The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan Reveals Surprising Detail About Negan’s Look

Jeffrey Dean Morgan reveals an overlooked detail from Negan's time behind bars in recent seasons of The Walking Dead. In Season 9, taking place 18 months after he was defeated and captured by Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), an unkempt and bearded Negan was caged in the Alexandria jail serving a life sentence of solitary confinement. Following the mostly unseen six-year period skipped over after Rick's presumed death, Negan was given a cleaner, buzzed cut look — one Morgan achieved by taking a "really sharp" knife to his hair. In an interview promoting new at-home talk show Friday Night In With the Morgans, the Negan actor admits Walking Dead producers "weren't exactly thrilled" with his dangerous haircut:

"Negan is all about kind of ego is sort of my guess on this, but he does seem to have a nice haircut week in and week out," Morgan said on The Rich Eisen Show. "Here's how crazy I am: I decided to see if I could give myself a fade, the Negan fade, using a knife. So believe it or not, I cut my hair for that show using a knife [laughs]. I had to try it."

"I'm not a method guy, but I knew that I'd get asked — for years, 'How come no one is bugging Negan about his gelled up hair with his nice haircut?'" Morgan added. "When I was in jail, the season I was in jail, I decided to see if I could cut my hair using a really sharp knife. And you can. I cut myself a few times, but it's a possible thing. The producers weren't exactly thrilled."

Negan's life sentence has since been commuted, the result of a pact made with Carol (Melissa McBride) to infiltrate enemy group the Whisperers and kill leader Alpha (Samantha Morton). Now a free man, Negan is among the Alexandrians last seen trapped in an abandoned hospital tower surrounded by Whisperer Beta's (Ryan Hurst) walker horde.

"Negan is always complicated, and he has been on this interesting road where he's trying to fold into our group and they clearly didn't kick him out of the group, but I think depending on the person, they're going to have a very different interpretation of events and how they feel about him," showrunner Angela Kang previously told Entertainment Weekly about Negan's attempt to assimilate into the group led by Daryl (Norman Reedus). "But, for now, they're all just trying to make it through."

The Walking Dead next airs the Season 10 finale, "A Certain Doom," as a special episode later this year. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.