Dominic Bogart Talks ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ [Exclusive Interview]

For Dominic Bogart, acting is all about challenging himself.

Currently, Bogart can be seen as Joe on AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, a role he was particularly excited to play.

I recently had the chance to speak with Bogart about his background as an actor and his experience on Fear the Walking Dead.

Bogart grew up in a small town in Ohio and credits his older brothers with getting him into acting.

“What I wanted was to excel in sports, but I didn’t think that was going to go much further, so I jumped on the bandwagon and followed my two older brothers to the University of Cincinnati and studied acting there,” Bogart recalled. “It was probably them that instilled the interest in the arts and the expression of music [in me].”

“My mom was a singer and an actor in the community theater back home, so there was some encouragement,” he continued. “A couple of teachers [said], ‘get out of town, do something different with your life.’ For myself, I wasn’t a great student until I studied something I actually had a passion for, and I found that in theater.”

Bogart starred in stage productions of Jersey Boys and Rent, but eventually realized he wanted to do something a bit different.

“I wanted to find out if I could challenge myself to take material and shed some new light on the human condition,” he said. “I felt like my sensibilities and my stubbornness as an actor — I thought maybe they’d be more suited for film and television.”

“The most unique voices are coming out of independent film and experimental film, and now it’s starting to find its way into television, especially on cable. They’re allowing more original voices to be heard, and more original writing and programming, and it’s really cool. I feel like I’m in the right place and pursuing the right things for what it is that I feel like I have to offer.”

Bogart feels lucky to be able to do that on a show like Fear the Walking Dead.

“Any time you can connect with an audience and be a part of a piece that’s connecting to the people in such a way that’s got them so excited, you are the luckiest artist or actor,” he noted. “I experienced that when I was on Rent.”

Bogart played one of the leads on that show, and remembered the enthusiasm of the fans. “People were so enthusiastic about it. They used to call them Rentheads, and they probably still exist, and that was my first — I was right out of school — my first experience with people who were so wildly enthusiastic about the characters and where they go through that story.”

Though very different, Bogart gets a similar feeling from Fear the Walking Dead.

“It continues to grow. It continues The Walking Dead — the whole sort of family, because it continues to go to new places. It’s really exciting for the fans to grab a hold and have a personal experience with it. That’s rare for people to be that excited,” Bogart added. “To be a part of something like that is awesome, because then there’s a dialogue between the artists and the viewers.”

It’s also just a fun story to be a part of. “I love that show because it puts everybody in heightened circumstances. I mean, when you have somebody coming at you that wants to eat your flesh while at the same time you’re trying to save yourself and your family … running all over the lands trying find a safe spot, that is heightened circumstances,” he said. “As an actor, that’s the best place to be.”

“Putting the characters into these really difficult rock and a hard place positions — physically, morally, emotionally, ethically — I love taking on that part of this experience,” he continued.

“This new season of Fear the Walking Dead is taking the story to a different and new landscape,” Bogart noted. “I appear in this story on Broke Jaw Ranch, which is this community that’s sort of been preparing for the end of days — or at least preparing for the end of our democracy,” he explained.

“We have this patriarch who started this commune in preparation for the end of our society as we know it, and it may have gone down differently than he and his clan thought it would, but it’s come nonetheless.”

Bogart described the terrain surrounding that community as treacherous.

“We were beat up a lot on that set because it’s the wild, but it was a blast to film. It kind of felt like going camping. I mean, I’m in military gear for the most part. I’m part of security and militaristic detail […] I had a great time on set. It’s a real brotherhood. There’s a real camaraderie that just manifested naturally between me and my fellow soldiers and family members on set.”

Bogart had a lot of great things to say about both the cast and the crew. “I loved watching the crew work together,” Bogart began. “It’s a good family they [have] down there. You know, they work really hard, like twelve to fifteen hour days sometimes is just the norm for I think six or eight months straight, and it’s really hard work.”

“I can’t say enough nice things about all of the cast. They were so welcoming,” Bogart continued. “I was star struck to be around Kim Dickens because she’s been killing it in movies and TV for decades, and she is every bit as heartwarming and charming in person as she is as this awesome, motherly, radical figure in the show.”

“Everybody’s got good attitudes,” he said. “It’s not always the case especially when you’re working as hard as your working.”

In addition to Fear the Walking Dead, Bogart also has a new film premiering on August 11th, The Glass Castle, alongside Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson. The film is based on the book of the same title by Jeannette Walls.

“It’s a beautiful book about family about family dysfunction […] alcoholism, poverty. It’s just this really heavy, beautiful release of love. It’s about a woman and her sort of coming of age, growing up in a nomadic family with eccentric parents, and how she becomes able to reconcile the things that she was put through and also appreciate what she learned through these people,” Bogart explained.

“I’m in love with the book,” he continued. “Jeannette Walls is the most stunning and beautiful person I’ve met in a long time. I was lucky enough to meet her on set.”

“It’s written and directed by a really good friend of mine who I’ve worked with several times named Destin Daniel Cretton. He’s just a talent,” he added. “I’m really stoked for people to see it.”

When Bogart finds the time to watch television, he enjoys watching things that he can learn from as an actor. “I’m marathoning through The Man in the High Castle right now just because it’s so fun. I’m a big fan of paranormal and sci-fi. I’m digging it,” he said.

Bogart also named The Americans as a favorite show. “The Americans is the smartest and most nuanced TV that I’ve watched in the past couple of years. I just love that show.”

Be sure to catch Dominic Bogart on Fear the Walking Dead, airing Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

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