Steven Yeun Says He Felt Cramped On The Walking Dead

In an interview with Slate, Steven Yeun said that while he enjoyed his time as Glenn on The Walking Dead, he felt “cramped” by the role. Here are highlights:

On playing Glenn: Yeah, I felt beige with Glenn. That was a little bit of the frustration that I could never explain to the wider society, to fans of the show. Am I incredibly grateful, and did I have a wonderful time on that show? Yeah! I wouldn’t take that experience back at all. I made lifelong friendships. I got to learn so much. But I will say that I felt cramped. I felt like there wasn’t space for me to fully spread all of who I was, and that was partly due to me, too, because when I started, all I was trying to do was to work within the parameters that they were giving me. And then, over time, I just outgrew it. That’s why it was beige. Because he was meant to be the heart of that show. When you look back, you go, ‘That’s great, everyone wants to be represented that way. Why wouldn’t you want to be a perfect being?’ But I don’t wanna [play] perfect, because we’re not perfect. And that’s a thing that I wasn’t able to feel for a while, because I was holding up this ideal that was way bigger than me, way larger than any single human can possibly do. I became less and less interested in doing that.”

On if he thinks he’s a heartthrob: “Ay-yi-yi. I’m at this interesting point of not rejecting it, because I want to be representative of the idea that anyone can be that and feel that. For that reason, I don’t want to reject it. But definitely I want to reject it. Self-hatred. Maybe when I was young, I wanted that. I was like, ‘Why not me, why can’t an Asian man be this?’ Then you try to find that through systems that aren’t native to you. You’re like, ‘I know what it means to be hot. It means you work out. It means you drink a ton of milk, so you get huge. It means you’re mean to people. Toxic masculinity.’ Then you realize it’s so stupid. Just be comfortable with yourself.”

On if he’s ever confused for other Asian-American actors: “No. It’s a weird double edge. It’s like, cool, I’m not compared to anybody, but is it because there’s no other person that you’re fixating in your head about? John [Cho] is here. [Literally—Cho happened to be at the café where this interview took place.] Maybe I’ve been mistaken for him one time.”