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       #Post#: 545--------------------------------------------------
       THE WALKING DEAD SHOWRUNNER SCOTT GIMPLE ON NEGAN (EXCLUSIVE)
       By: Ickray_Imesgray Date: March 11, 2016, 4:09 pm
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       Batter up! In the final part of my exclusive interview with The
       Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple, the affable executive
       producer casts some light on what we can expect from this
       season’s upcoming Big Bad, the long-awaited Negan, and the actor
       who will brandish his trademark baseball bat Lucille — the one
       and only Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
       Nerdist: Negan is probably the most anticipated antagonist to
       appear yet on The Walking Dead. What prompted you to cast
       Jeffrey Dean Morgan for the role?
       Scott Gimple: As far as Jeffrey goes… The glee that he had in
       the idea of being able to play this role was perfect for this
       role. The glee that he showed is so similar to the kind of id
       that Negan displays. It isn’t just that, physically, he
       resembles him. Jeffrey’s enthusiasm mirrors the character’s
       enthusiasm. Negan is an extremely enthusiastic character; he’s
       not subtle. There really aren’t a lot of half measures. He’s a
       bull in a china shop, and the china shop is the world. And he’s
       not very concerned about what he breaks. I saw Jeffrey’s smile
       and I said, “Oh, that’s Negan’s smile.”
       When we initially started talking about it, just the happiness
       beaming from him at the idea of doing this role was like I can’t
       imagine anybody else doing it.
       N: Even more so than the Governor, Negan is the complete
       opposite of Rick. Someone who operates with zero regrets or
       concerns, with no demons haunting him…
       SG: Oh yeah. He lives in the moment. What you see is absolutely
       what you get. I mean he goes down certain conversational lines
       and then he’ll tell you he’s screwing with you, but that’s about
       as deep an obfuscation that he has. He is the real deal. He’s a
       brilliant strategist, but there’s this familiar thing about him.
       The thing I discovered of course in thinking more and more about
       him is that he’s the ultimate bully. The bullies in school that
       were the worst were the ones that were funny. [The ones] that
       were legitimately funny, that as they were picking on you you
       could see that they had a bit of craft to their comedy. That was
       the worst. Because you hated them but you thought, “God, he’s
       funny. I gotta give it to him. He is funny.” I think Negan is
       the same way. He is charismatic. He is funny. And yet he does
       these horrible things and he has this bottom line, kind of scary
       philosophy to the world. And it’s never really personal. It’s
       all about keeping the world in the direction that he wants it to
       go, which is his direction.
       Yeah, he’s an incredible character. He really is one of the best
       pop culture characters of the last twenty-five years.
  HTML http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/The-Walking-Dead1-615x252.jpg
       N: Do you find your adhering more closely to the comic book’s
       version of Negan than the show did in the cast of the Governor?
       SG: There are variations, but there is something very pure about
       that character. Again, what you see is what you get. Most
       recently, I think it was two or three issues ago — it might be a
       few more, it’s within the last five or six issues — Negan said
       something about his past, and God knows whether it was true or
       not. But it’s the first thing he said about his past, but I was
       blown away and then I was thinking, “Was it really true?”
       I think there will be some variation — probably more like
       circumstance — but there’s not gonna be any huge departures for
       that character. Other than the fact that he will be a woman And
       that Jeffrey’s casting was just a smokescreen.
       N: Fair enough. [Laughs.] Thank you, Scott.
       SG: My pleasure.
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