For an actor who is probably best known for playing the vicious Negan Smith on The Walking Dead, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has had a varied acting career since he debuted in the early 1990s. However, he did not find his groove until being cast as the Comedian in 2009’s Watchmen, an adaptation of the bestselling graphic novel, nearly 20 years after his first film role. In an in-depth interview with Parade, Morgan detailed his career struggles in his early years and even recounts a moment when he had second thoughts about his acting career.
Though he has had plenty of success in film and television over the last 15 years, Morgan almost fell into acting over 30 years ago almost by accident. He shares, “I grew up in Seattle during the grunge rock movement in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. I knew all those guys, but I certainly wasn’t a musician. I thought about doing art because I had a graphic art company and was doing some album covers. But I had one buddy who was an actor and moving to L.A., and I helped him move. I met a casting director, and she was like, ‘You should try this.’ I mean, what did I have to lose? I immediately got a lead in a Roger Corman movie [1991’s Uncaged] with a girl from Head of the Class. I remember driving down Sunset Boulevard with a camera mounted to the front of a convertible Cadillac and thinking, Jesus Christ, I did it! Then I struggled for the next 20 years.”
How Jeffrey Dean Morgan Overcame Setbacks to Find His Place in Hollywood
Morgan admits that a little over 20 years ago he thought he was ready to give up on acting after a particularly unsatisfying experience. He recalls, “I had done an episode of one of those Star Trek spinoffs [Star Trek: Enterprise in 2003], and I played a Xindi alien. I was in full prosthetics, and I hated it. I got claustrophobic and was like, Why am I doing this? You couldn’t even tell it was me, and they wanted me to change my voice. I was really done. But the problem was that I really didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t have any education.”
Of course, Morgan managed to eventually find his way to success on screen and has maintained it over the last 15 years. Though he chalks it up to luck, he also realizes that another important factor is attitude. He says, “I think I’m very lucky. Well, I don’t think it’s all luck. I still haven’t ruined my reputation by being a big asshole. I know a lot of people who are really good actors who don’t work because they’re assholes. So I’m going to go down just trying not to be one. I don’t want to embarrass my kids!”
