'The Walking Dead': Jeffrey Dean Morgan on Negan's Jail, Relationship With Rick

Negan returned to The Walking Dead in Sunday's Episode 9x02 for a confrontation with Rick Grimes which was actually quite claustrophobic and hot for Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9x02 follow. Major spoilers!

In an interview which premiered on ComicBook.com's live After the Dead show (seen in the video above), Morgan opened up about his first appearance on The Walking Dead in its ninth season. After spending years gallivanting as the bully humbling Rick Grimes and his group of survivors, he is now locked in a jail cell which is actually a tight, concrete set.

"I've been there for a little bit," Morgan said of Negan. "It's definitely a change of pace. It's been a little bit humbling, really. I'm used to having free reign on the set. The character, as well, but as an actor I get so much freedom to be Negan. 'Use it all, use your space.' Now there's no space to use, so I'm very much confined to this very small area."

Morgan Jones built the Alexandrian jail cell a couple of seasons back before heading off to Fear the Walking Dead for the crossover. As it turns out, the set which Morgan built is actually quite close to a real jail cell. "It's a very confined hot space," Morgan said. "A little behind the scenes for you, here: usually when you have something like a jail cell, you do it on a set, on a studio sound stage. You can take the roof off or a wall out so you can film, it allows you room to do that. This is actually a solid brick, hotter than hell ten by ten space that we go in there with our camera guys and me and another actor, although they're never in the cell with me, it's very tight. It's super claustrophobic! It's probably helping me, a little bit, as an actor."

Still, the tight space is giving Negan a long time to consider his actions and reevaluate himself. "Trying to find yourself or rediscover who you truly are, for Negan, has been a tough deal," Morgan said. "The first scene in 9x02 is probably the ballsiest he's been in a while." Still, don't expect anything too different from the show's former villain who saw an anti-hero turn of sorts in the comics. "Negan's always gonna be Negan, right?" Morgan adds. "Let's hope he never loses his bite! I did love that line, it made me very happy."

In the end, the former villain still has control of Rick Grimes, in some ways. For example, mentioning Carl when Rick was gloating about the new world he is creating seemed to put a serious damper on the Alexandria leader's day. "I do know that more than anything, what Negan knows that he's still got control of, is he can push Rick's buttons," Morgan said. "I don't think anyone's ever pushed Rick's buttons like Negan has and it doesn't matter what place and where he is and what he's going through. If he can figure out a way to get under his skin, he's gonna do it."

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. Fear the Walking Dead returns for its fifth season in 2019. For more updates and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter!