Steven Yeun on Glenn ‘People didn’t know what to do with him’
Steven Yeun is and will always be one of our favorite people. He’s talented, he gives his all to roles he plays, and he was our Glenn – a character we’ll always treasure and hold close to our hearts.
When you take on a role in The Walking Dead, it’s hard to know what to expect. You’ll either be loved or hated, there’s not much of a grey area, and you’ll live for seasons upon seasons or you’ll die quickly; there’s no getting around that either.
While Glenn was an incredible chapter in Steven’s life, he’s got a lot of amazing stuff coming up soon and he recently spoke with E. Alex Jung from Vulture about some of them, as well as Glenn, and spending time in Korea.
The interview is enlightening and a really fun read, but we were struck by one part of the article where Steven said he wasn’t sure people knew what to do with Glenn, or who he was as a character.
‘I’ll be honest with you and put a full disclaimer here: I might not be objective, but I truly feel like people didn’t know what to do with Glenn. They liked him, they had no problems with him, and people enjoyed him. But they didn’t acknowledge the connection people had with the character until he was gone. I look at what happened and I think, That wasn’t any more gory than what we’ve done before, per se. No one got their face ripped in half! People got their guts smashed out and their heads caved in. But this one felt gratuitous because one, it kept going, and two, I think they took away someone that I didn’t realize I had made such a connection with until they took him away. I loved being on that show. Internally, it was incredible. Externally, it was tough sometimes because I never felt like he got his fair due. I never felt like he got it from an outward perception. I don’t say this as a knock on anything. He always had to be part of something else to legitimize himself. He was rarely alone. And when he was alone, it took several years to convince people to be on his own. I’m thankful to EW for that wonderful cover they ran at the end, but we’ve had many covers before then that he never got to do on his own. Not until the last year did they give him his own cover, and then give him the one as he died.’
We hate to say that we can see where he’s coming from because Glenn meant a lot to us, but we can see where he’s coming from. He doesn’t say any of it with bitterness or disdain, he doesn’t say any of it with ill will towards anyone or with a loss of value for what he achieved in the series. He just spoke from what he saw, on the inside, and how it looks being outside of the equation (in a way) now.
We considered Glenn the glue of the group, and we certainly hope Steven knows that. We also can’t wait to see what he does next – we’ll be massive fans of his forever.
‘…but I knew him’
