Norman Reedus was 'super insecure' when he started onThe Walking Dead

You might say Norman Reedus is a somewhat important player inThe Walking Deaduniverse.

But whenThe Boondock Saintsstar first showed up on set back in season 1, he felt like an outsider.

One key figure came up to introduce himself, but Reedus had no idea who he was.

The first person I spoke to was Greg, he says of executive producer Greg Nicotero.

But he was in zombie makeup and I kind of didnt know everybody.

And Greg comes up and goes, Hey, man.

Hows your first day?

Im like, who the fis that?

Cause he was a zombie and Im like [confused expression].

And then hes like, Hey, its Greg!

And Im like Oh!

I didnt recognize him at all.

Or should I kind of throw the squirrels like this?

That sense of confusion Reedus experienced over Nicoteros identity just added to the actors feeling of being an outsider.

I was super insecure and super nervous.

And everyone was like, Oh, whos this new kid?

I remember the scene where I come up and I yell at Merle.

Im like, Merle, we got squirrels, lets do em up!

And they say, We locked your brother on the roof.

And I remember turning around and seeing all these faces looking at me as the new kid in school.

But Reedus says he ended up using that insecurity he felt and put it into the performance.

I was kind of like, Dont look at me.

And I was like, Oh, thats who Daryl is.

Hes got such a chip on his shoulder.

So thats kind of how I found that character day one.

And then I just ran with it.

Of course, Daryl has evolved a lot since then.

Hes a much different character now than he was back then, says Reedus.

He means what he says.

And it helped me a lot that first day.

I remember that more than anything about the first day.