‘Walking Dead’ Q&A: Norman Reedus On Daryl & Aaron Scenes & Season Finale Hints

Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon in ‘The Walking Dead’ (AMC)

After living outside and on the edge for so long, fitting in in Alexandria has been difficult for the group on “The Walking Dead.”

They have all faced struggles adjusting to life in Alexandria, but things seemed to take a turn for the positive for Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon when Aaron (Ross Marquand) asked him to be the other recruiter.

“I have to say, the scene with he and I in the garage when he tells me he wants me to start going on missions and stuff, that was one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever done on the show,” Norman told Access Hollywood.

PHOTOS: ‘The Walking Dead’ Candid Pics From The Set, Volume 2

It was a beautiful moment that had many fans getting misty-eyed as Aaron offered Daryl a role of great importance to the community (something Daryl did before at The Prison). And in the 90-minute “The Walking Dead” Season 5 finale this Sunday night on AMC, although there will be intensity, there will also be some of those sweeter moments (like the one in garage or horse scenes) for Norman’s character and his fellow recruiter.

“There are some like heart-racing moments that we approach in that same vein… with Daryl and Aaron,” Norman said.

WATCH: ‘Walking Dead’ Cast: The Most Awkward Place I’ve Been Recognized

But, don’t expect them to last. There will be twists for all of the characters. This is, after all, “The Walking Dead.”

“I mean, there are reasons why things happen and you’re not going to love the outcome on certain things and you’re not going to understand the outcome of certain things, but you’re gonna feel this sweetness in other things, and the fear,” he said. “And sometimes, if there’s something that’s full of fear, there’s an honesty that comes out, because this might be your last hurrah, you know what I’m saying?”

For more about Sunday’s finale (followed by his return to “Talking Dead”) Access spoke with Norman. But, we also had to go back in time a little bit and address Episode 13 of this season, “Forget,” where the Daryl and Aaron bonds began to be forged over a horse named Buttons.

AccessHollywood.com: Are you prepared for the Internet to break when you and Melissa [McBride] sit on the same couch this weekend on ‘Talking Dead’?
Norman Reedus: Yeah, I love to break stuff.

Access: It’s exciting because I don’t think the two of you have been on that show at the same time before. You must be feeling the love around that whole situation, right?
Norman: Yeah, I mean, Melissa’s my girl. She’s a good friend of mine and a great actress. I respect her, she’s my buddy. It’s exciting to go on there – and with Scott [Gimple, ‘TWD’ showrunner] as well.

PHOTOS: ‘‘The Walking Dead’: More Scenes From Season 5

Access: She actually told me earlier this season that the, ‘You look ridiculous’ line that Daryl says to Carol was [an] ad-lib. I was just curious how common that is that you guys get to ad-lib?
Norman: We get to do it a little bit here and there, but in all honesty, we work those things out with Scott way in advance, so if we want to change something or add something, we usually run it by Scott because he’s so good at what he does, and he just makes it sound better, but I just had to throw that one out there (laughs) and everyone started cracking up and Greg [Nicotero] really liked it, so he kept it.

Access: One of the things I’ve been [wanting to ask] you about was obviously the Aaron and Daryl stuff this season, which was so beautiful. What did you think when you read those pages of the script?
Norman: I guess I approached it sort of like Daryl would, like, ‘Who’s the new guy?’ and I kind of was hesitant and I spent a lot of time listening, more than talking, and I guess I approached him as Daryl would – ‘Who’s this new guy?’ and ‘Can I trust him?’ and I think I did as Norman as well, like, ‘Who is this new guy and what’s he going to be about?’ and ‘Is he going to fit in this group? What are we going to take from and discover with him?’ But I have to say, the scene with he and I in the garage when he tells me he wants me to start going on missions and stuff, that was one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever done on the show. … He’s such a good actor and he’s so nice to work with, and such a cool guy, but the scene in the garage, like when I tell him, ‘I got nothing else to do’ — that was one of my favorite scenes ever, I’ve done on the show, I have to say.

Access: How come?
Norman: It was just real. It was just honest and it was real and it was — I didn’t know him and I only hung out with him while we filmed really, and I just met him and there’s a bunch of new people on set and this is a new town and you know, I’m kind of separated from the group. The last half of this season, I’m going off on missions with him and the rest of my family are inside doing scenes together, so I didn’t really see a lot of my castmates to be honest, because I only showed up on set when I worked with him, so I kind of felt like an outsider and Daryl felt like an outsider and it was very shallow waters to walk in. And that scene felt like — to me, it felt like Daryl didn’t know him very well, but he was opening up a little bit to him, and he was a good guy and you can trust him and like he said, Daryl’s good at telling who’s a good person and who’s a bad person. And… it was kind of like running a marathon and busting through the ribbon at the end, that scene.

