Daybreak’s Colin Ford On That Slut-Shaming Scene & Season 2 Dreams

“He found her. But he didn’t get to take her back home to Montrose,” Colin Ford sighs over a Skype call in between filming his top-secret new project. The “he” Ford is telling Refinery29 about his Daybreak leading man Josh Wheeler, a Glendale, CA teen who survives the apocalypse. The “her” is Josh’s love interest Samira “Sam” Dean, played by Sophie Simnett. Over their Netflix show’s recently released first season, Josh spends the end of the world desperate to find Sam and settle down with her in a nice Craftsman-style home in the California valley of Montrose. 

Then, as we learn in season 1 finale “FWASH-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!,” Josh loses Sam. The homecoming queen chooses the life of apocalypse royalty over a quiet eternity with Josh. It’s a scene that brings together the most important moment in Josh and Sam’s relationship — which is unraveled in eighth episode “Post Mates” — and the future of Daybreak (Netflix has yet to renew the teen action dramedy for a second season). 

One of the main reasons Sam rejects Josh is because he is so earnest that he sometimes can’t see Sam for the person she really is. It is a problem that flairs up as Sam takes her Daybreak crown. It was a problem in “Post Mates,” when Josh and Sam have sex for the first time. Josh mistakenly assumes the hookup is also Sam’s first sexual experience. It is not — and emotional chaos ensues. The teenage romantic mayhem ends with Josh calling Sam a slut in a panicky meltdown worsened by the news that Josh’s dad had just died. 

“It’s definitely a moment of his own insecurity just attacking his insides,” Ford, an alum of 15 season-series Supernatural, explains. “He doesn’t know how to respond other than putting someone else down.” 

Since that tense encounter is the lynchpin of Josh and Sam’s relationship, we had to ask Ford more about it. Keep reading to find out all the best secrets behind filming “Post Mates,” whether Josh regrets slut-shaming Sam, and what all of these feelings mean for a prospective season 2. The Cheesecake Factory is more involved than you think. 

Colin Ford: “I honestly wasn’t. We were receiving the episodes while we were filming. I think the producers kind of held off on those last couple scripts until closer to the time we were going to be shooting. It added to the shock on our faces. 

“Reading those scripts for the first time, it definitely was a shock factor. I, in the back of my head, always thought Josh would find Sam. But things are not always the way they seem in the apocalypse.”

“It sets up this battle or a larger conversation to be had between two major tribes. That is the Daybreakers, formed behind Josh, and, I guess, the Jocks. There’s definitely some hurt. There’s definitely going to be some reconciliation that has to happen for Josh.”

“I’ve read it a bunch of different ways. Sam is closing the door on a relationship with Josh. But not only is she closing the door on the relationship — she essentially invites Josh to join her. I think with the rejection of the offer to join her, there is an opportunity for some sort of competitiveness between Josh and Sam.”

“We learn a little bit about Josh and his naïveté and his hope for his first time with Sam. We see that while this was really big for Josh in his head — he put a lot of weight behind this — it wasn’t something that carried that sort of weight for Sam."

“I think that it’s out of an insecurity. I don’t think Josh really feels that way. I think that he’s just hurt. He just wants to say something that he knows will directly affect or hurt Sam. I don’t think that he means it. 

“He’s insecure about the lack of intimate times that he’s had. His zero sex count in comparison to the fact that Sam has had a couple partners? That makes him uncomfortable. What’s the one thing you can shame somebody for? That’s, I guess, how many people they’ve slept with. That’s the ammo he picks out of his back pocket in that moment.”  

“Even though Josh thought he was doing something right, he was actually hindering his relationship with Sam. it opens up the idea that there should be a dialogue so people don’t end up in a position where [their relationship] is chalked up to a giant miscommunication. Because at the end of the day, Josh’s heart is pure and his intentions are pure. He just wants to love Sam. But he’s not going about it the way Sam would like him to.”

“Obviously Sophie and I know the words on the page are the words on the page and that’s as far as the weight that it’ll carry. We had spent a lot of time with each other and we had gotten really comfortable with each other. Obviously we never want to — actually I won’t speak for her — I never want to yell at Sophie.”

“Okay one thing that’s really similar about Josh and me is that I’m a really picky eater. So doing the food stuff on the couch was really, really funny. Because some of those things I was trying I had actually never eaten before. So I was genuinely trying new foods for the first time.

[The cheesecake part] was a running joke because the apartment that I lived at in Albuquerque is across the street from the Cheesecake Factory. After work, five days a week, I would go pick up a piece of cheesecake, or an appetizer, or a meal from the Cheesecake Factory on my way home. Like the line, ‘There’s something for everyone’ is something that I said on set in defense of the Cheesecake Factory."

What is your favorite thing at the Cheesecake Factory? 

“Oh man! They have so many good things. I have to say, they have a truffle honey chicken that’s really good there. They also do a pretty good grilled pork chop with mashed potatoes. Oh man. I’ve had a good amount of things on that menu. And if you’ve been there, there’s a lot of things on that menu. It’s like a textbook!”

I just want Josh to continue thriving in the apocalypse. In the coming years, I would love to be involved in as many ways possible. I would love to direct, anything. To have a similar run as Supernatural would just be a dream come true." 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.