‘The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus is set to appear in a new movie called ‘The Bikeriders.’
Reedus told ComicBook that he thought he would have to kiss Michael Shannon, who plays a character named Zipco. This idea came from some old photographs of their characters together. Reedus asked Nichols if they were going to act out those scenes, but Nichols told him that they wouldn’t be doing that:
“A lot of times when cops pulled up, it was kind of like [makes kissing sound], and there were those relationships back then. So I was like, ‘Are we playing that?’ And he’s like, ‘No, no, no, we’re not doing that.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ … ‘Should I be looking at him a certain way?’ He was like, ‘Norman, relax.’ But I had photographs and he sort of showed his personality through the photographs and then I kind of just ran with it.”
Reedus learned about Funny Sonny mostly through photographs, and he tried to create his personality based on them:
“I didn’t really have a lot of info on [the real-life Funny Sonny]. I had some photographs of him making out with Michael Shannon’s character. So when I got there, I was like, ‘Are we going to be making out? Are we doing that?’ And they were like, ‘What?'”
Here Is How He Got The Role
Reedus met Jeff Nichols at a dinner while filming in Paris. They started talking about motorcycles and the photography book. When Nichols mentioned he was directing ‘The Bikeriders,’ Reedus got excited because he knew the book well:
“So I was at Cannes and I was shooting ‘Daryl Dixon’ in Paris. I was sitting next to Jeff at a dinner and we were talking, having fun, having a really good time. And he goes, ‘Hey, I got a movie I’m directing called ‘The Bikeriders.’ And I was like, ‘Wait, the Danny Lyon photography book?’ And he goes, ‘You know about that?’ And I said, ‘I got a bunch of prints at my house. I have a signed book from Danny. Of course I know it.'”
After finding out who Nichols was, Reedus got the script and saw that many Tom Hardy and Austin Butler were in the movie:
“And then I go, ‘Who are you?’ And he goes, ‘I’m Jeff Nichols.’ And I was like, ‘Wait, did you direct ‘Mud’?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah.’ And I’m like, ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were Jeff Nichols? I directed ‘Mud’.’ And then he sends me the script and he tells me who’s in it. And I said, ‘Man, you got a lot of good-looking guys in your movie.’ I was like, ‘Can I try something else? Can I go in the opposite direction?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, do what you want.’ So that’s kind of how that happened.”
‘The Bikeriders’ will hit theaters on June 21, 2024. It’s based on a real motorcycle club from the 1960s in Chicago and is inspired by Danny Lyon’s photography book.
Watch the trailer below:
