Last week Syfy premiered their new series Z Nation, and it was met with success. Over 1.6 million people watched the premiere, making it Syfy's highest rated acquired scripted series debut since Doctor Who in 2006.

The show follows a ragtag group of survivors of the zombie apocalypse, three years after the virus started spreading. The only man to survive having being bitten (Keith Allan) may hold the key to saving the human race, and it's up to them to get him from New York to a lab in California for the hope of a vaccine.

Michael Welch (The Twilight Saga), who plays the character of Mack on the show, recently sat down with Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision for an exclusive interview.

Welch worked with The Asylum, the production company of Z Nation, before, and they asked him to work on the series. "I did a film with The Asylum a few years ago called Born Bad, and it ended up doing pretty well for them; it came out great. So I'm a big fan of that movie. I always kept in touch with those guys. They would invite me to events and things over the years, and every time I saw them we always said, "We've got to work together again; we have to find a project."

"And eventually, very much kind of the last minute, I got a call from the casting director of The Asylum out of Los Angeles, and he said, "Listen, Mike, we're doing this zombie show; we'd love to have you.""

After reading the script, the actor knew right away that he wanted the part. "So I took a look at the script, and I loved it, and I knew that if I didn't do it, if I chose not to for whatever reason, I was going to regret it. If I saw somebody else in that role, it was going to make me very angry.

"So I knew it was something I had to be a part of, and I'm really glad that they could picture me in that role and trust what I was going to bring to the table.

"And then, I got the approval through all the proper channels, and they flew me up to Washington, and I started working on the show. It was pretty quick too; it was like within two weeks that I got that first phone call and my first day filming."

Part of what drew Welch to the part is kind of show Z Nation was and the potential it had. "First of all, I'm a big fan of zombies in general, of zombie shows. It's not zombies specifically that I'm a fan of, but I am a fan of any story that kind of rips away our basic social and societal constructs and really gets down to human beings at their core, and who we really are and what we're made of. And zombies are just a good way to get to that world.

"So right off the bat I was drawn by that. And I just felt that it had a lot of potential. I felt the characters were really well written; I thought that the take on it was unique.

"It seemed to bring some fun to the table and some comedy, which I think even in an apocalypse, I don't think comedy would just die. I think human beings need that on some level. In our show there ends up being a lot of what we refer to as homicide detectives' gallows humor, where you just get so used to these crazy, awful situations day in and day out. At a certain point there's going to be some humor infused into that world, so I was a big fan of that.

"And more than anything else, I just thought it was really cool. I thought that the story that they set up for the first season was interesting, and I thought that the character of Mack had a lot of potential as well. I saw right off the bat kind of what I wanted to do with it."

The actor talked about some of his Mack's backstory and creating the character. "Mack's someone who was an athlete in college when this whole thing broke out. He was a hockey player - you know, very strong, very smart, very capable. And Mack to me has that athlete's clutch gene. Like in situations of high pressure, when other people's blood pressure and heart rate would rise, his seem to drop, and he seems to be able see things, like things move more slowly to him so he has time to really assess the situation and react accordingly. So I think genetically he was just built for the apocalypse.

"And listen, I think people are going to come up with their own interpretations of all of these characters, but to me, the real key of why he was able to not only survive, but also thrive in this world and still kind of maintain some sense of his humanity, and ultimately, he's still a really good person, is that in a way, this new world kind of revealed to Mack who he really was all along. I get the sense that before this all broke out was a guy who was probably pretty arrogant and pretty cocky, and probably pretty selfish, and now he's become this like selfless guy with purpose in this life. I don't think he necessarily had aim or purpose before. So in some strange, weird, messed up way, I think deep down - and I don't even think Mack would admit this to himself, let alone anyone else - he might even be a little bit grateful that this thing happened. So now he has this selfless life with purpose, and I think there's something really Zen to being on that high alert all the time, if you're able to handle it.

"I think most people would snap and go crazy, but I think for a guy like Mack, he's kind of become like a Zen Master throughout the course of this, I mean, obviously a very violent Zen Master, but you know, he's a man of few words. He's someone who's very controlled, but at the same time when it comes to protecting his girl (Anastasia Baranova), I think he just turns into a gorilla.

