Omid Abtahi joined the cast of Fear of the Walking Dead at the end of Season 6 and is now a key player in the seventh season. And while he has enjoyed his time on the AMC series, something big prevented him from having the best first day on set. In an exclusive interview with PopCultue.com, Abtahi talked about how things were a little challenging when he started on Fear the Walking Dead.ย
“I got to say, my first day I worked, it was that scene with Colman [Domingo],” Abtahi exclusively told PopCulture. “It was the first time I’ve ever acted without any sleep. At the hotel they put me on was on some party street, it was spring break. Rainy Street, or something like that. They were just partying ’til 3:00 AM and by that time I was… Looking at the clock, it was 4:30, I had to get up.”
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Abtahi said he was “really upset” about the situation, and “it made the whole first day like a dream sequence type thing where I… People were talking to me and I couldn’t quite understand them. But, what came through it all was how awesome Colman was. He took me around. He’s like, ‘Hey everybody, this is Omid. He’s going to be joining our show. He’s going to play Howard. Say hello. Everybody treat him like as one of the family.’ I was like, ‘This doesn’t feel real at all. This must be sleep deprivation or whatnot.’ It’s just a lovely, lovely set. It’s a lovely group of people.”
Howard is Victor Stand’s (Domingo), right-hand man, and the two oversee the Tower, which holds a large community. Victor is picky about who joins the Tower, and he and Howard will kill anyone who is a threat again them and the Tower’s community of people. But why does Howard believe in Victor?
“The why of it is mostly for the writers,” Abtahi said. “You’ll come to see and the viewers will come to find that Howard, he very much has his own reasons for wanting to see this tower succeed. I think he thinks Victor is the best man possible in order to help that come to fruition. I don’t think he always sees eye to eye with Victor. But that is why he is so accepting of some of the choices that he may not agree with and is willing to support him, and helping them see this common goal of seeing the tower thrive and, in essence, recreating civilization, which I think for any historian is a big deal. His reasons will become very clear why.” Fear the Walking Dead airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.ย
