Andrew J. West, who played Gareth on "The Walking Dead," knew from the very beginning that his stint on the hit AMC zombie series would be a short one.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 27-year-old actor was asked if showrunner Scott M. Gimple informed him that his character would be killed off early in the current season, and in response he said, "They told me right up front."
"The way the whole thing went down is I got the job and went down and shot the [Season 4] finale," he recalled. "At that point I didn't know for sure that I would even come back for season 5. They had an option on me and had me on hold, but they didn't say that it would be a guarantee."
"So we shoot the finale and then over hiatus I'm sort of waiting around hoping that they decide to bring me back, and Scott Gimple gives me a call and he says, 'We'd love to have you back, but full disclosure: Gareth will be killed in episode 3,'" the "Greek" alum revealed.
"The cool thing about it was that I didn't even have the time to really mourn the loss of this character because I basically simultaneously heard that I was coming back to the show, so I was just excited about that," the Merrillville, Indiana-born actor explained. "I was absolutely thrilled to get back into the show in any capacity and it was thoughtful of them to let me know just in terms of logistical things and organizing your life and whatever."
But West admitted that he was disappointed that viewers did not get to see Gareth's backstory.
"I am personally [disappointed], but I'm biased," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I am extremely attached to this character. I would have loved to have seen episodes upon episodes upon seasons of seasons of backstory on this character. I've grown to love this character, as crazy as that sounds."
"I hope that for as horrendous and vile as Gareth can be in certain moments that there is a little bit of confusion on the part of the viewers in terms of how to feel about him," he added of his cannibal character. "I hope there are some conflicting feelings about how much they despise or dislike this character. I would have loved to have seen more of Gareth's backstory and to see him ride off into the sunset."
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, West revealed his favorite memory on the show.
"When we finished shooting episode 2, where I'm eating Bob's leg, it was such an intense scene," he said. "We were shooting in the middle of the night, it was long, and when we finished we all had this really nice moment. All the Terminans, me, and Lawrence Gilliard who plays Bob - we all had this group hug-huddle thing. It was a celebratory moment of having completed this scene that everybody knew would be memorable."