"I think it's funny, because I really wanted to create a very controlled, simple, subtle character in pretty much every single way, like I said, except when it came to protecting Addy. And then of course the whole season kind of becomes about protecting Addy. So really, I'm just a gorilla the whole time, but it's just sort of what it evolved into.

"And that's the other thing; Mack's entire identity is really wrapped up in this girl Addy. They met on the first night of the apocalypse. She was an art student; he was an athlete, and under no other circumstances would they have been together, but they sort of kind of escaped together on that first night, and then they've just been together ever since."

Welch had a unique way of preparing for the part of Mack. "Before, I've taken inspiration from certain animals or certain people or whatever. But for me, the main thing I did with Mack, is I looked at images. I felt that that really helped me. I printed out a bunch of images of kind of Mack's journey of how he was shaped into the man he is today. So it started out with mostly images just of statues, different types of statues. It started out as kind of who he was, and then the process of him sort of breaking down, and then statues that were kind of deteriorating and ones without a face, and like losing a sense of identity, and then of course the process of him rebuilding. I know it sounds weird, but essentially it was a series of statues that kind of embodied Mack's journey from where he was before, what he went through to get to where he is, and where he is now."

The actor didn't get much training for the show, but he did work on some stunts and also how to hold a gun correctly. "I did quite a bit of fighting throughout this first season. There really wasn't any training; I mean, there wasn't a ton of time. Some of the things I did, I went to a shooting range before working on the show, just so I could look like I knew how to handle a gun, because I'm not one who shoots regularly in my life. Nothing's more annoying than watching actors not hold guns properly.

"And we have a really, really amazing stunt coordinator who's just been great. Then sometimes on the heavier action episodes, he brings in additional help, and one of the guys he brought in was one of the top guys in the world, who worked on a lot of great movies that we all know and love.

"So no, there wasn't like any boot camp or anything that we went to. We've just been doing it on the fly, and I think for the most part it's going to come out great."

The gun is Mack's weapon of choice. "Mack is not flashy, he wants to get right to the point, so for the most part he's just using a gun, unless it's hand-to-hand combat."

In the series, Welch deals a lot with blood and other makeup and practical effects. "They have to create these little zombie heads that are just filled with blood. Then there are those sequences where we're just bashing in these heads. Sometimes if it's like a close-up on our face and we're bashing the zombie, there will just be a makeup person sitting right off camera spraying me with blood as you continue to hit.

"So there's lots of blood on the show, lots of gore. It's a very action-packed show. Really, I think that's going to be the main thing that differentiates this show from other shows in the past; it just doesn't stop. It's just we really keep it moving. So yeah, there's definitely a lot of blood."

The actor talked a bit about one of his favorite episodes that he got to work on. "There was one episode we did that was mostly just Mack. I was in every scene, and I've never done anything like that before. I mean, I've been acting since I was a little kid, but that was one challenge that had not presented itself until very recently, to be able to pretty much carry a whole story by myself with a couple of other actors. It was really cool; it was a unique experience. It was challenging; it was fun. It was a grueling filming schedule, but I loved it, and it was really a dream come true.

"And there was one day, where after a day of filming, Anastasia looked at me, and she goes, "Hey Mike, you realize you just went through the full gambit of human experience in one day?" And then I thought about it and was like, "That's crazy." You know, a lot of actors go a whole lifetime without getting an opportunity like that. And for me to get that opportunity at still such a young age, I mean, it was incredible, and I love it. I really love working on the show. It really was like probably the best summer of my life."

Would Welch survive a real zombie apocalypse? "No, I would not do well. I know enough about myself to know I wouldn't last a week; I'm just too used to the conveniences of my life to be able to put up with the apocalypse for a second; it's just not for me. I mean, any role that any actor plays, there's going to be some element of that that exists somewhere inside that actor. I mean, you could say that for all of humanity. But Michael Welch would not survive the apocalypse; there's just no way."

You can catch Michael Welch on Z Nation on Friday nights on Syfy.