FanX17: That time when I asked Khary Payton for Walking Dead spoilers

One of my favorite interviews from FanX17 was with actor Khary Payton, who is best known for his current role as King Ezekiel on AMC's hit show "The Walking Dead" and for his voice work as Cyborg in the "Teen Titans" animated series.

It was a good-natured and light-hearted chat that Khary and I had for my alotted three minutes, and I knew, if nothing else, that I'd at least have to try to get some "Walking Dead" dirt out of him. I watched about two and a half seasons of the zombie drama but, with the show now in its seventh *rubs eyes* seventh season, I was hoping he'd help catch me up quickly. Here's how that panned out:

Signs of the Times: All right, Khary, tell me this – Ok, I’ve watched a little bit of “The Walking Dead,” but I’m a little bit behind… so I need you to tell me a little bit about your character [King Ezekiel] and convince me to catch up.

Khary Payton: “Convince you to catch up? I’m not gonna convince you to catch up! You catch up if you want to! I’m fine. I’m just fine, man, you know? If you… if you don’t want to watch the show, that’s fine, but there are tigers…”

SotT: All right…

KP: “There are dreadlocks, you know? And there are walking Walkers, and all kinds of human intrigue. You should know this by now!”

SotT: I know, I know…

KP: “You should know this by now!”

SotT: I need more time to watch shows!

KP: “I totally get it. I totally get it.”

SotT: So… do you ever kill anybody on the show?

KP: “[Scoffs] You know, you’re just going to have to tune in. You’re not getting that! You’re not getting the Cliff Notes from me, dude. [Laughs] I’ve been keeping secrets way too long. I can keep them from you! I can keep them from you. But you know what? Fifteen million people can’t be wrong.”

SotT: I got caught up with some other stuff. I need to catch up.

KP: “Exactly! Exactly! These things happen!”

SotT: When did you get into acting? Was that something you always wanted to do?

KP: “Yeah. Since I was a kid, I was dabbling in it. I don’t know. … I got kinda serious about it in high school and decided that I would try to pursue it. I was from a small town in Georgia and everybody said, ‘Ah, Khary, you’re gonna do really great,’ but I didn’t want to be one of those people who goes on ‘American Idol’ and nobody told them they couldn’t sing, you know? So I auditioned for a bunch of theater schools, and I was like, ‘If I can get into these schools, then that means, ok, that I’m not [deceiving] myself and I should try this as a profession. And I got into all of them, took the one that gave me the biggest scholarship and I’ve been studying and following my passion ever since, which is to get to tell a great story."

SotT: All right. Have you ever been to Utah before?

KP: “Yeah, I came here about nine years ago. I shot a really funny, really crass movie called The Legend of Awesomest Maximus. It’s hilarious, but it’s not something you would watch with your mom. It’s like a National Lampoon’s kind of thing – like a spoof of 300 – but yeah, yeah. I was here for a while. I’ve come to find that Salt Lake City [has gotten] new restaurants and new places to go, so explore a little more.”

SotT: Yeah, we’ve got some March Madness going on this weekend. It’s a great weekend to be here. It’s great weather – it’s not snowing.

KP: “Oh yeah! You know what? Great weather tends to follow me around. I was just in London and it was pretty good, too.”

SotT: You have to keep coming back, then.

KP: “That’s what I’m saying. Yeah, exactly. Well, if I want snow, then you’re gonna be in trouble because I want to go up to Park City and get my snow on.”