The Walking Dead – Steven Yeun (Glenn)

Q: What do you do to get yourself in shape for the show every season?

A: Norman and Andy and I have a lot of discussions about this. We do have to be strong enough to pull off what we’re asked as actors to do. But then also, we want to make it realistic, in that we don’t want these guys to be jacked or anything like that. I just try to stay relatively healthy. But when it comes to gearing up for the new season, we even had discussions about taking a one week camping trip to get disheveled and disgusting. It’s interesting, because once we start shooting we actually start getting skinnier and more malnutritioned and gaunt as we go. The first and second season, Jon Bernthal got me into boxing, and that’s been good to just get strong without making you look like you’re ‘roiding out.

Q: Do you box with any other cast members?

A: Just Jon actually. He could kill me with one hit.

Q: Do any other aspects of The Walking Dead become a part of your life?

A: This show is really intense in that we’re living out these characters’ lives. So you just kind of live out really terrible situations that hit really close to home, so last year with what Glenn was going through, it was hard to not fall into his pit of despair and depression and keep my composure. I think that’s your job to kind of separate the two, so you don’t go insane.

Q: Glenn and Maggie have the best room at the prison. What’s the coolest place you’ve ever slept?

A: There are nice hotels, but nothing beats 1993, on the middle of a small mat on my grandma’s farm in one of the hottest summers in Korea. You can like smell the grain that they’re growing — they actually own a Tobacco farm. And you’re just laying there on the ground while my grandmother’s cooking.

Q: Are zombies a part of Korean culture at all?

A: I think the idea of it exists, but don’t know if it is in their pantheon of monsters. Korea has a way of being more about goblins and ghosts, and less about vampires, werewolves, and zombies.

---

Born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in the city of Troy, MI, Steven Yeun began his foray into acting while studying psychology at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. After seeing a performance of the school’s improv group, he decided to switch his focus to acting and, following graduation, moved to Chicago to study improvisational theatre. There he performed with the famed Second City theatre in various shows with their Touring Company as well as their NCL Boat Company, and the Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of Kafka on the Shore, understudying the roles of Kafka and Crow.

He has also been part of several other improvisational/sketch comedy groups, including Stir- Friday Night, Hands and Detective Detective.

Yeun’s television credits include roles on NTSF:SD:SUV::, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Warehouse 13, The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra and The Big Bang Theory.

Yeun recently completed production on the film I Origins, with Michael Pitt and Brit Marling, and has also appeared in the independent film My Name Is Jerry.

Q: What do you do to get yourself in shape for the show every season? A: Norman and Andy and I have a lot of discussions about this. We do have to be strong enough to pull off what we’re asked as actors to do. But then also, we want to make it realistic, in…