Here’s the transcript of the fandom-related part of Reedus’s interview, for anyone interested. It’s worth listening to, however, just to hear his tone.
Norman: I will be doing a spin off, it’s a different spin off than I thought I was going to do because Melissa wants a break.
Alex: Which is totally understandable that she wants a break!
Norman: 12 straight years.
Norman: And I get it and she deserves it. In the meantime I’m gonna go on a thing, I’m gonna see what happens over here. I’m sure those characters will come back together. There might be a world where a lot of characters will come back together, I don’t know. Those decisions are made in rooms I’m not invited into. It all coincides into one big soup.
Alex: (Blah blah about the fan base, ownership, personal and private life) Melissa is not Carol. You’re not Daryl.
Norman: It’s a thing to deal with. Do you know how many girlfriends I’ve had that have been threatened? Because I’m not with Beth or Carol in real life? It makes zero sense. It’s fucking bananas. And the social media thing—I thought it would be over by now. Why are we still doing this? Is it really fun? Not really. Do you know why are we doing it? I thought it would be done. It’s nice to reach out and hear from different people, but yeah .
Norman: Oh, you eat a pie. Whatever.
Alex: People feeling like they have a right to your private life, and you want to reach out to your fans and you want to share, but you have a right to say there are only certain things I’m going to share. And it’s a balance that seems hard for a lot of people. Like I’m glad that you’re obsessed with my show, I love that you’re that passionate about my character, but remember I’m a human being!
Norman: It’s literally been 12 years. Here I am with a knife (gagging noise) pouring it all out for you. Like you’re literally, like it’s all right here on the table and you’re going to dissect it? And you’re going to throw it in the microwave and turn it into something else? Like what are you doing? So there’s a balance and there’s a bunch of assholes on the Internet. Seems like the assholes are the loudest and they try the hardest to be the assholes. I will say I know a lot of cool people. Cool people never go on the Internet and tell you you’re not cool. They don’t need to do that, you know. Pretty people don’t go on and tell people you’re ugly. It doesn’t work like that. So you can kind of raise a big ass hole flag, you know what I mean?
Alex: And lot of it stems from their insecurities and their fears and it’s easy to be braggadocious (sp). And it’s easy to be big-balled when you’re behind a screen and it’s the way it works. When you hate another person because of their sexuality or the color of their skin it’s because of a fear.
Norman: We all know what you’re doing, you know? We don’t care. We don’t want to hear it.
Alex: How do you have that balance though? You’ve had this incredibly long career, not only Walking Dead, you had Boondock Saints. I also loved you in Blade 2. So where do you find that balance of sharing with the fans but also keeping your own self?
Norman: There’s a mute button on there. There’s a mute button, and an unfollow button, and a block button, and I hit those buttons all the time. And then sometimes I don’t look. I really thought it would be over by now, I thought it was a fad, that we would be onto something else now. But to be honest with you I’m kind of bored with it. It’s kind of boring. I’d just rather meet people.
Alex: Like can we be over with it by now?
Norman: And look at your profile picture. That’s not your picture. I know that person. That’s not you. 2 billion people think they’re Selena Gomez. No you’re not. Stop it.
https://soundcloud.com/alexditrolio/norman-reedus-on-the-ravaged-and-the-walking-dead
