62 MEN’S FITNESS AUGUST 2016
Grooming by Joanna Pensinger Ford/Exclusive Artists using Dermalogicasteps out of a vintage Mercedes convertible and onto a quiet
street where an angled sun casts a pale glow across the
neighbourhood’s famous cobblestones. Though only a handful
of pedestrians stroll and mingle about, Reedus hasn’t even shut
the door behind him when a crush of bodies almost magically
appears. Men, women, tourists, residents, college students
and even a few pensioners all stand frozen, staring at the svelte
tough guy in the black leather jacket, that unmistakable jagged
hair dangling down to his collar.
“My teacher always talks about The Walking Dead,” says a
bystander, before an overexcited fan cuts him of.
“Are you...I mean, you’re...I’m John. It’s my birthday. Can I
take a picture with you?” he says. An onlooker from across the
street takes a less subtle approach.
“DARRRYL!” he shouts at the top of his lungs.
“All day, every day,” says Reedus, turning to me and l ashing a
smile that appears part genuine gratitude and part WTF? with
a whif of resignation.
The latter is understandable. Just days before, Reedus — the
former ’90s heartthrob turned B-movie actor who, as crossbow-
wielding bad-guy-gone-good Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead,
would emerge as the most popular character on the most
popular show on television — was pulling all-nighters on the
show’s sweltering Atlanta set. And when he wasn’t dispatching
zombies this past year, he was working elsewhere: starring
opposite Diane Kruger in the drama Sky, saving humanity in
the sci-i thriller Air, and logging a hilarious cameo in the reboot
of the comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation. He even managed
to launch his own motorcycle road-trip show called Ride with
Norman Reedus. “Sometime in between all of this,” he tells me
later, “I’ll take a nap.”
But that won’t be tonight. Right now, Reedus’ vacation has
just begun, and before he heads to New Jersey for a zombie
convention (where, I learn later, one over-zealous fan actually
bit him), then to Hawaii to surf with his son, Mingus (with his
ex, model Helena Christensen), he wants to relax and let of
some steam. And that involves downing as much bread, booze
and red meat as he can.
So once the commotion dies down, we hit a nearby restaurant,
where I i nd out how someone a famous director once called
“not good-looking at all” became the buf , crossbow-wielding
sex symbol men want to emulate, i lmmakers want to hire and
women want to ink all over their bodies.How did you find the second half of season
six of The Walking Dead? It looked like it
would have been gruelling to work on.
It was so hardcore. It was sort of like the
i rst half was the pulling back of an arrow
with a bow, and the arrow has gained
momentum. The second half was the really
emotionally draining release. We’ve had
so many scenes where our crew was crying
because they were feeling so emotional
and heavy.
After six seasons, are you used to those
draining scenes yet?
Some days you wake up and you know
what you’re about to do at work, and you’re
like, “Fuck, I don’t even want to do this
today.” So maybe you make your favourite
breakfast and you pat yourself on the head
because you know you’re gearing up to
have a fucked-up day. Sometimes I pet my
cat a little longer in the morning.Speaking of the morning, what does
Norman Reedus eat for breakfast?
I love huevos rancheros [Mexican-style,
tomato and chilli sauce with eggs], but my
favourite thing is probably eggs Benedict. I
tried to make it once, and it was a disaster.
The hollandaise sauce? You have to be a
scientist to make it. Fuck that shit.Spoken like Daryl himself! He’s clearly
the most interesting character on the
show, and he wasn’t even in the graphic
novels that inspired the series. Now plenty
of Walking Dead purists probably can’t
imagine that world without Daryl anymore.
He’s such a no-bullshit kind of guy and a
great judge of character. He’s had a hard life
and is becoming a better person before our
very eyes. People like that. He’s becoming a
man he wouldn’t have been if all this hadn’t
gone down. This apocalypse has benei ted
him. He’s i nding a sense of self-worth with
these people he’s i ghting to protect.As an actor, do you worry about your
character getting killed off?
I’m not worried at all. If it happens, it happens.
If it’s the story they’re trying to tell, great. Do I
want it to happen? Not yet. There are certain
things I want to do, certain things I want to
see happen. I remember especially during the
second season we’d all l ip through the scripts
and get to the end and go, “Phew!”
But there are certain things my character
needs to do to be complete. I’ve talked to
[showrunner] Scott [Gimple], and I have
thoughts. I can’t tell you, but I’ve spent a
lot of time on the show introducing new
characters. It’s basically me listening to them
so the audience can i gure out who that new
character is. I end up tossing that ball in an
alley-oop so they can slam-dunk it.