Steven Yeun talks Glenn in ‘Walking Dead’ season 3 and the ‘Can’t live with them, can’t live without them’ theme
Steven Yeun brought Glenn to life in the first season of “The Walking Dead,” capturing the nerdy, geeky survivor of Atlanta. Two season later and Glenn has changed.
Talking with Channel Guide Mag Blog, Yeun explains that a girlfriend, becoming a warrior of sorts and maturing were part of the plan.
“I think it’s been an organic, kind of natural expression of the growth of the character and my growth in the show,” Yeun says. “In the first season, for me as Steven, it was, ‘How do I not mess this amazing gig up?’ For Glenn, it was kind of the same. You’re there for a reason, Glenn is there for a reason, but what is it exactly? He was still trying to find that identity. And then the second season was a lot of him realizing what his true purpose was and what it means to survive in that type of situation, which is mainly to live for another person or other people. Even as Steven the actor, I found more understanding of what my purpose was an actor and how to play this character. And then third season is both us kind of actualizing it.”
When Glenn escapes and kills a zombie left for him by Merle, he releases an incredible scream.
“You know, that scream actually wasn’t scripted — that just came out of the scene. Dan Sackheim, who was our director for that episode, gave me free rein in that moment to just play. I was kicking stuff over and falling and picking myself back up and it was so crazy and intense. And finally, once that actual hit happened, my only reaction was to just let it out. So, yeah, you could call it a thesis statement, but I don’t think Glenn is done growing. Glenn is still very much a young man — and when traumatic things like that happen, sometimes with youth you kind of overstep your boundaries, as well. I think people will be interested to see how far he takes this.”
Yeun addresses if he thinks the family unit of those in Rick’s group have an advantage or disadvantage to those in Woodbury.
“It seems like in this world you need people to survive and yet people are also your biggest downfall and opposition. Again, it’s that basic premise of “You can’t live with ’em and you can’t live without ’em.” What’s really interesting to me about the difference between Rick and The Governor is you can argue that it’s just two different ways of surviving in this situation. Who’s to say what’s right and wrong? I know that being morally upstanding and trying to preserve society is the altruistic ideal, but there were people last year who were like, ‘Shane is right, Shane is doing it the right way’ — which is survival of the fittest. As far as The Governor, you don’t know what direction he is going to go. What was the point of Woodbury? And who’s to say what’s right? It’s just where you identify. What’s interesting now is to see two different modes of survival clash. And two minds clash. It’s going to make for some interesting television.”
Check out the entire interview here.
“The Walking Dead” returns Sunday February 10 on AMC.
Pittsburgh Steeler great Hines Ward get to appear as a zombie
Pittsburgh Steeler great Hines Ward get to appear as a zombie
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I still just think Zombieland was over-hyped. I think this looks far superior. I mean who knows maybe it would have worekd better as a TV show but that movie did not sell me on the idea. I just hope AMC manages to squeeze both Meth and Advertising into this show fingers crossed.
Thanks for sharing this interview with Steven Yeun before this Sunday’s midseason premiere. Glenn is one of my favorite characters and I agree that he has found his voice and role within the group, which is going to make for a very interesting second half. I’ve been re-watching the first part of the season to get ready for the premiere since I recorded all of them on my DISH Hopper. I like to review episodes of my favorite shows on my days off from work at DISH and I can do that without needing to delete anything for space because my DVR holds up to 2,000 hours of entertainment.
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