greg Nicotero, and Robert Kirkman, as well as Nicotero’s exclusive storyboards.)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY Let’s start from the beginning. How did you go about getting the role of Carter?

ETHAN EMBRY: I’d been trying to get on that show for a while now. I auditioned for the pilot and fell in love with the whole idea of that show from the get-go. I remember when I first read that, and I was a fan of

, and reading this pilot that sort of nodded towards my favorite parts of that film — I knew it was going to be something insane. And I went in again for another character that I ended up getting pretty close on, so they got to know me over the years of me trying to get on the show.

This role of Carter came up and they invited me to come play and I was more than happy to get the invite. Such a great character too. As a fan of the show, I’ve been watching Rick change; what he’s been going through and how it’s been affecting him as a person, and he’s kind of losing his mind—he’s going a little crazy. And this role of Carter, to me, being a fan, I wanted it to be sort of the voice of the audience. You know, questioning his sanity: Can we trust him anymore? And that’s not always the best thing to question on that show. It doesn’t bode well.

I knew from the get-go that it was a quick one-and-done. I’m doing

right now so I can only do a couple episodes anyway, and I had already used up one of my cards doing

. So I only had a couple of playtimes left, and this one episode — I get to do everything a person would want to do if they got invited on a show. The only thing I’m bummed I didn’t get to do is kill a zombie; I wish I could have got one of them. But other than that, I get to go and wrangle a posse against Rick, I get to do a conspiracy against him, I get my face bitten off — it’s great!

Carter is kind of a TV version of this character Nicholas from the comic, which is confusing because there is another Nicholas on the show. Did you look at the comic at all to see how the Alexandria takeover attempt is handled there?

I didn’t look at the comics for this one because of how they’ve been doing that, blending characters together — taking personalities of one character and appearances of another and mixing them together. So I didn’t go to the comic for this. Because it’s a quick voice, the role of Carter. You only get to see this small window of him. If they wanted me to emulate something from the comics they would have said, “Here, this is the dude,” and I would have loved to do that. But since that wasn’t evident, I just let it play on the script.

How was the character explained to you? What did you pick up on reading the script?

I had a great conversation with Scott [Gimple] and Greg [Nicotero]. As far as character and personality and who he is, they were saying that if the apocalypse had not happened — if we were living in this time — Carter and Rick would be on even plane. They would be more equals. But because of what Rick has experienced in the last few years, he’s progressed so far beyond anything Carter could even imagine. Carter’s been living in this bubble, and so he hasn’t been exposed to the things that Rick has, but if we flashback two years since all of this has been going on, he’s a working man. He was a contractor, so he was able to build the wall around the compound. Just a man’s man. But he hasn’t adapted like the rest of the main family has, so he’s still really living in the past: a false reality.

And that’s one of the things about the show, is that, as a fan, I’ve started to think that the main characters that are walking around looking for a new home, that they’re almost the walking dead. They’ve lost their humanity. They’ve ceased to be the humans they once were. What Rick has been going through towards the end of the last season — as an audience member, I questioned: Is he going too far? Has he crossed that threshold to where he’ll become something so far from what he used to be he’ll never be able to return to himself? And it’s that balance, because you have to be able to achieve a certain part of that to survive, but if you go too far there’s no turning back.

Look at Tyreese — his character was the emotional struggle of finding that balance. That’s why I loved him so much because he knew he had to adapt, but he was so mourning the loss of his humanity that it made him very emotional. Daryl is the guy in my opinion who has found that perfect ground; retaining a certain part of your humanity but also learning to adapt to be able to survive. He’s that voice; that gauge. I really love the show.

So what’s it like to have Andy Lincoln pointing a gun in your face because that dude can be pretty intense when he’s filming?

It’s one of the best work environments I’ve been around, and I think a lot of that has to do with Andy. He asked me my boundaries — we had just met and he wanted to be sure not to cross my line. And I told him “I don’t have any. There are no boundaries. Please feel free to go.” And he did. Because you can’t fake that. I think that’s why people love the show so much, because he doesn’t fake it — he goes there. He does it in a way where you can still, if you’re not fearful, you can trust him. Because of who he is you know even if he sort of loses himself in a moment, that he can always maintain control. Some actors will do that and you’ll actually get worried that they won’t be able to control the outcome, but Andy’s able to go there and still maintain the control of the situation. He’s kicking me, screaming at me, spitting on me.

NEXT PAGE: Embry talks about his big death scene

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