Nat actor Matthew August Jeffers discusses joining The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Rick and Michonne’s long-awaited reunion, and more.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live brings back the franchise’s most iconic characters for a new outing that promised the long-awaited reunion of Andrew Lincoln’s Rick and Danai Gurira’s Michonne. The six-episode spin-off series sees Rick in the thrall of the Civic Republic Military—CRM—unable to escape and rejoin his family. On a quest to find him, Michonne endures dangers new to The Walking Dead’s universe and allies with a unique group of survivors.
As The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live episode 2 continues Michonne’s 12-year arc, it introduces a convoy of survivors that includes Nat, played by Matthew August Jeffers. Jeffers’ role on the show is an impactful one, as Nat is essentially responsible for Michonne finding Rick and surviving long enough to do so. As unfortunate as Nat’s death is in the series, it did free Jeffers up to join Succession’s Jeremy Strong on a 16-week run of An Enemy of the People on Broadway, which began on February 27.
The Ones Who Live Rotten Tomatoes Score Ties For Walking Dead Universe’s Best Ever
The Rotten Tomatoes score for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live ties for the best of the entire franchise, which includes 7 shows and 25 seasons.
Screen Rant interviewed Matthew August Jeffers about Nat’s role in the reunion of Rick and Michonne, his exploration of the character, and more.
How Jeffers’ Fandom Translated To His Time On Set
Screen Rant: How much knowledge of The Walking Dead as a whole did you have going into this? Had you watched the other shows?
Matthew August Jeffers: I moved to New York out of college in 2013, and I would go to acting class during the day, and I would come home and have Walking Dead viewing parties at night. Then, we’d watch Talking Dead–me and my roommates. It was a thing. It was an event, obviously, for me and a hundred million other people.
It was crazy because I was like, “Okay, how do I get from here to there? That’s exactly what I want to do.” At the time, it was like this behemoth. I’ve been really fortunate to get some work over the past few years and leave my survival job, and things like that have kind of truncated my vision, so I’ve fallen off a little bit. But, in the beginning, that was it for me, so to be able to step into that world and revisit that world was thrilling. Really profoundly challenging, but really thrilling.
Was there a misconception that you had coming into the world? When you actually got on set and started filming, how different was it from your expectations?
Matthew August Jeffers: I was impressed with how lived-in the world really was. The art department is–they are artists. They create a world, and it’s The Walking Dead. It is wild to be able to step into that space. We shot at the Izod Center in New Jersey, and in this basketball arena they had created this jungle. It was so detailed. Every nook and cranny was dusty and decaying. The walkers [were] just so cool. Also, the caravan was so textured. I’ve only done indie films, I haven’t been on a Michael Bay-level film, but it felt filmic. It felt of the scale of a big budget feature film.
It was beautiful, because it helped inform my character and how my character moved in this space. When you have a fully fleshed out environment, it makes it a lot easier for you to understand how you move through the space, so you don’t have to guess as much or make as many leaps of faith. It’s just all there for you.
And obviously, Michonne and her garb — it’s literally iconic. You’re talking iconic characters. You’re talking arguably one of the most successful shows in the history of cable television. It’s wild to be a part of that.
Scott Gimple Is An Encyclopedia Of The Walking Dead Knowledge (But Is Open To Collaboration)
You mentioned the caravan, which was such a cool visual and such a cool group of people. How much do you know about them outside of what I, watching the show, know? Did they tell you any more backstory, or if they’ll be shown more in this universe?
Matthew August Jeffers: I can’t speak to future, but I think what Scott Gimple does so beautifully is [that] he has an encyclopedia of knowledge of this world that is layers deep, and he explains it to you in a way that is easily digestible and accessible. I can’t parse specifics because it’s a year ago–it’s all in my journal–but I will say we had a number of sit-downs, just table work, where it felt more like theater, and [we were] really going through the script and getting our fingernails dirty of who this character is, who this community is — Aiden, Bailey, their history. It was really informative for me. He gave me the whole spiel, the whole nine yards of this caravan — where they come from, what they’re doing — so that I was able to marry the larger environmental story with the minutiae of the character that I was creating.
