Norman Reedus shares his thoughts on the daring role of Daryl Dixon as well as working closer than ever before with Michael Rooker and Chandler Riggs.
Norman Reedus has settled into life within the world of The Walking Dead extremely well, becoming one of the most pivotal characters of the series and also being potentially the fans’ favourite character throughout the three seasons so far.
Norman Reedus recently sat down with The Walking Dead‘s commissioners, AMC, to speak a little more about Daryl Dixon, as well as working with Michael Rooker and Chandler Riggs.
With Daryl Dixon being exclusive to The Walking Dead television series, as he is not featured in the comic books at all, the writers have an enormous amount of freedom to develop and understand such a complex character, and as each season passes we begin to learn more and more about the backstory of Daryl Dixon.
Reedus spoke about Daryl’s earlier life, and how one small moment lead to a chain reaction. Reedus comments, “For example…In Season 2 when Carol kisses me after Andrea shoots at me, I flinched. That wasn’t in the script and now this year there’s a storyline about how I had an abusive childhood. Having to do 16 episodes with these characters, of course we’re going to find more to do. Carol and Daryl have a stronger bond, and I’ve gotten to explore stuff with my brother.”
The latter half of season 3 has extended to fans a new dynamic in the Daryl-Merle relationship, with the pair of them reuniting in Woodbury under The Governor’s clutches after being separated in season 1. Over the past few episodes, tensions have risen between the pair and it’s quite clear that Merle, who is still a completely twisted madman, is nothing akin to the brother he once knew in Daryl. Daryl has transformed himself into a completely new character since teaming up with Rick. But what does Reedus think of the reunion between Daryl and Merle?
Reedus says, “We love each other; we’re the best of friends. He’s awesome and such a powerful actor. He’s also amazing to watch. We’re similar in a lot of redneck ways already, and we’ve become more similar on the show.”
But, when you do work with Michael Rooker, you’ve got to prepare yourself. Rooker lives for acting in roles such as Merle, and Reedus tells AMC that when they were both reunited under The Governor’s watchful eye, it really was about the pair of them, and not The Governor, with maybe the odd elbow here and there.
Reedus comments, “You always get hit a little bit – catch an elbow or something. The fight scenes can be really intense. That one, we could have played that two ways: We could have played it how we played it, or we could have done it like two untameable wild animals. My choice was to play it like an execution. This wasn’t about the Governor at all – it was all about the little brother and big brother dynamic, establishing who’s who.”
However, Reedus has found a new friend in Chandler Riggs, the young Georgian who has really come to the forefront as one of the best child actors ever witnessed on television. Riggs has allegedly told the press he’s able to survive with hardly any other peers his age whilst on set with The Walking Dead because of having so much fun with Norman Reedus goofing about and being a generic kid! And yes, there is quite a lot of truth behind this.
Reedus quips, “I’m going to beat the crap out of that kid! Chandler is more adult than Steven and I put together. He hangs out all the time with us. He’s really good at gadgets and gizmos. I get a lot of goofy fan mail with toys, nerd games and stuff, and I usually just give that stuff to Chandler. He’s one of the best actors on our show, hands down, and he’s killing it this season.”
Be sure to check out Norman Reedus’ next performance in The Walking Dead this Sunday on AMC at 9 p.m. ET/PT in the episode “I Ain’t a Judas.”
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