Now that word is out about his role as Negan on "The Walking Dead," Jeffrey Dean Morgan is making it clear that he wants his portrayal of the character to be as close to the comics as he can make it -- even if that means testing AMC's boundaries."The character itself is going to be as close as humanly possible," he told Entertainment Weekly.New "Walking Dead" Clip Declares: Negan Is ComingAs to AMC's strict rules of about the use of profanity, he said, "Look, it's a speed bump. I'm not going to say it's an issue because they're working on it. We're going to push AMC -- the plan is to push them as far as they can because it's who Negan is. He uses some colorful language. And I use some colorful language. And reading the comic, it's important. So we'll see where that lands. It's our intention that this character is going to leap off the pages of the comic book. It's very important that that’s who it is. Some of the characters there's much more leeway, but Negan is a guy that you want to keep as true as possible, and that would be how I want to play him as well."He also revealed he had seen Lucille -- the bat with which Negan murders Glenn in the comics. "She is gorgeous," he shared. "She is a beautiful girl."Additionally, he opened up about his love for the comics and how he ultimately landed the role: "So a couple of years ago people started saying, 'Hey, man, you should be Negan in "The Walking Dead."' So I started reading the comic books just because I'm a fan and I love what [Robert] Kirkman is doing and so I was very aware of Negan and had read quite a bit of the comic books. So my agent and manager were on the phone and said, '"The Walking Dead" have offered you this thing,' but they didn't have any information. They didn't know the character’s name. It was all a big secret."RELATED: "Walking Dead" Showrunner Teases "Quite Deadly" Midseason Premiere"And they sort of got halfway through the sentence saying 'We don't know the character's name, he’s the new big bad…' and I knew immediately who they were talking about," he continued. "They just got halfway through and I knew immediately who it was. It was no question. I was like, 'Absolutely. We're going to f—ing do it!' And that was it. And literally a week later I was in Atlanta talking with the cast and hanging out."Based on the Image Comics series of the same name and created byRobert Kirkman, "The Walking Dead" will return Sunday, February 14 at 9 pm EST on AMC.
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