ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim spoke with Norman Reedus, the actor set to appear in The Bikeriders and known for his roles in The Walking Dead and The Boondock Saints. The Bikeriders will be released in theaters on June 21.
“The Bikeriders captures a rebellious time in America when the culture and people were changing,” reads the official synopsis. “After a chance encounter at a local bar, strong-willed Kathy (Jodie Comer) is inextricably drawn to Benny (Austin Butler), the newest member of Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals led by the enigmatic Johnny (Tom Hardy). Much like the country around it, the club begins to evolve, transforming from a gathering place for local outsiders into a dangerous underworld of violence, forcing Benny to choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club.”
Jonathan Sim: Since you’ve had such a long, incredible history in film and TV when Jeff Nichols cast you, was he familiar with your work, and did he encourage you to bring any of your other roles into Funny Sonny?
Norman Reedus: No, I was shooting The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon in Paris, and I was at Cannes sitting next to him at a dinner. We started talking and he said, “I have a movie. I got this role. Do you want to play this role in this movie?” And I said, “Yeah, what is it?” And he goes, “It’s a film called The Bikeriders.”
I was like, “Wait, the Danny Lyons photo book?” And he said, “You know that?” And I’m like, “Yeah, I got a couple of photos in my house. I have a signed Danny book of that book.” So we started talking about it. And then he sent me the script and who was playing what roles, and I was like, “Dude, you got a lot of good-looking guys in this movie. Do you mind if I try something else and go in a different direction?” And he was like, “Yeah, go for it.” So I had Greg Nicotero in the special effects team in France for Walking Dead make the teeth. And then I would bounce back and forth from Paris to Ohio trying to get used to the teeth. And that’s how it started.
Interesting. So were you working on The Bikeriders and Walking Dead at the same time?
Yeah, same time. I was shooting both of those at the same time.
How much were you allowed to sort of improvise and come up with your own ideas for this character?
Jeff, he lets all the actors find their own sort of voice, you know? He’s very collaborative with all of the actors. Can I try this? Can I try that? He’s down for it. He’s very easy to work with, and you feel like you’re in good hands, like you trust him. He’s got that thing where you want to please him because you like him, you know what I mean? And you feel safe with him. So we all got to do that.
So I want to hear a little bit more about the methodology that Jeff Nichols had on set when it came to directing actors like yourself and what made it different from some of the other directors that you’ve worked with before?
Some directors are like, say it this way, I wrote it this way, it’s gotta be this way. And, you know, Jeff’s adaptive, he feels the room, he can sense things. You know, there was a, we did press yesterday, and they asked Jodie [Comer] and Austin [Butler] and Jeff and I what your favorite scene was, and everybody said the campfire scene. And then Jeff said, “you know, it’s interesting that everybody picked that scene, especially for Norman because after Michael Shannon gave his speech, Norman came up to me, and he said, “Can I change this? Because I love the way that he just did that.” And I think that means, like, Sonny’s listening to that going, “Man, he’s just like me. He’s exactly like me. Like, he’s kind of a screw-up. People look at him like that. Like, they look at me like that.”
And I always thought that Sonny was coming up from California was like a punishment. Like the guys in California, like “you screwed up, you’re gonna go do it.” So he was like, “Ugh, I hate you guys.” And he’s riding across country, thinking about how much he can’t stay on ’em and why do I have to drive all the way out of it with my butt hurts on this bike and I’m hungry and I wanna nap and it’s a long ride, you know what I’m saying? So when he gets there, that speech that Michael gives makes him go, “oh man, these guys are just like me, I’m gonna hang out with you guys for a while. They’ll never know back there. They’ll never know I’m hanging out with you instead. Let’s party or whatever.”
And Jeff brought it up in the interview. And he said, you know, that the way Michael did that affected Norman, and Norman came to me and said, “Can I change stuff?” And he let me. So he’s really easy to work with, and he’s, for all the right reasons, you kind of find it together under his guidance, and he lets you own it a little, you know what I mean?
No, I definitely see that. And are there any moments with anything else that you can think of where you feel like you were able to bring a bit of yourself into this character and really reveal a little bit about him, maybe without dialogue or simply just by the actions that you were able to portray?
Well, the teeth, the teeth I brought in right away, the words we worked on together, the bike was really hard to ride because it had a rubber ducky on top of the suicide shift, and so I couldn’t hold the rubber ducky without breaking it off. So I used my two little fingers under it, and I’m trying to thread it and get it in gear with just the tips of my two little fingers, and then right before he says go. I borrowed those glasses, and they were prescription, and I didn’t know it until I took off, and so there were like little things that are all lots of me in there, you know?
But on the other end of that, I’m shooting Daryl Dixon in France at the same time, and I didn’t want to look like Daryl Dixon, dirty biker guy over there because I already look like dirty Daryl Dixon biker guy over there. You know what I mean? So I didn’t want to be Daryl makes a cameo in the movie. I wanted to find something different, you know?
All right, awesome. What do you think is gonna be the biggest thing that separates season two of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon from season one? Is there anything that you’re particularly excited for people to see?
Well, Melissa joins Full Force in season two, and I’ve said in interviews before, the finale of season two, I think, is the best one hour of Walking Dead anything ever. Like ever, all of it. Yeah, it’s absolutely mind-blowing.
Yeah. That is a high bar to say, especially with this incredible legacy. Now, one more, I wanted to ask about another upcoming project for yours I think a lot of people are also really excited to see, which is The Boondock Saints 3. So is there anything else that you can share about the current status of that movie as well?
Just that it’s happening, and it’s going to be bigger. Yeah, it’s the group that did the John Wick stuff, so they’re making a big thing of it. Yeah, the opening scene of it, I think they’re keeping the original script idea, which is awesome, you know. So there’s obviously we have to break out of jail. We’re in jail, you know. We’ve been in jail for a long time.
