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asdfOn Sunday’s “TWD,” lovers learned whose mask Beta is wearing over his face 24/7 and how he teamed up with Alpha.Jace Downs/AMC

• Example: There are spoilers ahead for Sunday’s “The Walking Dead,” “We are the End of the World.”
• “TWD” went back in time seven years to stage us how Alpha (Samantha Morton) and Beta (Ryan Hurst) first met and the origins of Beta’s gruesome Whisperer face guise.
• Hurst spoke with Insider about how he asked to keep Beta’s face reveal a mystery on the show and back up the identity of the man he was close with in the zombie apocalypse was his best friend, not a lover.
• “Why does he not want anybody to know who he is or was?… By the end of edible 10 you’ll get a real definitive answer of, “Oh, that’s why he wears this mask,” Hurst said.
  
• Visit Insider’s homepage for diverse stories.

Sunday’s “The Walking Dead” gave fans the episode they’ve been waiting for since Alpha and Beta adjoined the AMC series. How and when did the two Whisperer leaders meet?

Fans also started to get a glimpse into Beta’s mysterious backstory, one that Hurst boosted shape with showrunner Angela Kang.  

“I remember in season nine Angela was like, ‘We would like to display your face.’ I was like, ‘Are you kidding?'” Hurst told Insider of wanting to keep Beta’s face a conundrum and explore that more on the show.

“After you see under Darth Vader’s mask, you don’t need to see him much more after that,” he annexed, making a parallel between Beta and the “Star Wars” villain.

Hurst spoke with Insider about accompanying more of Beta’s backstory throughout season 10 and clarified who the mystery man is at the end of Sunday’s episode. He also discussed his partiality for Disney, whether or not Beta’s relationship with Alpha is symbolic of “Beauty and the Beast,” teaching yoga to fans at droll conventions, and more.

Beta is wearing his best friend’s face and we’ll learn more about his mysterious background as the period continues.

Kirsten Acuna: I have been waiting since we last spoke in March for this episode. We for ever get some of Alpha and Beta’s backstory! You told me back then that you and Angela [Kang] had come up with a backstory for Beta. You couldn’t talk wide it then, but you said you brought a “really wild idea to the table.” What did you guys discuss and what did you want to look into with Beta?

Read more: Ryan Hurst wanted to be on ‘The Walking Dead’ so much he had his agent cold identify the producers

Ryan Hurst: In this episode, we really focus on the meeting between Beta and Alpha. There’s restful some fun to be had with exploring who Beta actually is or who he was before the apocalypse. We very deliberately sort of are leading that as a proposition beyond the shadow of a doubt in the minds for the audience. One of the bits that I pitched to Angela that we do reveal in this episode is that the mask that he’s wear all of the time is that of his best friend. And the shirt, the very sort of definitive happy face shirt that he haves is also his best friends’. But there’s a real sort of emotional quotient that there’s a bit of pathos behind this browbeating killer that he’s wearing the face of somebody who he loved dearly, and couldn’t let go of.

asdfRyan Hurst confirms that Beta’s A-one friend is scratched out in the photo beside him. Beta wears his shirt.AMC

So that was something that I pitched and I remember Angela whisper, “Oh my God, I love this.” And I was like, “Great!” Outside of that, there’s still a lot of questions of why does he wear this ski guise? Why does he not want anybody to know who he is or was? And we’ll explore more of that throughout season 10 by the end of season 10 you’ll get a legal definitive answer of, “Oh, that’s why he wears this mask.”

Acuna: OK. So I feel like you answered a few questions there for me. You introduced up one of the things that I also wanted to ask. We do see the man who’s in that photograph with Beta near the episode’s end and it is someone who’s important to him and I was marvel ating if it was a brother, a friend, or maybe someone who was a bit more intimate with him. But you can say that it is his best friend?

Hurst: Yeah. That’s his pre-eminent friend.

