FOX’s Accused has been brilliant at recruiting actors to play against type. Just weeks after Christopher Gorham portrayed a bone-chilling villain, The Walking Dead‘s Josh Hamilton is reminding viewers that he’s not Lance Hornsby. In “Jessie’s Story,” Josh’s character Dominic is the complete opposite—an altruistic lawyer with a heart of gold.
Before the episode’s premiere, I spoke to him about leaving that Walking Dead expectation behind and the chemistry with his Accused co-star Betsy Brandt. Here’s what he had to say about the making of the episode and a preview of what’s next; after you’ve seen the episode May 2 at 9:00 p.m. on Fox, check back Wednesday for the spoilery portion of our conversation!
Brittany Frederick: Many people who watch Accused are going to recognize you as Lance Hornsby on The Walking Dead, and you did some pretty horrible things on that show. Was it nice to play a normal, nice character after all that?
Josh Hamilton: It was a nice change of pace. (laughs) Less time in the makeup chair and also nice to be in cool Toronto instead of hot Georgia….I go through phases sometimes where I feel like I play kind of jerks. Walking Dead certainly, [Lance] was not the nicest guy, so it was nice to play a guy whose intentions are good.
BF: Your co-star in this is Betsy Brandt, and very early on in the episode, viewers see how well the two of you play off each other. That brings a real warmth to Dominic and Kara’s interactions, and thus to the whole episode. What was it like to work with her?
JH: She is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. She just made me laugh so hard. And I think the crew really appreciated her, because it was the final episode of their shooting season, and it was longer than it was supposed to be. I think they were only supposed to do eight or 10 episodes, and they added a few more. The crew was just doing a whole new movie every two weeks—and they were incredible, but I think they appreciated her coming on set and livening things up. She has a great energy. She’s one of the people that can be funny and making jokes and cracking the crew up, and then as soon as action is called, she’s in it. It’s very impressive.
BF: You have a connection to her, and to FOX, because you worked with her Breaking Bad co-star Anna Gunn on Gracepoint. Did you two talk about that at all?
JH: We connected over that right away. It’s always nice when you have mutual friends, and you can sort of say it creates a level of intimacy. Whenever you’re coming into these things, it’s all so fast and whatever you can use to establish a kind of intimacy is always very helpful. Whether it’s mutual friends or shared experiences, it’s great.
Accused airs Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. on Fox. Stay tuned after “Jessie’s Story” airs for Part 2 of my interview with Josh Hamilton!
Article content is (c)2020-2023 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram.
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