Norman Reedus
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If nothing else 2014 taught me the power of perseverance, of holding tight to an idea and seeing it thru to the end, no matter what obstacles got in the way. It also forced me to work, HARD, on my pretty much non-existent patience, while simultaneously saying, “whoa there Neddy” to my misery making ego!
Cut to one year, one month, two weeks, three days, twelve hours, fifteen minutes, three seconds later and while my left eye might twitch a little more than it use to we are now able to bear witness to the beautiful fruits of my labor and hang with the most handsome zombie killing machine on the screen today, Norman Reedus. Not that I would know anything about that, of course, as I have an almost pathological fear of zombies, be they funny or serious, and won’t go anywhere near a screen with them on it. So afraid, am I, of zombies I won’t live in Manhattan any more ‘cause when the time arrives, and it will, the bridges are gonna be blown up and you will be trapped on the island not wondering if you will get eaten alive but when! At least if you live in one of the outer boroughs you have a fighting chance of making it to the zombie safe forts that the army will build in record time.
Hhhmm, I know a little nuts but luckily most people in America do not harbor such paranoid delusions, zombies have gone mainstream, The Walking Dead has become the #1 show on TV and Norman Reedus is a world wide superstar. Fans literally surround airplanes just waiting to get a glimpse of their super hero. His apartment is knee deep in fan mail, boxes of which arrive daily and he has well over a million followers on Instagram. It’s enough to make anyones heads swell to narcissistic prick face proportions but not, it seems Mr Reedus. What is cool about Norman -
is that while on screen he is a smoldering, “I take myself very seriously, nothing gets in my way and survives,” stud muffin, ( for research purposes I squinted thru some truly terrifying episodes) in real life he is actually wonderfully weird with a child like enthusiasm for life. I had not seen Norman since we met on the set of a video over ten years ago. We quickly caught up on kids, life, the state of the constitution (no not really) and he also had a chance to explain why it took so damn long for us to meet up! His schedule is insane! I thought I had a hectic life but after hearing about his it makes mine sound like a gentle drive in the country on a Sunday afternoon! He literally zips all around the world about eight times a week, so much so that just before Christmas he actually ended up collapsing and being diagnosed with exhaustion. Not that, that made him slow down. In between the two times I went to his apt a month passed, during which he directed a music video for The Bots, in the desert, shot a movie with Lena Dunham and Diane Kruger, came back to NYC for twenty four hours, went back to LA for one more day and then rushed back to NYC, for a hot second, to appear on Fallon. Oh and did I mention that on top of all of that he is also a dad to a most handsome 15 year old lad, whom he wakes up every morning for school, when he is in town, by strumming on the lads electric guitar that sits just in front of the life size grizzly bear which stands next to a giant poster of three perfect sport illustrated bikini clad bottoms frolicking by the ocean! Boys!
With so much going on in his life and always being on the road I wondered how it was even -
possible to sustain a relationship. He said it was hard, very hard. I should point out at this moment in time that while we were having this conversations, about the perils of dating, Norman had just changed into a fluffy all in one skeleton outfit paired with zombie bunny slippers, stripey socks, donned some dark glasses and was busy smoking a ciggy. (Like I said, wonderfully weird!) The internet, he said, was often very cruel to his girlfriends and with long stretches apart adding to the stress it often got too much for the relationships to handle. I told him not to give up hope, that the key was to find some one who thought this outfit was the coolest thing ever! He seemed skeptical there was anyone out there like that and fair enough the dating scene in New York is harder and scarier than fighting off any death eating zombies. Which is actually what Norman is going to be doing again in a little over a month when he once again picks up his cross bow and heads back down south to start filming the sixth season of The Walking Dead. At least with zombies you know where you stand. Their emotions don’t flip flop, the moon cycle doesn’t affect their feelings for you, they don’t care if your friend is way cuter or has bigger boobs. They know what they want and goddam do they go for it! Perhaps zombies aren’t so bad after all, especially if it means you also get to hang out with soft n fluffy, FleetWood Mac loving, bad ass Norman Reedus…
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Who is Norman Reedus?
a dad. my dad
What did you want to be when you grew up?
jacques cousteau
How did you get to be where you are?
im not totally sure.
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If you could go back in time and give your 16-year-old self some advice what would it be?
put away the parachute pants . learn to roller-skate
If the cupboard in your bedroom would lead you to another world what would your Narnia look like?
the robot restaurant in shinjuku
By day you are a ….. by night you are….?
actor ………….. spread out
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What was one of your favorite past projects…
collective hardware, six ways to sunday bigbaldbook. the rub. filthy little fruit.a life-size me covered in rats
What are you working on now. and what do you dream of happening in the future…
still shooting walking dead. just wrapped “sky” “air” and “triple nine” group show with mint/serf in la. and finishing this video for the bots. and another book. radio show for sirius. silent hill.
What song do you love that you keep secret cause its too embarrassing to say publicly you like it…..
pretty in pink
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Any advice for peeps just starting out?
dont listen to anybody. listen to everybody
Is there a quote or mantra you live by?
i listen to fleetwood mac