Interview: Koko Ntuen
Photographer: Shanna Fisher
Styled By: Quentin Fears

Norman Reedus, of Boondock Saints fame, is a veritable jack-of-all-trades. In addition to his acting, he is a talented artist and has been showing his work as a painter, sculptor and photographer since his early days working in a Harley Davidson shop in Venice Beach. Since then, he has appeared in films alongside talents such as Willem Dafoe, Stephen Dorff and Gretchen Mol, among others. Though he may be playing wild zombie-killer Daryl Dixon in the hit show, The Walking Dead by day, by night Reedus is a devoted father to his son, Mingus (named after the legendary Jazz musician, Charles Mingus).

With an upcoming film release and a new season of The Walking Dead on the way and a title role in Lady Gaga’s latest epic music video Judas, Reedus invited us to his Chinatown Apartment for a chat.

LG: When did you realize you wanted to be an actor?
Norman Reedus: I didn’t really have an idea I wanted to act until I did it. I remember a scene in my first film called Floating. There was one bit where my father in the film had to stand up out of a wheelchair and hug me after all this horrible shit happened. The director came in and asked how I wanted to prepare for the scene. I literally asked what my options were. I had no idea. I ended up just calling my real dad, who was coincidentally sick and in a wheel chair. Then I did the scene five minutes later. A grip came up to me after lunch in my little holding room where I slept for an hour while everyone went to lunch. He told me nobody spoke during lunch and [that they] hardly ate their food. Maybe he was just being nice because he knew I hadn’t done this before, and it was at that moment I thought, “Oh… this shit isn’t fake, it’s real.” I am always looking to feel that again somewhere, as much as I can. It changed something in me. I’m really fortunate and happy this job found me and that I found it. I’m always very grateful for that.