Jeffrey Dean Morgan Wants the Audience to be “On Their Toes” with Negan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan joined in on The Walker Stalkers Podcast last night following the newest episode of The Walking Dead, “Hostiles and Calamites”, and gave a little insight into how he plays Negan.
James Frazier, host of the podcast asked him if there’s anything he brings to the character from the comic books each time he steps onto Negan’s skin.
Although Morgan says he is behind on the comics so they don’t influence him that much-he says the dialogue and Lucille wrap the character together.
“More than anything it’s just dialogue and that kind of took itself form the comic book. That kind of lends itself to turning yourself into Negan. That, and Lucille. I don’t do a whole lot of transformation other than these words he says that are incredible and say a lot about who he is. And that freaken lean has become part of the deal.”
“That’s turned into a thing. I think it’s helping my back-I usually am hunched forward so the whole Negan thing is helping my spine.”
“When I get to work every morning I’m a big jack ass. I like to have fun and when those scenes come up it just comes. It’s not like I’m doing big preparation to be savage-I think it’s written so well. I think Scott and the writers do such a good job doing what Kirkman has outlined for us all. I’m behind in the comic books because I dont want it to influence anything.”
Ever wonder what it’s like to be one of the actors about to be Negan’s next victim? He says they get pretty freaked out.
“The reaction I get from actors I’m working with-it just them freaks them out. It’s a weird thing. You can’t focus on Negan with this dance he does. You don’t know if he’s gonna be inches from your face or three feet away from you. It’s fun to see what the different reactions are.”
JDM plays Negan with purpose. And you, the audience are a big part of that purpose he says.
“What I want the audience to see in Negan is this guy you have to be on your toes with. You don’t know which way it’s gonna go. He can be your best frend one second and throw you in the fire the next. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to do the role in the first place. Negan is so charismatic and with the flip of a switch, there’s a side to him you don’t wanna fuck with.”
He says that Negan is going to start working on Eugene, because for some reason Eugene is empowered by Negan, so that relationship should be interesting to watch develop!
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