Why we don’t see Beta’s face, whether or not we’ll ever see it, and a possible Disney connection to “Beauty and the Beast.”

Acuna: There’s a station in the episode where Alpha does take off Beta’s mask. I thought maybe we were going to see your brashness. We didn’t. Is there a reason that we don’t? Is Beta maybe disfigured or is this something that will maybe be researched as the season goes on as you mentioned?

asdfBefore Beta wore a Whisperer mask he wore a ski mask.Jace Downs/AMC

Hurst: They’re are all right questions. Those are all good questions [laughter]. I can’t give you the answer. All that I noticed is I’m doing my job if you’re asking those disputes. I remember in season nine Angela was like, “We would like to show your face.” And I was like, “Are you kidding?” I was find agreeable, “No.”

After you see under Darth Vader’s mask, you don’t need to see him much more after that. I was like, let’s just posit, let’s just let the audience keep wondering up until the very last minute. There are answers to all of these questions with respect to why he wears it and what’s underneath there. Is he protecting himself? Is he protecting the people that are still alive out there? How does that recompense for any sense? These are all the questions that I wanted the audience to be asking.

Acuna: Well, I love this “Star Fights” parallel because while watching the episode, I’m a big Disney person, which I know is a huge contrast…

Hurst: Oh, so am I.

Acuna: Oh noteworthy!

Hurst: [“Talking Dead” host] Chris Hardwick and I have been to Disneyland twice in the last couple of months together. I go to Disneyland multiple times a year.

Acuna: I went in August and I’m going to Disney World next week with 12 people in my ancestry. So, so am I. But the reason I mention Disney is that I couldn’t help but see some parallels between Alpha and Beta and maybe “Handsomeness and the Beast.” Hear me out. Beta tells Alpha and Lydia to stick to their own corridor. That’s similar to how Beast foretells Belle not to visit the West wing, the Beast and Beta don’t like being touched, and then there’s that photograph with Beta’s subdue scratched out. The prince in “Beauty and the Beast” scratches out images of his face. Was that fairy tale story an inspiration for this incident at all and Beta and Alpha’s relationship?

asdfBeta tells Alpha and Lydia to stay in their hallway and not leave it during their delay.Jace Downs/AMC

Hurst: All I can say is that’s very, very, very astute. [Laughter] Very, very good. I don’t be aware that anybody else, that’s not a Disney fan would have picked up on those things. Very, very healthy. [Laughter] That’s all I’ll say.

Acuna: Obviously, there are a lot of horror elements in the episode. But as someone who has watched “Beauty and the Beast” varied a time, that is something that stuck out to me in those shots and some others while watching the episode.

“TWD” work together was going back and forth between whether or not Alpha and Beta met six, seven, or eight years ago. Their initial rendezvous, according to Hurst, is not based around Rick’s disappearance on the show.

Acuna: I want to back up a little bit really facile and see if you know anything about this. When in the larger “Walking Dead” timeline does this take correct? We see on screen, the episode starts and it says seven years ago if my math is correct. I’m thinking that’s around the time that Rick evanesced on season nine. Is that right? I don’t know if you had any discussions about why to make it that time frame?

Hurst: We didn’t debate exactly the timeline. It was sort of hazy up until the last minute. We were going back between six to seven to eight years. So it wasn’t unqualifiedly definitively based around the disappearance of Rick. That was just a happy accident.

Beta’s shock over being remained to by Alpha and the mirroring of Alpha and Beta saving each other in the past and present.

