‘The Strain’ Star Miguel Gomez Talks Gus’ Motivations, Dealing with Vampires and More

Miguel Gomez plays Augustin ‘Gus’ Elizade, the hot-headed lone wolf with a heart of gold, in FX’s hit series The Strain. Fans have seen him work to survive the vampire apocalypse at any cost throughout the show’s first season and should only expect him to become more involved in the action during its second season.

Gus has proven that he’s a survivor, being the only one among his family and friends that have lived though the infection so far, and even going as far as working with a certain group of vampires to ensure his safety.

Miguel recently took some time out to talk to reporters about what we should expect from Gus for the rest of the season, including whether or not he’ll keep working with/for the Ancients, what the real motivations behind his actions are, and more.

A few episodes back, Gus was kidnapped by Vaun, a Sun Hunter and protector of the Ancients. He was help Vaun’s crew of Sun Hunters take down Palmer, but when the mission went bad, everyone was lost except Gus. Since then, fans have been wondering what will become of the Ancients and whether or not Gus will feel any sort of responsibility to them now that their caretakers are dead. Well fans, that answer is no. “They kidnapped Gus. Gus has no loyalty to these monsters. These are just people that have taken him, and they’re holding him, and they’re basically forcing him into working for them. So, there’s no loyalty to them,” said Gomez. “He wants to get away as quick as possible. He doesn’t want to be anywhere near these monsters, and especially after seeing what they did to this innocent man, the Ancients——they basically tore him apart. The good that came from it was that he got some really good training, and I think he’s really equipped now to fight these vampires, and he learned a new way to actually kill them, and he knows how to fight, and he knows how to engage in combat with these monsters. So, yes, he definitely learned the skills. But I think his thing was he needed to get away from them as soon as possible.”

Gus is a human who has seemingly been pulled onto the front lines of human v. strigoi battle for a specific reason, and Gomez admits that even Gus doesn’t know why he’s so special yet.

“I think Gus is really just stumbling through everything trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m just as confused as you are about what [the vampires] want from Gus, you know? But, yes, for some reason they keep seeking him out and I think he’s completely confused about it too. He’s just trying to do his best with the circumstances that he’s in.”

Gus may not know what the vamps want him for, but he’s crystal clear on his own personal goals. “I think he wants redemption,” said Gomez about what fans can expect from Gus for the rest of the season. “He wants revenge for what happened to his family, to his mom, his brother, and his best friend. And whoever’s going to help him get that revenge, he’s going to ride with, he’s going to be down with.” I don’t know about you, but I’d totally be down for some Gus/ Fet/ Setrakian strigoi-killing!

Finally, while the show is extremely dark, that doesn’t keep the cast from making fun memories onset. So who has Miguel been making his funniest memories with? “Joaquin Cosio, who plays The Silver Angel, and Parveen Kaur, who plays Aanya Gupta,” he revealed. “Working with them every day, we have so much fun. We laugh all the time. And just sometimes in between takes we’d be freezing because we shoot in Toronto, so it’s like frostbite weather. So, we’re freezing but in the midst of all that we’re still enjoying each other and having fun.”

Keep up with how Gus manages to stay alive each week on The Strain, airing Sundays at 10pm on FX.

Photo Credit: FX