‘The Walking Dead’ Cast Was So Traumatized by Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Debut, Some of Them Did an Extreme Thing to Avoid Him
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan is known to be one of the greatest villains in TV series' history.
- The actor recalled that he was given Negan's introduction monologue two days before they started filming.
- Dean Morgan said he had a lot of fun playing Negan on The Walking Dead.
Regarded as the flagship series for AMC, The Walking Dead, starring Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, and more, the post-apocalyptic horror drama, is one of the most successful and popular series. Based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard, the show’s success ventured into The Walking Dead franchise.
The Walking Dead concluded after eleven long seasons. The series, after the third season premiered, started to garner a larger audience, who’d watch a group of people survive a zombie apocalypse. The group’s trying to stay alive in dire circumstances with the threat of walkers getting to them always looming over their heads. The show finally received its’ due credit after season three, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s debut on the show had the most chilling response from the co-stars.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan describes Negan’s controversial introduction on The Walking Dead as ‘a little bit tense’
Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan portrayed one of the greatest villains on The Walking Dead, Negan, who was introduced in the season six finale. He, in comparison to the Governor, was not only bold but also smart, as he knew the game’s tricks and understood how to stay one step ahead of the other side. Negan, upon his introduction to the show, ends up killing Glenn, played by Steven Yeun, in the most gruesome manner.
Glenn had been on the show since day one and had grown to be one of the fan favorites. His death was known to have affected the audience the most because no one saw it coming. During an interview with Variety, Dean Morgan was asked about the chilling ending scene of season six, which he described as ‘a little bit tense.’ He added that it happened fast, noting that he only got Negan’s stuff to prepare, and for obvious reasons, the show’s cast was agitated.
For me, it was about learning a monologue and trying to portray a character that I haven’t gotten to play a whole lot in my career. I was just trying to find that groove as Negan; I only had two days to do it, and that’s a hell of an introduction for somebody to just come in and do.
The actor continued that it was emotional for the entire cast and mentioned that a couple of them didn’t make eye contact with him until the end of the second night. He mentioned that people on set were emotional.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan further mentioned that the death of the person [Glenn] was going to kick off Season 7, which is going to be a big part of who is on the receiving end of Lucille.
In another interview, the actor mentioned that his controversial entrance to the show was a life-changing experience, adding he still gets shit for it. The reason is killing Glenn in ways that no one expected, and often the episode is cited as the one that drives viewers away from the series. [via BI]
Jeffrey Dean Morgan on his preparation for Negan
The actor shared with Variety that he had been aware of his character from the book, as he was a fan of the show as well as the comic books. Upon asking how he approached his character on the show, especially for that one last scene in the season six finale, he mentioned,
I think the tone of Negan came in discussions with Scott [M. Gimple], but mostly it came from seeing the panels of the graphic novel—Negan’s grin and attitude; that’s the skeleton for my character, those pages.
Dean Morgan noted that people describe his character as a ‘psychotic guy,’ but in fact, he feels that Negan and Rick Grimes have a lot of similarities.
He mentioned that Negan has a very parallel storyline, and if people knew his story from day one, they’d probably root for him instead of being annoyed by him.
He’s got something that people want to follow; a little bit of that is fear, a little bit of that is charisma, and a little bit of that is a sense of humor, and trying to mash all of that together in one character, in one monologue.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan lastly added that he had fun playing Negan, the bad guy, adding that he was maybe one of the most well-rounded villains that the audience is going to see on-screen in a long time. He had fun portraying him as much as the writers had fun writing him.
The Walking Dead is available to stream on Netflix.
