Recently, AMC and AMC+ premiered the third episode of Tales of the Walking Dead, “Dee,” which gave a new glimpse into the story of Alpha, played by Samantha Morton, when she was still Dee, before she joined the Whisperers.

Morton, who talked to SciFi Vision in an exclusive interview, does not consider Alpha to be evil on the television series. “I think that when you're making a television show,” she explained, “you always have to have an angle: the protagonist or the goodies or whatever, who’s the villain, who's the baddie, but it depends on the perspective that you're shooting it from…So, I think for Alpha, all of the things she did, she's at war; they're justified…War in the apocalypse, which was the Whisperer War, it’s complicated. I think it's not as simple as it may seem, however, she really was and is a comic book villain. There's definitely a egging up of that side of her for the purpose of entertainment and for the purpose of the show.”

“I think for the origin story, and to play Dee,” Morton continued, “You have a sense of trying to understand little subtleties of what may have triggered something in her to behave the way she behaves, or to have the ability to do what she does and did.”

The actress also talked about how we really still don’t know why she did things she did, like kill her father and husband, and the flashbacks we’ve seen previously on the flagship series were from Lydia (Cassady McClincy)’s point of view. “I think here you have a single mom, who is a survivor,” Morton told the site, “a survivor of sexual abuse [and] marital abuse, and maybe it was something to do with Lydia that she's protecting Lydia from. We don't know…Lydia's memories are slightly disturbed because of PTSD and trauma and all of those things.”

Morton doesn’t have a hard time getting to the dark side of Alpha. “I think, with Alpha, it was something that the minute I kind of put the jeans on and the jacket and the makeup and the smell - I had a special perfume - I was like, ‘Okay, I'm here.’ And once I'm on a job, I'm kind of there. It's not something that is hard to get back into each day. It's just kind of with me.”

For more, read the full transcript below and be sure to check out the episodes weekly on AMC and AMC+. Also, check back soon for more from Morton in our interview for The Serpent Queen.

SCIFI VISION:  I want first to talk about sort of, I guess, Alpha on a whole in the sense that we don't really still get particulars of exactly why she killed her husband, why she killed her father, other than, you know, she said she had to. We know she can be evil, but she seems to love Lydia, at least up to a certain point. So, when do you feel like she sort of, I guess, changed and became more “evil”? Do you feel like there was a point? How do you kind of approach that from the standpoint of creating your version of her?

SAMANTHA MORTON:   Okay, lots of questions. I think, first, I do not believe that Alpha is evil. I think that when you're making a television show, you always have to have an angle: the protagonist or the goodies or whatever, you know, who’s the villain, who's the baddie, but it depends on the perspective that you're shooting it from…So, I think for Alpha, all of the things she did, she's at war; they're justified. I think that, obviously, there are rules of war. There are rules of combat, which seem absolutely utterly ridiculous. You know, is it illegal what's happening at the moment with Russia and Ukraine? There're so many complications with war. War in the apocalypse, which was the Whisperer War, it’s complicated. I think it's not as simple as it may seem, however, she really was and is a comic book villain. There's definitely a egging up of that side of her for the purpose of entertainment and for the purpose of the show.

I think for the origin story, and to play Dee, you have a sense of trying to understand little subtleties of what may have triggered something in her to behave the way she behaves, or to have the ability to do what she does and did.

I often think about that time in the basement. I think that maybe there were things that Frank had done in the past, that therefore that time in the basement, and the condensedness - and we all know now. We've all been through a global pandemic, and we all know how it feels. Some people have been in small apartments for a very long time, unable to talk to anybody else, unable to go out for walks; they don't have animals for comfort. I mean, it's been a really tough time. So, I think people can look back at the show and go, “Gosh,” and see it through fresh eyes almost. There's the storyline with her dad, which again, is something that's very complex and very dark. So, I think here you have a single mom, who is a survivor, a survivor of sexual abuse [and] marital abuse, and maybe it was something to do with Lydia that she's protecting Lydia from. We don't know.

Yeah, I kind of got the opinion that she maybe had reasons, but they don't actually say.

Yeah, you don't go around just killing people willy nilly, because you’re a little bit strange; otherwise, she's just a psycho.

A lot of times as a performer, I know that they kind of give you pieces that maybe the audience doesn't get, or you have to make up things in your head kind of like you're talking about; we don't know everything. Was there ever anything though that they told you or that you kind of just assumed that never - or at least at the beginning - didn't make it into it the show, that was just kind of like your part of your process?

I think you're right; there's a lot of stuff that I had imagined about the Whisperers that obviously weren't true, and conversations that were had. This is because the beauty of entertainment and the beauty of this world is that Channing Powell, who's an absolutely incredible writer who wrote a lot of The Walking Dead, who wrote this [episiode], is a show runner on Tales, she's got her version of events [which she] then shared with me. I have to go “Okay,” and try and understand that a little better. I have to make up a lot when I'm performing. There often isn't time in many different shows for backstory, so it's my responsibility to give my characters history, relationship histories, family histories. Do they have allergies? What food do they like? What music do they like? You know, how do they walk, talk, breathe, think, feel? That's my job. That's why I’m hired, but sometimes, on a show like this, it's very important to know the beats and kind of piece things together. So, yeah, it's not always easy.

You did have to inhabit her though, and she did get obviously do some not good things. How do you kind of, I guess, get into that dark place, and how did you get out of it? This episode, granted, she isn't quite as dark.

I think, with Alpha, it was something that the minute I kind of put the jeans on and the jacket and the makeup and the smell - I had a special perfume - I was like, “Okay, I'm here.” And once I'm on a job, I'm kind of there. It's not something that is hard to get back into each day. It's just kind of with me. It's like, somebody on my shoulder is like, “Okay, here we go. I’m back in that again.”

For Dee, Dee was slightly different, because I've not played Dee before. The flashback episode in season nine [of The Walking Dead], they're Lydia's flashbacks; they're not mine. Lydia's memories are slightly disturbed because of PTSD and trauma and all of those things. So, that was really complex, and I enjoyed the challenge of finding Dee.

We have time for one more question, so let me ask you, how has your life changed since you started on this show?

Oh, my gosh, well, we've had a pandemic.

Yeah, there's that.

…I think that everybody's changed since then. I think that it's been a few years, and I'm a little bit older. I hope we're all a little bit wiser, but, yeah, everything's great, thank you. I’m a very lucky bunny.

But, I guess, from a fandom perspective,  how has it changed? Because, obviously, people know you from this specifically. How has that kind of affected your life, in that sense?

Oh, well, I think a lot of people know my work anyway through various shows on TV, whether it's Harlots, or in the UK, something called A Band of Gold I did when I was a child, or to movies that I’m in, performances I've given. So, that hasn't changed as an actress, but what's been really lovely is being involved in a show where there is such interest in the stories and the characters. I feel really honored to be part of that and have the dialogue I'm having with you today and your colleagues. Fans are incredibly kind. They love the show, and that's a really great feeling, when people love what you do and love what you're part of.