The Walking Dead’s Ross Marquand Reveals How Norman Reedus Reacted to His Daryl Dixon Impression

The Walking Dead's Ross Marquand reveals co-star Norman Reedus "kind of confronted" him about his famous celebrity impressions, finally forcing Marquand to act out one of the impressions he declines to perform publicly out of respect for his Walking Dead cast mates. Marquand, who has played apocalypse survivor Aaron on the zombie drama since its fifth season, has gone viral for his ability to impersonate a wide range of actors — Matthew McConaughey, Justin Timberlake, John C. Reilly, Christopher Walken, and Al Pacino among them — but it wasn't until filming on the tenth season of The Walking Dead that Marquand performed his impression for the Daryl Dixon actor:

"I'd done impressions of Norman and Daryl for quite some time, before I was even on the show," Marquand said during a virtual appearance at Awesome-Con Online. "This last season, Norman finally kind of confronted me and said, 'I keep hearing that you do the voices, I want to hear it.' I was like, 'Oh, no, I can't, because you might not like it.' And he kind of pushed me into doing it, and I think he liked it. I think he did."

Marquand declined to perform the impression out of respect for Reedus, but did reveal the hardest Walking Dead character to mimic: Josh McDermitt's Eugene. "He's a tough one," Marquand said. "Every time I try to do it, it sort of just sounds like Billy Bob Thornton."

The actor has less difficulty imitating Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Negan, admitting Negan is "a fun one to do because Jeffrey really loves to fill out that character completely. He's so much fun to watch, such a charismatic character."

Marquand only does a "little bit" of Rick Grimes star Andrew Lincoln, but similarly keeps that impression private out of respect for his former co-star.

During a 2018 convention appearance, where the actor explained his policy against doing public impressions of his co-stars, Marquand promised he would "definitely" be more open to revealing his Walking Dead impersonations after he's left the show.

"My Norman, I gotta say, is maybe one of my favorite impressions of all time. I'm really proud of it," Marquand said at the time. "I've done it for a few people around the show, but... I guarantee you, I can see people filming this — if Norman sees this, he's gonna be upset with me! So I probably shouldn't."

While Reedus ultimately enjoyed Marquand's impression, it was an encounter with another actor that convinced Marquand to adopt his policy against impersonating co-stars "because you never know how it could backfire."

"It backfired on me a few years ago with a very famous actor, and they were like, 'That's not what I sound like,'" Marquand said. "And I was like, 'Okay, I'm gonna go home and die now.'"

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