Henry Rollins inspired The Walking Dead’s Negan, thought he was a shoo-in for the part
Thanks to online quizzes, any fan can determine which character they would be on their favorite TV shows. But Henry Rollins had more reason than most to think he could be a part of The Walking Dead—it turns out he was the physical model for the nefarious Negan. In an interview with Forbes, Rollins reveals that Charlie Adlard, artist and penciller for the Walking Dead comics, had based the character on him. He doesn’t clarify if that means the character has his temperament, build, or bat, but he did feel he was a “shoo-in” for the part.
“The internet was wild with speculation because in the upcoming season, they were going to introduce the character. A woman that works in my office put my name and the character’s name into an internet search and all this speculation came up. I went for the audition, and there were five pages of really cool dialogue with all these curses and it was beautiful, but I didn’t get it.
Despite giving a profanity-ridden audition, Rollins was ultimately passed over for Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who made his first appearance as Negan in that “controversial” season six finale. The actor-musician signed a non-disclosure agreement, so he couldn’t talk about his audition until the thing had lapsed. On the bright side, Rollins agrees that Morgan looks like Negan, which means he looks like Rollins, so maybe they can play irascible brothers in a movie down the road. In the meantime, you can catch Rollins in the thriller, The Last Heist, which hits theaters, VOD, and iTunes today.
[via IGN]