You couldn’t get a seat for the Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) panel at Walker Stalker Con in New Jersey, but if you did, it was a complete blast because The Walking Dead star dropped a lot of fun trivia. Who knew that his wife refers to Norman Reedus as his “sister wife?” Scroll down to read all the hilarity.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is one amusing guy. The audience was complete putty in his hands during his panel. No moderator was necessary for the actor. He answered questions directly from the audience and let slip some very funny anecdotes. He also hinted about the tragedy of the mid-season finale (which we now know, namely Carl), because he’s that kind of guy. Negan, always funny, but sometimes quite a jerk too.
Here’s what we learned from the panel.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan (JDM) was asked how Negan would want to die
His entertaining answer: “If Negan has his choice, he’d probably die in bed with one of his nine wives.”
Of course!
If you’re still broken up about Carl during the mid-season finale, he did warn us
“I can give you some advice, you probably shouldn’t watch it. I warned you. You all are going to hate it … I’m not at liberty to say anything, but it’s going to suck … Does that smile give it away?
“If you’re a Savior, you’re going to be excited. If you’re a survivor, you’re going to be in tears.”
Oh Negan, so typical. But he did warn us.
There was also a lot of talk about JDM’s butt (or lack thereof)
One audience member asked his opinion about his lack of butt generating more internet buzz than the tragic deaths of Glenn and Abraham on the show.
“Those internet people just want to discuss my butt!
“And I’ve got to get my Daryl back. Because he’s the only one who has an a**.
“Man this discussion has just gone south in a hurry,” he joked.
Speaking of Daryl, what does his wife, Hilarie Burton, call him?
Morgan was asked by a fan who he hangs out with the most from the show and as usual, his answer was thoroughly entertaining … And unexpected.
“Well, Norman… Norman and I like live next door to each other. That helps. And we both ride motorcycles, Andy doesn’t.
“Usually when we go to other people’s houses, we’re riding our motorcycles to get there. Norman and I take trips whenever we can if we have a couple days off … I see him more than I see my wife. And by the way, she’s f***ing jealous … she calls him ‘her sister.’ ‘Are you talking to my sister-wife?’’ he described her reaction when he’s on the phone with Reedus.
“Everyone talks about how close this cast is, and it’s true.”
He also mentioned that maybe Negan’s “junk” doesn’t work. Who knew?
“So why doesn’t Negan have any children yet, considering that he has nine wives?” one fan asked, “Is he purposely trying not to make pancakes?”
The question seemed to stump him, but he admitted it was a good one, prompting for some amusing banter to justify the lack of offspring.
“We’ve never seen Negan actually partake in any kind of behavior that would have children,” he started. “Everybody else we see shacking up. I mean, Rick and Michonne. Come on. Give me a break. It’s the middle of an apocalypse. It’s the middle of a war, for God’s sake … My only personal opinion is that he has one love, and that is his wife Lucille, who is no longer with us. He has his wives, but I’m not sure if he’s necessarily enjoying them in that way.
“Eugene spends more time with my wives than I do. That guy’s suave.
“That’s another one of those questions I should ask Scott Gimple … Why doesn’t Negan have a bunch of little kids running around? Because he obviously likes kids … Carl’s his most favorite person in the whole apocalypse. He just wants to hang out with Carl all the time.
“Maybe his junk doesn’t work.”
Makes sense. A better answer than most.
Even Negan gets sick of Negan
JDM was asked how Negan would be on a first date and the unsurprising answer from him was that it would be all about him.
“He doesn’t let other people talk very much … Negan may not be the one you want to have dinner with. He’s just talking about himself. F***ing non-stop. ‘Dude, shut up.’ Even I want Negan to shut up sometimes. Even I’m like, ‘come on, dude, you already said that like 20 times!’”
What Negan would name his gun…
JDM was first asked what weapon of choice he would work with.
“I’d take a gun. I have an issue with Negan … I mean, Rick’s got a gun. I think Negan’s got to smarten up and bring a gun to a gun fight. I don’t know if he’s always going to be able to block a Rosita bullet.”
