He got so weary of Fear the Walking Dead that he fled to Berlin for two years. Now he’s is back in a riveting role as a street kid robber and jailbird. The young star talks nepo babies – and playing posh white
W
hen some enterprising director gets around to making Pete Doherty: The Movie, Frank Dillane won’t need to audition. With his black leather jacket, bed-head and baby face, this could be the youthful Libertines frontman seated before me next to a potted plant in an east London cafe. Unlike the young Doherty, however, the actor’s drug of choice is a flat white. And he isn’t hell-bent on sabotaging his career. Not any more.
After playing the haunted, drug-addicted Nick Clark in four seasons of the zombie TV spin-off Fear the Walking Dead, Dillane, now 34, fled to Berlin for two years and turned his back on fame. A glance at some of the video interviews he did to promote the show is enough to explain why: he looks at best fidgety, at worst bored and resentful.
“Nick was a junkie, and my work on the show was all about understanding him,” he says, toying with the three gold rings on his right hand. “Then I’d be asked all these questions that trivialised what I’d done.” Behind the scenes, there were stern words about his behaviour. “I was told to talk differently, dress differently, attend media training.” Did he? “No. I was a young, bloody-minded artist!” Eyes crinkling, he gives a wheezy laugh. His Artful Dodger charm could disarm a warmonger.
