‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Post-Mortem Cast Interview: ‘Ofelia’

This week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead on AMC brought forth some serious surprises. For we came to learn that the normally wily Daniel Salazar is still struggling cognitively and from a mental health standpoint, and that some members of the group are willing to exploit that for their own gain. And in order to learn a little more about the gravity of Luciana’s decision in ‘Ofelia’, we sat down with Rubén Blades, Danay Garcia, and Colby Hollman to discuss this pivotal episode.
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John Betancourt: I was actually curious what it kind of means to each of you to be a part of an episode that really tackled some topics that are quite frankly, are kind of taboo on television. Because don't we don't talk about ageism in TV all that often, nor do we talk about mental health and cognitive decline.

Rubén Blades: That’s one thing I have to say as far as the experience with the show, when we did the episode where it was all in Spanish, in the third season, I think it was, that was groundbreaking in itself, because I think it was the first time that a show was shown pretty much totally in Spanish on primetime, and television, in the U.S. So, we've been doing kind of things that are different. So, we are continuing in that and that route, in this line of the plot. And I do believe it's important, and I feel good about the fact that we are adding to the discussion publicly, in the sense, you know -- the purpose of the show is to bring diversion to people you know, to divert. But I think also like in music, art can be utilized to explain things and to make people aware of situations that perhaps they're not seeing very clearly, or that they have not considered before. So, I feel very good about the fact that AMC will agree to tackle these type of subject matter that is really not touched in other in other shows.

Danay Garcia: You know, when we got the episode, I knew we had like an arc, Rubén and I at the beginning of the season, but I didn't know what was the content, and when we got the script, and I understood really the dimension and the fact that it was all in Spanish… I have to say, you know, from someone that is not from this country, and you know, working on an American show that is shown worldwide, you know, Rubén himself, I can say that we took it very seriously, in terms of translating the entire thing to you know, to Spanish and to make sure that it was truthful to the characters and truthful to the stories, we spent a lot of hours to really find the nuances of you know, in another language and that we are both very comfortable. Like is this how Daniel talks? Is this how Luciana talks? Because we hardly speak Spanish on the show. So, it's not like, you know, we have the characters perfectly set. And also the relationship that we're forming, is this how these two people communicate? And you know, it's a huge opportunity that we hardly have and we're extremely grateful and honored to be able to contribute to that and to our communities and you know, to everybody, like you said… to feel included and the show has so many eyeballs all over the world it was just such a great moment and space to bring the best of you know, us really to the table. And we really didn't take it lightly. We really didn't it was really, a wonderful experience.

Colby Hollman: I think what we're doing on the show, especially with this episode, you talked about dealing with mental health issues is very, very special in the way that like usually when I see mental health dealt with in different programming, you see characters that are mentally ill, grappling with their mental health… but like… that's kind of like part a part of them. And it's been a part of them for their whole lives. You know, like this person has BPD or this person has like chronic depression or da-da-da and like the Joker for example. Like you see this guy, he obviously has been mentally ill like he's been dealing with it his whole life. But Daniel, we've seen this guy be very capable, probably the most capable out of anybody that we've seen in the show and then this late onset mental health issue comes to him in old age and how that materializes, you know, how he navigates the disintegration of his mind and his mental state. And I think that's a very cool thing for us to, you know, be able to see, like from the audience perspective.

Rubén Blades: And there's one last thing I mean, which I think I always was very happy about. The fact that the, the older you get doesn't mean that the useless you get, all of a sudden Daniel is older than anybody, but he still has his wits about to take a knife away from a guy. To figure out sending them to the wrong place, to knowing that there's no bullets, I think he knew that that gun had no bullets. Because of its weight alone, but he did it anyway, you know, it felt like “I'm gonna kill you.” So, he knows a lot. And he acts, he's not like one of these people that that just sits down and wilts, you know, he's older, but he still has his skills. And usually, the stereotype of the older person is useless person. So, I'm very happy about that as well.

John Betancourt: Now we all know that Walking Dead Universe fans are as passionate as they come, and what happens in this episode will undoubtedly be polarizing to the fanbase. What do you hope fans take away from the tough decisions every single character made here?

Danay Garcia: It's gonna be intense. I'm getting ready for the tweets and the whole deal and, you know, gifs, and all that. I think our fans are used to being surprised a little bit. But I think this is a big surprise. I was surprised! I remember Rubén and I, we read it and we were pretty frickin’ surprised! So, if we're super nice, it's like this is going to translate to what's coming. I hope everybody understands that nobody's perfect. We make our mistakes, even Luciana makes mistakes. We are capable of lying and justifying things and we're just trying to survive and to grow. And in the middle of this whole thing, we try to connect, you know, we’re really telling you a story about the living, not the dad and the living… we are complex. We’re different and we’re difficult and you know, we're dealing with different cultures, you know, you're seeing an entire episode almost in Spanish and, and how these two people navigate that, and then that crazy world, so I hope they still love us.

Rubén Blades: I think in the case of Salazar, I think that people will understand that you do what you need to do in order to survive. And that means that the notion that there's good and there's bad people, it's going to be determined by the consequences of their actions, not by the actions themselves. You can do something that would seem immoral, that produces positive consequences. Which is what's happening once the whole society… rules change, everything went down. So, there's a new way to get the things and Salazar is part of that too. Salazar lied, he will connive, he will plot he will do whatever needs to be done in order to get ahead. So, I think the audiences should, should be by now, pretty much understanding that this is what's going to happen, the thing that’s gonna probably create emotion is the fact that many people love Daniel. And they're gonna feel like: “Oh my God, you know, why did you lie to Daniel?”

Danay Garcia: Oh my God. Yes.

Rubén Blades: She had to! In order to get it done.

Danay Garcia: Totally.

Rubén Blades: That's what he needed in order to be motivated. It's the moment that Ofelia is mentioned. That's when he is focused, all his strengths going to organizing in one direction so I think at the end people will get that and understand why Luciana did that.

Colby Hollman: I really, really hope that fans watch this, and they remember this moment for the rest of the season. And they just, you know, they have some kind of compassion for Wes. And like knowing that, he's in pain! This man… this man is in a dark place.

Rubén Blades: Absolutely.

Colby Hollman: And so, what ensues after, it's all coming from him being lost and being in that dark place and, and not knowing what to do. And I really do hope people have a lot of love for Wes, you know, moving forward, and we’ll just kind of see how that how that plays out.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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