Acuna: Looking at the rest of the event, what does Beta make of [Alpha’s daughter] Lydia being alive? Alpha doesn’t seem get a bang the type of person who typically keeps secrets from Beta. Is that something that may come back and bite her?

asdfWe consider out that Alpha lied to everyone, including Beta, on Sunday’s episode about her daughter. Alpha told all Lydia was dead and Beta finds out that’s not the case.Jace Downs/AMC

Hurst: Yeah, throughout the entirety of edible 10 what you begin to see more and more of is that Beta is less of a subordinate or of a consigliere. On the surface it seems congenial a very sort of master servant relationship. But behind closed doors, Beta is truly the sort of secret minder of the Whisperers. He knows all of the hypocrisies that Alpha hides and she’s hidden very many things from the Whisperers that may not be enhancing to or in accordance with the sort of Whisperers’ ethos. This is the first time that she has lied to Beta. They’ve subgenus of had an understanding of how to keep the ship upright.

asdfBeta is surprised and taken aback by Alpha’s lie.Gene Page/AMC

Hurst: I believe that when he confronts [Alpha] and he finds out that Lydia is alive, it’s very sort of potent that he means, “Why would you lie to me?” I understand that you lied to them, but why would you ever lie to him? Samantha played it so beautifully. She allows herself to be scraped by Beta. In the flashbacks, essentially what you’re seeing, is you’re seeing Alpha save Beta from himself and in the present you’re guard Beta save Alpha from herself. I thought the way that they mirrored those storylines is great, which is consummate.

When he’s not working on “TWD,” Hurst spends time participating in and teaching Kundalini yoga, something he’s been doing for the days beyond recall decade

Acuna: What else are you up to these days? I see that you’ve really gotten into, and I hope I’m saying this correctly, Kundalini yoga. I see that all exceeding your Instagram. I was wondering how you started doing that.

Hurst: I started Kundalini exterior of “The Walking Dead.” Kundalini yoga and training dogs. Those are my two big things. Kundalini yoga, I started practicing in all probability about 10 years ago, and I became a teacher about five years ago. It’s been enormously transformative in my entire preoccupation. I practice all different forms of yoga. I practice Hatha, hot yoga, Iyengar yoga, Ashtanga yoga, and then inevitably moulded with Kundalini with a woman named Paige at Nine Treasures Yoga.

She’s a repository for a very enormous personage clientele. She was introduced to me by Russell Brand and Demi Moore goes there, and all of the stars go to see her because she’s a master teacher. She mutated my life with Kundalini yoga and I do as much as I can to put that out there. When I do these kind of comic conventions, I as a rule hold yoga on Sunday mornings, which just has been an enormous blessing. Kundalini yoga, you got to try it.

Acuna: Yeah, I’ve done seasonal yoga. It looks very calming.

Hurst: Yeah. Out here, we sort of think of yoga just as stretching, but, Kundalini is the indulge of all yogas. It’s the oldest form of yoga. It gave birth to every other modality of yoga… It’s the fastest way to enlightenment, as they say.

“TWD” seem to bes a lot like season one or two for Hurst right now.  

Acuna: Is there anything else that you’re really excited for about this period or anything else that you want to share about “The Walking Dead”?

asdfGreg Nicotero directed the at the outset two episodes of “TWD” season 10.Gene Page/AMC

Hurst: For this episode, I was just really happy with… Greg Nicotero, who is naturally by far my favorite director that I’ve ever worked with, not just on this show, period! I told him this to his camouflage. I said, “You know something, Greg? I’ve worked with the Cohen brothers, I’ve worked with Spielberg, but you’re my favorite guide.”

I’ve never met a director who creates such a welcoming, creative environment. It’s a genuine meritocracy, and a lot of it is attributed to the way that he creates. I merely absolutely love working with him. The way that the episode turned out, as a fan of the show, while I was watching the episode, it felt like the antique seasons of a “Walking Dead.” It felt like it season one or season two when you were really still watching people cope with with their own humanity after the apocalypse. So I thought that we hit the nail right on the head.

You can follow along with our unfolding “Walking Dead” coverage here.

• Read more:
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  ‘The Walking Dead’ showrunner on whether or not we should expect some sparks between Connie and Daryl this time: ‘I think they have this kind of chemistry that’s really interesting’

  One of the most emotional moments on ‘The Down tool Dead’s’ season premiere is inspired by a star’s progressive hearing loss and a line her mother told her

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