Malcolm Goodwin Interview on ‘iZombie’ and Playing a Rookie Detective

Malcolm Goodwin Interview iZombie Season 1
Malcolm Goodwin from ‘iZombie’ at WonderCon (Photo by Richard Chavez)

Will police detective Clive Babineaux ever figure out a zombie is helping him solve murders by eating the brains of murder victims? iZombie‘s Malcolm Goodwin says he doesn’t think his character is going to put two and two together and come up with zombie as the answer anytime soon.

“I don’t think he’ll ever figure out she’s a zombie. I think he’s reserved the fact of she’s emo goth. When I first got the role I googled emo because I didn’t know what that was. I knew what goth was but I didn’t know what emo was. So I gave a google search on emo and I’m like, ‘That’s Liv,'” said Goodwin. “He thinks he pegged her. ‘That’s your fashion. Emo punk, to each his own. That’s fine.’ In terms of the zombie thing, unless he smells brains on her breath or something…but I don’t think he knows what brains smell like and she covers it up with hot sauce. I don’t think he’ll ever figure out the zombie aspect.”

At the 2015 WonderCon, Goodwin said part of the attraction of playing Clive is getting to play a detective who’s inexperienced and who gets to grow each episode. “There’s been a lot of procedural shows where you have a detective who has it all figured out. He’s been on the force for so long. But we get to watch this guy make mistakes, be naive, and insecure. He’s kind of the odd man out at the police station, so I think the most fun has been balancing him growing and maturing and getting comfortable as a detective.”

Like the audience, Goodwin says he’s learning more about his character each week as he wasn’t given that much backstory to work off of when he took on the role.

“All I knew is that they told me they wanted a vibe of like Cleavon Little and like Shaft, you know? So it was more of a vibe and less about his background. I knew he was a rookie and that’s what I really sunk my teeth into. I was on this show called Breakout Kings on A&E and so when I was on that I watched a lot of A&E shows. I watched a lot of First 48. On First 48 you can see so many rookie detectives, so I re-watched that show. Everyone, their first day on the job they make their mistakes and have a learning curve. I think just playing with that. But episode four you do find out a little bit about his backstory, what led to him being a detective, and you get to watch his and Liv’s relationship grow,” said Goodwin.

– More iZombie interviews: Rose McIver / Robert Buckley / Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright / David Anders

Watch the full interview with Malcolm Goodwin on his character’s relationship with Liv (played by Rose McIver), why his character believes in psychics, and working with Rob Thomas: