NORMAN REEDUS: Ballerina & The Walking Dead

In this Reel Insights episode, Sean Tajipour, the Mayor of Nerdtropolis, chats with Norman Reedus about stepping into Ballerina, the high-octane new chapter in the world of John Wick.

Norman dives into what drew him to this mysterious new role, how his character balances brutality and fatherhood, and what it was like going toe-to-toe with Ana de Armas in some of the film’s most explosive scenes. He also reveals how the stunt choreography in Ballerina was unlike anything he’s ever done, even after years of action on The Walking Dead.

Get ready for an intense and thoughtful conversation filled with firepower, family, and behind-the-scenes secrets from one of the year's most highly anticipated action thrillers.

Ballerina hits theaters June 6.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Mr. Norman Friedas, it's such a pleasure to meet.
You. Nice to meet you too,
Nerdtropolis. I'm the mayor of Nerdtropolis
and also a John Wick fanatic, sothere's no doubt I was going to
love Ballerina. And I absolutely love that you
join this world finally with Anna de Armas, which is, you
know, chef's kiss, man. Yeah, she's fantastic.
She's great. And your character is awesome,

(00:22):
brings a cool mysterious energy to the story while doing, you
know, you get some great insights about your character to
who he actually is. But a lot does remain unsaid.
So I wanted to know about the collaboration process for your
character and did you build yourown back story for him when the
role came to you? You know, there's there's his
back story was kind of in the film.

(00:42):
I mean, his father is the head of this this group and he, you
know, he's probably grown into alife of privilege.
You know, besides being an assassin and all the horrible
things that comes with killing and losing people.
He also is they're very wealthy.They're they live, you know,
very high on the hog, so to speak.

(01:03):
But he doesn't want his daughterto have to go through all the
the horrible things that that life sort of makes you go
through. So he's, he's got a balance,
he's got a, he's got to figure out what's important.
Either she's going to be, you know, grow up with a silver
spoon in her mouth, but also have to go through all these
horrible things and lose people and become an assassin herself.

(01:29):
Or he's going to hide his daughter and run and try to give
her a, a, a proper life and let her be a child.
So that's kind of what he's balancing, you know what I mean?
Yeah, and it's a great part of the film.
And you do share some intense scenes with Anna de Armas.
She's electric in this role. Was there a moment on set where
you thought, OK, she's a total badass?

(01:50):
You know, the several moments, to be honest.
I mean, she, you know, she's outthere, you know, doing her
choreography and stuff like this.
You know, it's, it's, it's a lotof endurance films like these,
you know, you know, you can, youcan act tough and, and they can
edit you in a way to where you look badass.

(02:10):
But it's, you have to be persistent.
You have to be consistent and persistent and you have to like,
you have to go to set and you have to do it.
You have to do it, You have to do it, you have to do it.
And there's, there's a time limit where your body just gives
out, you know, and she's in there like bang, bang, bang,
bang. So as an actor watching her do

(02:32):
action stuff, she wasn't phoningit in.
She was, she was in there doing it.
And I think, you know, you can make people look cool and make
people look tough, but she's cool and she's really tough.
So it's a win win, you know? Yeah, definitely a win win.
And I just love when Daniel and Eve cross paths.

(02:52):
It's no secret the world of JohnWick is known for its wild and
stylized action. Was there a particular stunts or
fight scenes movie that made youstop and say, all right, you
know, this is some next level stuff?
Yeah, You know, I, I mean, I've done a lot of action stuff for a
long time, but this, this is so,it's so choreographed.
It's, you know, it's pop pop, pop, pop, pop, pop for a long

(03:14):
time. It's not like a street fight
like I'm, you know, in Walking Dead.
I, I, it's a very sloppy fight style.
You know, it's, you pick up something, you hit him in the
head with it or you stab him with it.
But this is, you know, it goes on for for, you know, so, you
know, the, what I'm concerned about or what I was trying to
pay attention to mostly was whatparts of the wall are going to

(03:34):
explode by my head while I'm fighting, you know what I mean?
Because it's, it's just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
So, yeah, I mean, the, you know,the scenes with the anti coming
out of that hotel room are, are pretty intense.
There's a lot of explosions, a lot of, a lot of pieces of walls
are flying around you, you know,So I'm, I'm mathematically
trying to put those together andnot, have, not have a, a marble

(03:58):
wall explode in my ear. You know what I mean?
Yeah, that that scene does. It's very intense.
I will say that. A lot of 10 scenes.
Norman, I'm so glad you're part of this franchise now.
Thank you so much for your time and I can't wait to watch
Ballerina again honestly. Yeah, yeah, it's great.
It's a fun ride for sure.