Tom Payne is swapping zombies for serial killers — and losing his signature long hair and beard in the process! You might not recognize the actor without the look he rocked in "The Walking Dead," but Tom's much more clean-cut for his role in Fox's hit show, "Prodigal Son."

Tom says he and his fiancé both cried when he had his locks chopped off. "We both really liked the look," he says. "There's years of growth and emotions in that hair. And it gets cut off and you're like, 'I'm really metamorphosing into something else. I'm emerging,'" he says with a laugh.

Tom plays Malcolm Bright, the titular prodigal son — his father (played by Michael Sheen) is a notorious serial killer, and Malcolm is a criminal psychologist. As if that dynamic isn't complicated enough, there have been a series of very similar murders, so Malcolm is forced to reconnect with his father after over a decade, in an attempt to gain any insight that could help the NYPD catch the copycat killer.

"The show is my character investigating crimes, but each crime brings him closer to an understanding of himself and his father," Tom says. "He's trying to get to the bottom of who he is."

RELATED: Actress Lauren Cohan Actually Gave Someone Her Wallet To Get To An Audition