But what would he name that gun? A question that prompted some unintentional laughter at first, well, because …
“You guys immediately go to a dirty place. I super appreciate that because I do too! I’m glad we’re all on the same wavelength.”
(dramatic pause)
“Skippy! There’s a girl named Skippy who made me so happy. I met her in the autograph line and I’m like, ‘what’s your name?’ And she’s like, ‘Skippy!’ … And I’m like, ‘that is the damn skippiest name I’ve ever heard!’”
Funny … and cute.
He was just as upset over Shiva as the rest of us
“How about that Shiva though? Does it really take six zombies to kill a tiger? I was pissed about that. I like Shiva more than I like Negan’s [people], poor Dwight.”
How does he get into character?
“We never have our scripts, man. I get the script the day before shooting. And in case you haven’t figured out, Negan talks a lot. A lot.
“So I spend the better part of my life trying to memorize pages and pages and pages of dialogue. And then I have to do it two ways sometimes too. I do a version where I swear a lot, and then I do a version where it’s AMC’d out.”
And he has a ton of fun at Andrew Lincoln’s expense.
“But like Andy, for instance, he approaches it completely different. There’s more things he has to do. For one, he has to do an accent. But once he gets down to Atlanta, he’s Rick Grimes all the time.
“Now the joy I get to have, in particular with Andy, is if I’ve done my job and I know my s**t, that means I can f*** with him in between takes … it gives Andy Lincoln something to play against and it really gets him into character.”
JDM was also upset that his “finest work” was left on the cutting room floor
Morgan told the audience about how much dialogue he has to memorize in a short fashion continuously on the show because, well, Negan does talk a lot. But the season premiere who-did-Negan-kill scene was especially annoying, since, he had to film a separate death scene with each major character.
“All I’m thinking of is that’s a lot of extra work that I got to do, hitting everybody on like different lines. I had to make fun of Eugene’s mullet. I mean … a lot of stuff to learn and still shooting in like eight days, FOR NOTHING! Y’all’ll never get to see it.
“And by the way, it was some of my finest work.”
And filming it took its toll.
“By the end of the episode, I remember, that me and Andy took Lucille to Greg Nicotero. We made him go on his knees and with big blood bags on the bat and whack the crap out of him. Just because it was such a brutal episode.”
Negan’s whistle may be famous, but he admitted that the producers of the show (and so does he) think it’s okay
“I suck at whistling. Have you noticed that Negan sucks at whistling? I had to learn that too. [They asked], ‘Well, what kind of whistle can you do?’” and after demonstrating, their reaction was a tepid “’well … ok … we’ll make it work…” And hence, the Negan whistle.”
But the big reveal, JDM thinks Negan would have followed Rick from TWD S1: cut from the same cloth
“Backstory … Their stories are very similar. Negan starts off helping people.
“Negan followed a couple of people right off the bat, who were idiots, they got people killed. I think that’s what started frustrating Negan, he started to take initiative and have people listen to him.
“I think if Rick had had a plan, I think Negan probably would have fallen in line and let Rick have a chance. Because Negan did follow other people. And what happened is when they did stupid s**t, he finally got sick of them. And when he got sick of them, he took over. We’re going to find out more about Negan as we go along.
“It would have been great to see those two dudes meet at the beginning of the apocalypse, and Andy and I talk about it a lot. We think these two guys are very similar in a lot of ways. They see themselves in each other a lot more than they’re willing to admit. Which leads to some interesting story this year … at the beginning, I think Negan may have followed if Rick may have been intelligent enough to talk him into it. But the minute Rick had made a bad decision, Negan would have turned it off.
“So Rick’s done some stupid s**t!… I think had Negan been on his side, Negan would have put his foot down, unlike most of the other survivors. They’ve always continued to follow him,” Morgan complained.
Stay tuned
I don’t know about you, but I’m really looking forward to finding out more about Negan’s backstory in the season and how he turned from a “helper” to a psychopath.
Walker Stalker Con was a huge blast for the fans.
The Walking Dead mid-season premiere airs Feb 12, on AMC.