Before we get into this story, are you guys watching Fear the Walking Dead? It returned on Sunday with a capsule episode that I found underwhelming. While the acting was superb, we did not need to spend that long on one character and his backstory. I’m not sure if I’ll continue to watch that Walking Dead spinoff, but I have no question as to whether I’ll tune in when Walking Dead finally returns on October 23. We’ve been promised that we’ll get some kind of payoff for the massive cliffhanger from the midseason finale, but I’m afraid that means that they’re going to kill off a major character instead of a secondary one. At this point it’s unknown who will get bludgeoned to death, but it’s unlikely to be Rick or Daryl, because Rick is the leader and Daryl is a fan favorite. Actor Norman Reedus knows this, and he may have taken advantage of that fact to behave… unprofessionally let’s say. Reedus overslept for a casting call for the show, and instead of throwing on jeans and a t-shirt to come to work, he came out of his trailer, stripped naked and showed up on set that way. We know this because producer Greg Nicotero revealed this anecdote on the DVD extras for season six.
Norman Reedus was running around The Walking Dead set completely naked one day while filming season six, according to executive producer Greg Nicotero’s commentary on The Walking Dead: The Complete Sixth Season DVD and Blu-ray set.
“Norman, this was the day that you ran up naked,” Nicotero noted on the commentary track for last season’s premiere episode, according to Entertainment Weekly.
He explained that the reason Reedus (who plays Daryl Dixon on the AMC zombie drama) stripped down was because he overslept and was running late to set, but he was determined to make it in time for his scene no matter what. “Norman’s alarm didn’t go off and we put a [stunt] double in his wardrobe,” Nicotero said. “And Norman refused and got to set, stripped his clothes off on his way to set, and got in the shot before we were ready.”
Unfortunately, the DVD, which hits stores on Tuesday, August 23, doesn’t show the naked Reedus moment, but earlier this summer, fans freaked when the actor, 47, appeared in the buff in a trailer for a new video game Death Stranding. In the cryptic clip, he wakes up completely nude on a beach and is seen aimlessly strolling around.
So was Reedus’s nakedness some kind of protest for the fact that they started the shoot without him, or was he just trying to make it to work on time so he could get in costume as quickly as possible? Either way it sounds pretty rude the way it’s being phrased. As US mentions, Reedus has a history of pulling pranks on set and recently glitter bombed Andrew Lincoln’s car by putting glitter in all the air vents. You can see that video here, Lincoln does not look amused. At Comic-Con, Lincoln explained that he vacuumed the car but that the next time he turned on the air conditioning it sprayed him with glitter all over again. Then he turned to Reedus and blew glitter all over him. There was so much blowback that the glitter got in Lincoln’s beard too. Maybe Reedus just feels so comfortable on set that he got naked to save time in wardrobe, but given what a prankster he is I think there was an element of that in it too.
Here’s the link to the trailer for the video game Death Stranding which US mentions. It’s just an avatar of Reedus that’s naked and you only see his booty so I hardly think that counts.
Looking through Reedus’s Instagram, it seems pretty deliberate that he got his kit off.
A video posted by norman reedus (@bigbaldhead) on Aug 5, 2016 at 12:03pm PDT
A video posted by norman reedus (@bigbaldhead) on Aug 16, 2016 at 11:44am PDT
photos credit: Pacific Coast News, Getty and Instagram
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