The Walking Dead Season 10C continues with its character-centric episode theme. The latest episode, “One More,” follows Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) on their quest to retrieve supplies for Alexandria. Along the way, they encounter Mays (Robert Patrick), a deranged stranger who forces them to play a game of Russian roulette in an emotional, nail-biting scene.

CBR had the opportunity to speak to Ross Marquand regarding his experience on “One More” while working with Seth Gilliam and The X-Files star Robert Patrick. Marquand also talked the reality of coming face to face with Greg Nicotero’s “gnarly” walkers and his possible MCU revival.

CBR: We’ve seen a more vulnerable side of Aaron in Season 10. Are there any traits you share with him or maybe ones you don’t have but admire?

Ross Marquand: I think we do both generally look for the goodness in people. We want to believe that everyone has goodness or wants to do good in general, even if they may not have in the past. I think we are both very forgiving men.

Yeah, I also love that they keep giving people chances. I think that’s one of Aaron’s and my strengths – we like to give people many different chances. I think that’s what we have to do as humans. We have to believe in progress and people’s ability to change. So, those are the things that’d I’d say are the most similar.

You’ve obviously worked with Seth Gilliam, who plays Gabriel, before but do you want to talk a little about what it was like working with him more intimately in the episode “One More?”

Yeah, I mean, I’ve known Seth since the beginning of the show. He’s always been very welcoming. He’s just an all-around good dude. So, he’s somebody I love working with because he brings so many different looks to each scene. He’s a very gifted actor. He always has been. I’ve been following his work for 20 years or so.

But I love when he goes into a scene. He has an idea of what he wants to do, but he’s also willing to let it breathe. He’s willing to let the scene kind of evolve with you, and that’s a fun way to act, you know. I think he’s always bringing so many different choices with his character.

While we’re on the subject of actors. As a huge X-Files fan, I have to know what it was like working with Robert Patrick?

Awesome. He’s one of the best actors I’ve worked with and also one of the sweetest. He’s just a really good dude all-around. I know I just said that about Seth, but it’s true about him too. I was super excited being a fan of The X-Files as well and Terminator 2 and other movies that he’s done when I was growing up. So, when I got the word that he was going to be playing Mays, I was excited but also a little bit intimidated because he does come with this massive canon of work. I was also a little scared because he plays such a menacing character, so you don’t know how he’s going to be as a person, but he was the complete opposite. He was extremely sweet. He’s a good guy.

Aaron and Gabriel also discover a pretty gnarly-looking walker that’s sort of melted to a tree in that same episode. You’re no newbie, but are there ever times where you’re completely horrified by the stuff Greg Nicotero comes up with?

Oh, yeah. I mean, the one that sticks out in my mind was from Season 6 with the sewer walkers that Maggie and I had to kill. Yeah, just the filth and decay surrounding it – I’ll never forget being in those tunnels. It was super poorly lit, and seeing this sludge of a walker monster come out of the water and come at me, I was like, “Man, that’s probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen on the show.” But, yeah, it never gets less surprising or less disgusting. It’s always pretty gnarly on the show.

The Russian roulette scene was extremely tense and emotional. What does preparing for a scene like that look like for you?

I think we were just playing the reality of it as best as possible. [In the episode] We had just come off a massive night of drinking a bottle of whiskey, which is also going to play into it because you’re going to be extremely confused, hungover, your visions going to be blurred, your judgment is going to be off, and you’re going to be feeling sick to your stomach, which given the experience of being kidnapped, beaten up and having my arm taken from me, I think the reality of the scene was enough. We didn’t have to go any further than that for like motivation or anything. And it was pretty terrible. It was just a terrible situation to be in and one that induced pure terror as well.

So, when Gabriel and I are kind of facing off and deciding: do I kill myself or do I kill my friend, all of these thoughts easily race through our minds. With the way the script was written, I think Jim did just an incredible job writing it. We were very happy to perform this episode because it was just so beautifully written. There was no need for subtext because it was all on the page.

Last week’s episode, Episode 18, showcased Daryl’s first onscreen romance. Does that inspire any hopes for Aaron’s love life going forward?

You know, I think they teased opportunities with Jesus after Eric died, of course. [Laughs] I think it’s not looking good. Every time he gets a little glimmer of hope, it kind of ends poorly. I’m not holding out any hope for Aaron [laughs]. I would love to see him happy, but I think that love and finding love is so far down the list of priorities for him and everyone else, for that matter. It’s really about rebuilding Alexandria and society at this point. If he’s able to do that [find love], then sure, but I don’t think that’s where he’s head or his heart is at right now.

You’ve done your fair share of voice-over work throughout your career. What appeals to you about voice work, and can you apply that experience to a live-action role like The Walking Dead?

Oh, yeah. With every character, I start with the voice first. It’s the first thing I do. Actually, when I got the job, I was asking Scott Gimple if I could do a Southern adaption for Aaron because he was from the South. But he wanted me to stray away from that because there were enough characters already on the show who were doing Southern accents. But I did try to add just a little bit of what I envisioned Aaron to have in the character because, for me, everything starts with the voice. It doesn’t matter if you’re just doing a voice-over or you’re doing something onscreen. You really do have to start with the voice, and the physicality comes after.

So, that’s how I construct every character. I got to get his voice down first, after that and only after that do I start thinking about how he holds his body, how he moves through space.

A lot of fans are rooting for you to come back to Marvel in some capacity. Is that something you’re game for?

Oh, I’m definitely game. Of course, even if I was working on something, I could never admit it until well after the fact. But, yeah, as a huge Marvel fan myself, I love playing in that universe. I would love to continue playing in that universe for many years to come.

We’ll wrap things up with a fun question, which I also asked Lynn Collins, who plays Leah. If you had to pick three material items to bring with you to The Walking Dead world, weapons aside, what would they be?

I would have to bring a music-playing device of some kind that had unlimited battery life. That’s the most crucial. If I didn’t have music, I think I would lose my mind. After that, I would probably bring a really solid crowbar because crowbars are good for breaking into stuff and also killing people, so love that. The third item, I guess my favorite book. I love Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. So, I’d have to bring that too. I mean, the book probably isn’t as useful as the other two, but you need entertainment, right?

The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews. The series airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and is available to stream early on AMC+.