'The Walking Dead' Postmortem: Jeffrey Dean Morgan Talks Building Negan, the Cliffhanger That Surprised Him, and Handling His New Level of Fame
Warning: Storyline and character spoilers ahead for the “Last Day on Earth” episode of The Walking Dead.
He filmed his one big introduction scene last November, but the last couple of days have been a whirlwind for new TWD cast member Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who was in Los Angeles on Sunday when his Negan made his AMC series debut, after which Morgan made another debut, on the Talking Dead aftershow. And then Monday, he was back in New York City — in the same clothes he’d worn on Talking Dead, he pointed out — and ready to head to the set of The Good Wife, the other TV series he stars in.
Related: ‘The Walking Dead’ Postmortem: Even Greg Nicotero’s Mom Doesn’t Know Who Negan Killed
In between the two shows, Morgan took time out for a conference call with reporters, where he discussed joining The Walking Dead, who first introduced him to the Negan character, and how he thinks he’ll handle his new apocalypse drama-level of fame. The highlights:
On having just two days to prepare to shoot the intense, and long, final scene:
“It all happened very fast. I think I got the script two days before I shot it, and I only got [the Negan scene]. So I didn’t even get the full script. I think for obvious reasons, the cast of the show was understandably agitated. They may know more than I did going in. Everything was very hush hush. Everything… AMC and The Walking Dead are trying to keep everything so secretive… It was a very emotional two nights [of filming], and I think you saw it on the actors’ faces. For me, it was about learning a monologue and trying to portray a [type of] character that I haven’t gotten to play a whole lot of in my career. I think it was very emotional for the whole cast, and a couple of them didn’t make eye contact with me until the end of the second night. A couple of them… embraced me immediately and were texting me after we’d filmed all night. I’d say the overall [feeling] was, people were emotional. It was an emotional time.”
On the controversial cliffhanger season finale ending:
“I didn’t know it was going to be a cliffhanger until I watched the show. I don’t know if any of the cast knew exactly how it was going to end, which kind of caused a lot of the uncertainty and emotion to be going on. That said, in talking to [showrunner] Scott [Gimple] and Robert last night, I think their explanation… That was the end of the story for [Season 6]… Rick has lost control, and there’s Negan. Negan has all the control. I think that’s where they wanted to end the story, and it’s not about the death… the death [is] going to kick off Season 7… who is on the receiving end of Lucille. I understand the fans’ frustration. I get that. … I have to trust these writers and showrunners. They’re doing a show that a lot of people watched for six seasons. I believe that they’ll be back to see who met Lucille, as the story continues to grow.”
Related: ‘The Walking Dead’ Finale Recap: As Long As It’s All Of Us, We Can Do Anything
On how TWD comic book fans first brought Negan to his attention, and how he relied on the comic book to begin building the character:
“I’m a fan of the show, and I was a fan of the comic books. I got approached kind of when Negan was introduced in the 100th issue of the comic book. Fans of the comic book gave me a copy of it, and said, ‘When they get to this guy, you should be this guy.’ I was at Comic-Con actually… I was very aware of the character. I’d read a couple of the comic books, and I think the tone of Negan, that came in discussions with Scott, but mostly it came from seeing the panels of the graphic novel. Negan’s kind of grin and attitude… that’s a skeleton for my character, those pages, and so I just add meat to those bones and try to fill in the spots that aren’t there. I think what was important is that this character was charismatic… People were like, ‘Well, he’s this psychotic guy.’ I never looked at him like that. I think that there’s a lot of similarities between him and Rick. If we were following Negan’s story from day one on The Walking Dead, the audience would be rooting for him. It’s a very parallel storyline… [Negan’s] got something. He’s got something that people want to follow, and a little bit of that is fear, and 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, is kind of what I tried to do on the fly. You saw the final result. Hopefully people are happy with it.”
On playing a bad guy:
“All I can say about my bad guy roles is I really have fun doing them. The last few years, I’ve kind of always been a decent guy, a good guy, so to speak. A little rough around the edges, but basically a good guy. In TV anyway. Negan is… I realize he’s a bad guy. I realize he’s maybe one of the most well-rounded villains that we’re going to see on any screen in a long time. I look at that, and all I can tell you is that I get real excited about it.”
Related: ‘The Walking Dead’ Finale Review: Why Negan’s Arrival Was a Triumph And a Disaster
On handling his new, TWD-sized fame:
“Oh man. I don’t know. It’s already getting weird. I’ve got a [different] life. I live [in upstate New York] on a farm. I don’t have anything to do with social media… I don’t know if you can ever prepare yourself for [this]. It’s never something that I’ve been interested in. I love what I do for a living, but the other side of that… being famous… [holds] zero interest for me. We’ll see. I don’t know if I knew exactly what I was tackling when I decided to do this role. We’ll see how well I handle [it]… I’m a little bit interested to see how that all works out, and if I deal with it well. I hope I do.”
The Walking Dead will return in the fall on AMC.
