Warning: This article contains spoilers about Sunday’s episode ofThe Walking Dead, “Here’s Negan.”
That changed on Sunday’s season 10 finale, andchangedwas the operative word.
But his power was not enough.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton on ‘The Walking Dead’.Josh Stringer/AMC
“I’m not going to lie, I was nervous as hell going in,” Morgan says.
“I didn’t know how she would be.
I don’t f— around.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan on ‘The Walking Dead’.Josh Stringer/AMC
I go to work.
We better f—ing bring it.”
And bring it they did.
Hilarie Burton and Jeffrey Dean Morgan on ‘The Walking Dead’.Josh Stringer/AMC
“It was great,” Morgan says.
“That first day with her, I went home just like, ‘Thank God!'”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Well, congratulations, you two.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton on ‘The Walking Dead’.Josh Stringer/AMC
You made a grown man cry.
I hope you’re both happy.
JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN:I appreciate that.
Had they ever shared that with you?
Had you all had any talks before the world fell apart?
HILARIE BURTON:No.
It matters a lot in the Negan mythology, and so I wanted it to be great.
Also, like him, the social media would have a field day with us.
Those movies that husbands and wives do together, where it doesn’t work, that’s brutal.
I feel really fortunate that, so far, everybody seems to be into it.
What was your take on Lucille?
How did you see her and what did you want to come across from your portrayal?
BURTON:It was definitely already on the page.
They didn’t lose their moxie.
In most cases, it makes them bolder and braver.
Lucille maintaining that edge was really important to me.
She’s not a flower.
She’s a brassy chick, and she certainly could hold her own with Negan.
We’ve been waiting to see this backstory for so long.
It’s always been there in the comics, just waiting to be adapted.
MORGAN:It was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever gotten to do.
There’s been discussions.
Would it be on the big screen?
Would it be a miniseries?
I’ve heard every kind of scenario thrown at us, regarding it.
It’ll just never happen.
We’ve still got a Rick movie to do, for God’s sake.
I think the one great thing that came out of COVID were these COVID six episodes.
It was a perfect time to put this story in there.
I’m so f—ing thankful, because this is the story I want to tell.
I thought it was so important.
I think it’s just great to have a character that’s three-dimensional.
This gives that final side to Negan, that puts the pieces together.
Now I think going forward, you’ve got a character that shouldn’t be trifled with.
This makes him more dangerous than he was before.
It’s an interesting story structure too.
It starts in the present.
It keeps working backward, so you almost have flashbacks within flashbacks.
It was a challenge.
I mean, everything about it was a challenge.
The fact that we shot this pretty fast and we had the COVID restrictions that we were battling with.
The big Negan speech to that guy, so he’s back.
He’s now Negan.
He’s now season 7 Negan.
He has just been born.
It was that whole monologue to the bad guy.
That was the first thing that I had in this episode.
We never left the basement that we were in.
That was a joy.
I couldn’t have asked for a cooler deal of working with Hilarie.
I’m not going to lie, I was nervous as hell going in.
I didn’t know how she would be.
I don’t f— around.
I go to work.
We better f—ing bring it.
And it was great.
That first day with her, I went home just like, “Thank God!”
MORGAN:I think so, yeah.
It definitely helped conjure the emotion.
BURTON:It was during the election.
MORGAN:We were f—ng primed and ready.
You know what I mean?
We couldn’t even look at each other without like tearing up.
It was very interesting.
They would just go in and they’d go, “Okay.
Where do you think you’re going to sit?”
That would be it.
We wouldn’t rehearse.
We wouldn’t do anything.
Then they’d turn the cameras on.
We only did one or two takes of everything that you saw.
It was great, because we couldn’t have done it anymore, by the way.
We were just wrecked.
Three completely different versions of Negan.
MORGAN:I’m like Sybil.
BURTON:You’re amazing, and you had to do it with COVID restrictions.
We were only allowed to film like 10 hours a day.
There was no working the scene out and workshopping.
He showed up for every single scene, ready to pull the trigger.
I don’t know anyone else who could do that.
I’m proud of you.
Hilarie, why do you think Lucille does takes her own life?
Is she just wanting to end this thing on her terms?
I think she’s a really bright woman.
She knew what was coming.
Which, man, there’s so many layers to that decision, but being human is tough sometimes.
Yeah, these two are an example of that.
Everything is tough for these two.
BURTON:That was the thing that scared me the most.
I didn’t want to ruin the scene by being a tacky zombie.
Just kind of wiggling your head around and chomping at stuff.
We’ve got a toddler, so we just studied her.
Yeah, that’s what we brought.
Lucille asks Negan not to go looking for the medicine.
Or is it maybe both?
MORGAN:I think both.
I certainly understood both scenarios.
One being, he’s going to do everything and he’s not going to stop.
He’s in a lot of denial.
Look what her death does.
He needed her, obviously.
One, that he loves her and that’s sort of the key.
He’s going to do anything.
When she goes to the doctor, she’s by herself.
She has to take her own life, she’s by herself.
Negan had a way of not being there for the big moments.
I think we see that at the end, that he understands that he failed her.
I think also, Negan is Negan.
He’s bullheaded, stubborn, not the brightest guy sometimes.
It’s such a heavy episode.
But Hilarie, how much fun were the wigs?
I hope you were having lots of fun with those wigs on set.
BURTON:Honey, I brought a wig home!
Yeah, I did!
That was a lot of fun, and that was Jeffrey’s idea.
We really needed some levity in there.
After I kicked his ass in darts, I think he wanted a do-over.
It was a really great set.
They gave us a lot to play with, and Jeff looks good in a red wig.
That was my favorite.
MORGAN:It was so heavy.
Every scene we did, it ended in tears.
Every scene was heavy.
I just thought that it was important that we could find anything that would show these two laughing.
You know what I mean?
We were both kind of keenly aware of that.
I think we tried to play against a lot of the f—ing drama.
That’s hard to do in like four scenes, really.
What does it all mean at the end, as Negan’s looking back at all this time?
What does that smile mean?
MORGAN:That has to be wide open to interpretation.
I was laughing at her.
We were just having a good time, in between takes and the whole deal.
He’s going to face this f—ing head-on.
I’m not running from you, and here I am."
I don’t know if there’s anything malicious to it.
It was just, I was having fun.
Negan is f—ing inappropriate at times.
That probably was an inappropriate smile, but it somehow worked.
I did it other ways too.
Angela decided that a smile there kind of leaves it a little bit more open to interpretation.
