Norman Reedus explained to Vanity Fair how and why filming went down separately for Negan and Daryl’s final scene in the series finale of “The Walking Dead.” He said that Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan had to leave the set of “The Walking Dead” immediately to head to New Jersey to film his character’s spin-off, “Dead City.” Morgan filmed his half of their interaction and send-off while Reedus was still out with a concussion. The concussion was so bad, Reedus said, that he had to be unavailable to film for several weeks. Reedus said of Morgan, “I didn’t see what he did. I went off what I imagined Jeffrey would do because I know Jeffrey so well. [Special makeup effects artist Greg Nicotero] kind of explained to me what he did … I knew how Jeffrey would do it, so I just played off that.”
Reedus said he felt pretty dizzy when he came in to film his part of the scene, but he felt okay enough to do it despite knowing he was still suffering from a concussion. The scene went off without a hitch, and it’s now part of “Walking Dead” history.
Reedus joked about the black eye he was left with after suffering the concussion and explained why it made it into the show. He said, “I’ve had so many real black eyes on the show, and some of them are written into the story line, some of them we cover up with makeup, and then some of them we enhance. But it’s no coincidence that I got knocked out on camera right around the time that I was really knocked out.”