Access: [Speaking of that episode], the horse stuff too was just so emotional and lovely. What was that like to shoot? Was it super- technical because of the giant [horse] involved or more emotional?
Norman: It was a bunch of both, because it was a big horse, and you had a bunch of horse wranglers dressed as zombies tackling the horse to the ground. But that whole scene was — it was originally written as, after Aaron shoots the horse and puts it out of its misery that Daryl says — in a comforting way — ‘Hey, you were just trying to help.’ But I kind of changed it a little bit as sort of foreshadowing what you’re doing to our group in Alexandria. Like, this horse was totally fine out on its own and you had to go capture it and now you killed it, and it was surviving out here and it was free when there’s no freedom left in the world. And the horse was running free in the woods, and it was healthy and it was doing okay and you know, you try to domesticate it, sort of like you’re trying to domesticate our group and put ’em in this cage, sort of. And to Daryl, that means probably a bigger deal than to some of the other characters. But, I kind of threw that line at him like, ‘See what you did? See what you had to do? And see what happened?’ and kind of threw it over my shoulder at him instead of patting him on the back with it and I think it kind of tells the story also of how Daryl feels now that we’re in this location that is not very Daryl-esque, you know what I mean? Daryl likes to be out and move and I think that worked really, really well and the sadness that he showed on his face and the realization of, ‘I should’ve just let it be,’ I think it… that scene worked really, really well.

Access: Do you think there is anything that could be done to make Daryl fit in in Alexandria — where he would be comfortable there?
Norman: I think he’s trying right now. I mean, he doesn’t want to take a gun – he has a crossbow. You know, it’s funny, it’s like that whole thing about like, why doesn’t he want a gun? Well, he’s still carrying a crossbow. But I think he’s trying. … He did it in the prison, you know what I mean? He could do it there. It’s not like Alexandria, as a structure, is freaking him out, it’s just — I mean, if you look at all the stuff that they’ve gone through, it’s — who are these people? And these people don’t get it and these people have basically been untouched in this area and they send one or two little dudes out to like run a mission every once in a while and they play with zombies and stuff like that. They just don’t get it. They’re not wild like we are. … They’re not wild and we’re wild and it’s a bunch of wild animals going into like a petting zoo.

Access: So… the W’s… the people with the W’s in the woods and the woman with her entrails out — how worried is Daryl about having seen that stuff?
Norman: He knows what the world consists of and he knows the people that are out there and the people that are surviving now at this point are pretty much the worst kind of people… or at least the ones they keep running into, and I think when he comes across those limbs on the ground and that one girl that’s been tied up and basically gutted and fed to them, he knows what’s around them and it’s a very tense moment because, you know, it’s like a Tyrannosaurus running around in an amusement park. You have to prepare yourself for people like that and I mean, Daryl knows that there are some really bad baddies real close.

Access: More than a lot of people. So, I wanted to ask you a question about deaths on TV. It kind of feels like killing off characters has kind of become the thing to do, but I feel like the great thing about ‘The Walking Dead’ is every time you guys kill somebody off, it really does hurt. … Why do you think it does hurt so much and deaths on ‘The Walking Dead’ do matter and do mean something?
Norman: I think, on this show in particular — there’s other shows that I love that do that as well — but I think on this show in particular, you become so involved with this small group of people and if you have a shocker death on a show and there’ s a million characters, it sucks and it’s a shocker, but there’s a million characters. … We keep it to the core group on this show and you get involved with them over time, and you see their losses and their triumphs and all these things and then, you lose one of them – it’s a lot like real life. Like, you always feel like you have more time with the ones you love and the ones you’re close to and when death in real life happens, you’re just not ready. Even if you’re prepared for it, you’re never ready for that… and I think the characters feel it with each other as well. I think Daryl thought he had way more time with Beth. I think we all thought we had way more time with her, so we had way more time with all the characters, and when they go, it’s just such a harsh reality that time is precious and life is precious and we’re clinging on to that, so I think it really strikes a chord with this show.

“The Walking Dead” Season 5 finale airs Sunday at 9 PM ET/PT on AMC.

— Jolie Lash