Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan Speaks On Playing Negan
Entertainment Weekly just published an interview with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the actor chosen to play the infamous TWD character Negan. Morgan discussed his thoughts about tackling such a major villain, and his enthusiasm for his debut on the TV series.
He knew exactly who Negan was: “So my agent and manager were on the phone and said, “The Walking Dead have offered you this thing,” but they didn’t have any information. They didn’t know the character’s name. It was all a big secret. And they sort of got halfway through the sentence saying “We don’t know the character’s name, he’s the new big bad…” and I knew immediately who they were talking about. They just got halfway through and I knew immediately who it was. It was no question. I was like, “Absolutely. We’re going to f—ing do it!” And that was it. And literally a week later I was in Atlanta talking with the cast and hanging out.
Negan’s potty mouth might pose a problem even for a TV-MA rated cable series: “Look, it’s a speed bump. I’m not going to say it’s an issue because they’re working on it. We’re going to push AMC — the plan is to push them as far as they can because it’s who Negan is. He uses some colorful language. And I use some colorful language. And reading the comic, it’s important. So we’ll see where that lands. It’s our intention that this character is going to leap off the pages of the comic book. It’s very important that that’s who it is. Some of the characters there’s much more leeway, but Negan is a guy that you want to keep as true as possible, and that would be how I want to play him as well.”
Morgan previously played The Comedian in the movie adaption of Watchmen, and sees similarities between that character and Negan: “There’s definitely some similarities. Negan is special in a lot of ways and the more kind of digging I do into Negan, the more excited I get.”
To read the full interview. head to EW.com.