Steven Yeun says he didn’t fight to stay on The Walking Dead as Glenn. Yeun is currently garnering Oscar buzz for his performance in the film Minari, but of course most people still primarily remember him for playing Glenn Rhee on AMC’s long running drama set in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse.
Yeun was indeed an original member of the Walking Dead cast, debuting in the show’s groundbreaking first season under showrunner Frank Darabont and continuing as a central character until his shocking demise at the hands of Negan in the season 7 premiere. The death of Glenn was indeed more than just a shock for TWD fans but actually may have chased many of them away. Ratings for the show in fact began to sag after that season 7 premiere, and many trace the show’s decline as a juggernaut to the jarring moment when Negan brutally murdered Glenn and Abraham with his iconic baseball bat Lucille. Of course this arguably was a strange moment for many to jump ship on TWD, as the show was already filled with violence and gore before Negan’s arrival.
Speaking to Riz Ahmed as part of Variey’s Actors on Actor series, Glenn actor Yeun talked about his controversial and blood-soaked exit from TWD and indicated that he didn’t struggle against the decision to write his character out of the show. “There wasn’t really much of a fight on my end,” the actor said. He then went on to explain why he may have begun to feel the character of Glenn – a “plucky, nice guy” in his words – was ultimately limiting:
“But I couldn’t be stopped there. I couldn’t be stuck servicing just a genial natured guy for the rest of my career. On the inside, I didn’t feel that way. On the inside, I can be angry, I can be vengeful. I can be all the other things, and I wanted to explore those things for myself.”
Indeed Glenn became a fan favorite in part because of his “nice guy” persona, though the character did always have a bit of a daredevil side as well, which made him someone fans wanted to identify with. As Yeun himself expressed elsewhere in the new interview, Glenn eventually became a “moral compass” for the show, a role he was happy to “service” even though he thought it made the character more of an idea than a human being.
It’s certainly interesting to hear Yeun break down the character of Glenn, and come to the conclusion that the show’s writers ultimately stopped letting Glenn really grow, trapping Yeun to some extent inside an amiable persona that prevented him from exploring darker sides of himself. Actors obviously look for challenges, and it seems Yeun no longer felt challenged by playing Glenn as TWD played out. Though fans are still sad Glenn exited the show in season 7, it doesn’t seem that Yeun is particularly upset to no longer be playing the somewhat one-dimensional character. Indeed, Yeun’s career choices have been very interesting since he left The Walking Dead, and his desire to challenge himself may soon pay off by snagging him an Oscar nomination.