I was like, “Okay, this is how this person fits in this world.” I think one of the fears that I had about going into this world is that it is so specific, and tone is really important. I had a fear that I was going to come in and have this schism with how this world feels, and I was going to stick out. Because the breadth of [Scott’s] knowledge was so deep, I was able to really understand what the tone was — specifically The Ones Who Live — because I feel like this tone is different from other spin-offs and the mothership in a really beautiful and cinematic way. It was all really informative and helpful.
Your character, to me, was an instant standout. He’s just such a unique personality. How much input did you have in shaping that?
Matthew August Jeffers: Well, there are two things. As an actor, you’re not becoming this other person. You are taking yourself and you’re showing colors of yourself in the costume of this fictionalized human being. I hope to always bring truth to my character, and so with everything he says and everything he does, there’s a level of something that’s how I would do it in my life and in my world. It’s my interpretation, and that’s how I, as a human being, approached it. But also, again, going back to Scott and Danai, we sat around that table… Every show should have a showrunner like Scott Gimple, because yes, he’s so successful, and yes, he holds the keys to some really important cars, but he’s [also] so willing to let you go for a spin. He’s really, really open to hearing what you have to say.
I didn’t have a fear of being like, “Oh, you’re the boss.” It was like, “This is who I think this character is. This is what I think his backstory is.” There was this just a conversation back and forth of his past, his upbringing and who he was. No one, in an ideal world — not even Scott — should know the character better than the actor playing that character, and I think Scott knows that. I think that’s why the show is getting such great feedback–because Scott knows that the people who know Rick and Michonne best are Danai and Andy, and they were brought on as executive producers and creators of the show. It’s just further proof that the more collaborative you can make a story and a production, more often than not, the stronger and the better the chemistry. You’re having other people throw their sticks into the fire, and that’s going to make it burn brighter. That’s how I feel.
Jeffers Was Too Busy Dying To Notice Rick & Michonne’s Reunion
You’re the only person who witnesses the reunion of Rick and Michonne, and then it’s the last thing your character does. Do you have an opinion on how it was to see them reunite after all this time in this world? How was it to do that scene and know that’s what, unfortunately, looks like the end of Nat?
Matthew August Jeffers: That was day two of shooting and so, selfishly, I was really focused on my arc and wrapping up my arc so that I could then tell my arc over the next few weeks of shooting. I was really focused on dying, and dying well, and really honoring that story. I don’t think I had the mental capacity to take myself out and be like, “Oh, what does this mean for Rick and Michonne?” because then I’m taking myself out of the world. He was dying, and I think I just needed to have a pigeonhole view. That being said, that was the first day that I met Andy, and immediately I could tell why this guy has been a star for so many seasons. [He’s] just a wonderful human being through and through, and I immediately felt a kinship and a draw to him. It was really beautiful that I could then shoot and be like, “Oh yeah, these guys should reunite. These are great people, great human beings.”
It was really beautiful. The snow was falling. It was a gray, overcast day. I was looking up at the bare trees. It was really emotional. I’ve never died on stage or screen. It was really quite emotional. I remember being deeply emotional before a take and just saying, “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die,” really sad, and then having Danai’s tears literally falling on my face. I think that’s the strength of the show. I think that’s what the reviewers are saying right now, is [that] these emotions are genuine, and these performances are really strong, and I felt that. It’s really cool to be there for that moment.
Episode 4 Is Going To Be “A Real Treat”
Presumably, you can now sit back and watch what’s happening as a fan. Is there anything that you’re excited to see or excited for people to see that you can talk about?
Matthew August Jeffers: I want be a director down the line. Once I establish myself as an actor, I would love to take my hand at directing. I worked with Michael Slovis, who directed a couple of the episodes in The Ones Who Live, on New Amsterdam. [He’s a] great guy, talented director, [and] beautiful cinematographer from Breaking Bad. I went to Scott on the last day of shooting and said, “I’m not ready to leave this set. Can I shadow Michael?” and he was like, “Of course.”
I hung out with Michael on the other side of the camera for two episodes. [It was] so cool to be able to hang up my gear and appreciate and watch from, like you said, a fan perspective, up close and personal. Episode 4 is stunning. It’s all beautiful, but Danai wrote episode 4, and people are in for a treat. I’m excited to see the response.
About The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they’ve ever known before?Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?
Also check out our interview with The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live stars Lesley-Ann Brandt, Terry O’Quinn & Craig Tate.
