The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus didn't want Bikeriders character to resemble Daryl
Reedus plays a character called Funny Sonny in the new film.
There's no doubt that the role which Norman Reedus is best known for is The Walking Dead's Daryl Dixon – and so the star was keen to make sure his character in new film The Bikeriders did not resemble him in any way.
The drama sees Reedus take on the role of Funny Sonny – a real man who appeared in several images in the 1967 photo-book on which the film is based – and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, he chatted about how he built out the character from those stills.
"You know, you're looking at photos of Funny Sonny, and he's... there's not a lot about him," he said. "But you can tell a lot about his personality, I think, through his photos, he looks like kind of a wild man. Always up to have fun, you know.
"So we came up with this idea to have rotted teeth and the whole look of him. And I hadn't met the cast yet. So I sort of showed up that way.
"So I'm like walking around Ohio, going to, like, Starbucks and Target and all these places with these teeth in my mouth, trying to see if people could understand me! Because it takes a while to get used to talking with a mouth full of plastic teeth, you know."
He added: "So we kind of... I didn't want to look like Daryl Dixon in the film. You know what I mean? So we sort of created this character."
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Speaking of The Walking Dead, Reedus will shortly reprise his role as Daryl for the second season of his own self-titled spin-off show – which will see the return of Melissa McBride as fan favourite character Carol.
And if Reedus's view is anything to go by, it sounds like fans are in for a treat when it comes to the next run.
"That show is great," he said. "You know, when they offered us the show in France, we wanted a whole new writing team, new showrunners – and they allowed us to rebuild it, so it feels a lot like The Walking Dead in the first, like, couple of seasons. It has a real sort of independent artistic look to it and feel to it."
He added: "Season 2 is phenomenal. Season 1 was fun; season 2 is, like, mind-blowing. The finale of season 2, the last episode is the best... I'd say the best one hour of Walking Dead television ever. Like, ever... in everything.
"And we're about to start seasons 3 and possibly 4 in Spain. I think I'm allowed to say that. I don't know. I just said it. But I think we're going to Spain, to Madrid, for that – so we start that in... I want to say mid-August."
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The Bikeriders is now showing in UK cinemas.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
