"A villain that's interesting is [one] you can understand why he became a villain."
One of the most compelling villains to come out of The Walking Dead was Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan, and now he's back in The Walking Dead: Dead City (June 18 on AMC). "Since we've last seen him, he's not doing great." The story picks up two years after the original series, where Negan and Maggie (played by Lauren Cohan) came to a truce after Negan killed Maggie's husband. "Some of the old Negan is back; he's a showman and not afraid of violence." The new series explores why Negan is so violent. "What was most important to me was that he wasn't one note [in Dead City]; it would have been easy to be that same guy. How can we show other sides? A villain that's interesting is [one] you can understand why he became a villain." We'll also "learn a little bit more about Negan's life pre-Walking Dead." And he's more than happy to keep playing Negan. "I wouldn't still be here if it hasn't been one of the coolest experiences of my work life. I just feel incredibly blessed to be able to play what I think is one of the coolest villains in the history of film/TV."
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I'm sure you can't say much about the new series, but what can you say?
I mean, nothing, unfortunately [laughs]. It's the kind of the thing with everything I do, I'm not allowed to talk about it, which is horrible. What I can say is that [Maggie] needs him to help get her son back, because the person that has taken her son was an underling of Negan before we ever met him. So we'll learn a little bit more about Negan's life pre-Walking Dead. And I think the key is the New York City of it all, being in that setting, it makes it a whole new kind of exciting show.
How does the new series being set in New York City change things?
In every way that you can imagine. I always wanted to take it to an urban setting after 10 years of being in the woods. So when this idea came up, it was a no brainer for me. Let's see that world. And let's see the iconic landmarks of New York City and what they would look like in this apocalyptic world. What does Madison Square Garden or the Statue of Liberty [look like], or walking down Fifth Avenue, what does that feel like? And it feels about as exciting as it could, it's really hard to shut down streets in New York City and age them properly and have walkers running around, because New York City doesn't stop. We ended up shooting a lot of stuff like in Newark, intimate little settings and then we would go into New York for the big stuff and usually at night. And then the folks did the visual effects and made the city look crumbly and falling apart. I think they did an amazing job because that always worries you when you're in one of these productions, how will that look and what will the final look of the show be? I think it's very exciting, and I'm excited to see what the heck's going on.
And for so many New Yorkers, seeing a zombie from a show is just another day.
Exactly, right. We got quite a crowd in Jersey as well. One hundred people showed up for shooting, just to watch. I've never quite understood how exciting it can be to watch us film for 13 hours, but I'll be damned if people didn't sit there and enjoy themselves. And I always made a point of going over and thanking them and saying hi, doing pictures or whatever I could with them, because it's cool and we are shooting in their backyard and we are interrupting people's days. But I remember shooting years ago in New York, different projects, and people would like throw bottles at you from rooms. It was like a war zone, which probably helped us here. But people were very kind to us when we were shooting. There was a couple of points where we shut down half of the Financial District for a couple of nights and people were very cool about it.
Negan and Maggie's relationship has evolved so much over The Walking Dead, how does it evolve in this new series?
Well, I think how we left it in The Walking Dead there was sort of an uneasy truce. I think she accepted the fact that he could be there longer, he wasn't going to go anywhere. And she sort of says to him, fine, you can live in this community, but don't expect a lot from me, I'm not going to kill you at this point. This show picks up two years later. And I think what's happened in those two years with Maggie is that she's unable to make peace and Negan is gone. Negan walks off in The Walking Dead and he's literally gone. So where he's been in the last two years, we'll find out in Dead City. But in those two years, it hasn't gotten easier for Maggie. And when she discovers that Negan has ties with this man that's taken her son, as much as she needs his help, it puts her in a position where she remembers why she hates this guy. He's not going to go away. I have to be there. Negan, at the same time, is kind of over it. He's like, okay, well, you want my help. I will help you. But why do I still have to sleep with one eye open? So their relationship doesn't get easier. And it also probably doesn't help that Negan has what's happened to him in the last two years, and his survival mechanism has made him probably take a couple of steps backwards from where we saw him in The Walking Dead as far as his redemption and trying to do right by people. Some of the old Negan is back, and that's how he survives, he's always been a bit of a showman and not afraid of violence. And I think that that has served him well in this apocalyptic world. And since we've last seen him, he's not doing great. Some of these qualities that Maggie hates, the audience is torn 50/50 on. A lot of those [qualities in Negan] are back and we will find out why. But he uses those [qualities] to try to get the job done. So Maggie is torn, [she] is in a rough position. She wants her son back, but she's got to depend on someone that killed her husband. And she sees those glimpses of the old Negan. And that is very hard for her to deal with.
Negan is such a complex character, terrifying but also fun. How did you find your version of Negan?
More than any other character, I think Negan really just comes from the pages of the comic books. It's almost like Negan was in a different show, when he first came on, with his leather coat and the showmanship [and the] red scarf, there was just something about him. He was from a different world than everybody else was and I thought it was important to kind of bring that back a little bit. At the same time, [the] comic book kind of explained to me why and how he became the man he was, but I never knew that we were going to shoot that. And believe me, I was saying from the jump, hey, let's do this, we can show his backstory. But when you're servicing 30 characters in a show, it's really hard to get the writers to give you an episode or the showrunners. What was most important to me was that he wasn't one note [on Dead City], it would have been really easy to be that same guy that walks out of the RV on day one. How can we show other sides to Negan? Or the humanizing side of him. A villain that's interesting is a villain that you can understand why he became a villain. I've always said that if we started with the Negan story and been following him from the beginning of the show, he would have been the hero. I can go back and make excuses for why Negan did what he did to our group of heroes, but that falls on deaf ears when you're talking to the Walking Dead fans, they don't want to hear that. But to me that helped [me] decide and make choices for Negan. And luckily, Scott Gimple and Angela Kang [showrunners and writers on The Walking Dead] and everybody else involved understood where I was coming from and how important I thought it was to show the glimpses of this guy. His conversations with kids were always not on par with his conversations with Rick, he was a completely different human being [with kids]. Why is that? And how can I show that? Sometimes people noticed it, sometimes people didn't. But for me, it was important to see why this guy became the guy he did. And then he wasn't always a bad guy. It's just that when he does things that are violent, or he does things to make a point, there's a lot of showmanship involved and they're violent and they are fast and he does a lot of talking. He doesn't shut up. The only scene I can remember doing where he didn't say a word was the last one with Maggie sitting by the fire. And for the first time, I thought it was really important that he just listened. [Take] it in and understand and listen to what she was actually saying. And now we go two years forward, and Negan has come back a bit.
When you joined The Walking Dead, it was such a seismic moment for the show and fans. What was it like joining such a popular show midway through its run?
Originally, they wanted me to guarantee that I would give them, I believe it was two or three seasons. My agent calls and she goes "Hey, Walking Dead called and they have offered you this role. Walking Dead wouldn't tell us the name of the character, but I'm a fan of the show, watched The Walking Dead every week and I knew exactly who it was." I'm like, "Oh, it's f******* Negan." And as soon as I knew that, it was a no brainer. I was like, well, it was away from my family in Georgia. So that worried me. But I was like, f*** it. This is a great show. This is an incredible character. It was announced when I was on the plane going to Georgia to shoot the opening scene for Negan. I was in the middle of shooting The Good Wife and managed to get two days off to go shoot this and we shot nights. I remember I got on the plane to go to Georgia to meet everyone for the first time and by the time I landed, it had been announced that I had been cast as Negan and it was craziness from then on. It was just crazy. And look, I was a fan of the show but I didn't know it would be that insane in a good way. Everybody wanted to talk about it. I got a 12-page monologue to do, this introduction to this character is really tricky with a bunch of actors that I don't know. I remember two nights of it just being so exciting. I knew as soon as I walked out of the RV door on my first take and ran through 12 pages of monologue without f****** missing a beat. I knew they knew that this was going to be a long relationship. And it turned out that they're a super cool cast and they took me in immediately. I still have a message from Andy Lincoln [who played Rick on The Walking Dead] on that very first night. He called me at like 7 a.m.—we had wrapped up at like 6 a.m.—and he left me a four-minute voice message welcoming [me] to the family. And I saved it, I still have it. But it meant the world to me. I wouldn't still be here if it hasn't been one of the coolest experiences of my work life. Between the people and the material and the writing. I just feel incredibly blessed to be able to play what I think is one of the coolest villains in the history of film/TV.
You're also in the new season of The Boys. Do you ever worry about Negan being a part of every character you do?
I do. Even with The Boys, I would get the script and be like, "Oh, my God, I've said this f****** exact thing." I think the writers and stuff have this image and they know Negan so well, they almost can't help it. I think he will follow me forever. I think that people write scenes, even on the show now [and] even on The Walking Dead for years, new directors would come in and they'd want to have their Negan moment. And I'd be like, "No, no, no, no, we're trying to do this redemption arc." It was a constant conversation. You guys want to pull it back here, and they're like, "No, we want more and more." I think it's gonna happen with everything. I don't see that going away for a while. I will make conscious efforts to be very uneven, but he'll sneak in. It's the only thing I've done in the last eight years, there hasn't been a lot of time for anything else other than Negan.
It's kind of like Jack Nicholson with The Shining. You kind of always see that character because the portrayal is just perfect, like your Negan.
It's a fun character, and I thank you for saying it's perfect. I don't know about that. I think it can always be better. But it's gonna be hard for the rest of my life to ever shed completely Negan. I could do a f****** love story and there's gonna be a f****** Negan moment.
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