By George, Morgan revels in his busy life
LOS ANGELES – Jeffrey Dean Morgan is one tough hombre, slinging a barbed-wire-covered baseball bat named Lucille as the alpha villain Negan in The Walking Dead. ❚ But when the 51-year-old actor sits down to talk about his movie role as mysterious agent Harvey Russell in Rampage (in theaters Friday), where he gets all up in Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s grill, he admits that on this particular afternoon, he’s far from full strength.
He felt the chills coming on the night before as he walked the red carpet for the world premiere of Rampage, and things have devolved to the point that he needs IV fluids during his lunch break while promoting the action flick.
Pushing through what would normally be a knockdown illness is one of the perils of Morgan’s increasingly intense career, which is kicking on all cylinders as he and wife Hilarie Burton, 35, celebrate the Feb. 16 arrival of baby girl George Virginia (joining brother Augustus, aka “Gussy,” 8).
“It’s a really, really busy time. I can tell you there has not been a lot of sleep lately. Really, it’s only tiring because we have a baby at home that is on a very different schedule than we want her to be. And I’ve been doing a lot of traveling,” Morgan says. “That being said, I’m living the dream.”
The dream is manifesting itself professionally with his role on the culturally resonant Walking Dead and in Rampage. Morgan’s tough-talking government agent butts heads with Johnson’s primatologist before they join forces to stop genetically altered, havocwreaking predators — including a giant gorilla (coincidentally and ironically named George).
And when the topic of his baby George comes up, Morgan gets downright emotional, in a profound and happy way. He fights back tears when he talks about his and Burton’s five-year struggle to have their second child.
“Hilarie is probably the bravest, cool- est chick I have ever known,” says Morgan, sniffling. “She is able to tell our story. I can’t. I turn into a (expletive) puddle even talking about how much I love her.”
Last month, Burton revealed the birth in a viral Instagram post, a supportive message about fertility struggles that detailed the couple’s heartbreak over a lost pregnancy and “more losses that followed.”
“I mean, it was hard. The whole thing has been,” says Morgan, his voice cracking. “How we came out of it, I don’t know. There were a lot of tears. But we did it.”
He put aside reservations about the intimate note to get the story out there.
“This journey was something that made us stronger,” he says. “Now we got this awesome little girl. It’s killer. What we have in George is something that’s so special, it makes all the past pains almost disappear.”
So Morgan will gamely deal with being sick after a night out with his family. Because the clan lives far from Hollywood on a farm in upstate New York, it was Gussy’s first premiere. He wore a suit, walked the red carpet, met The Rock.
“Gussy was elbowing me every time Agent Russell came on,” Morgan says. “He did say, ‘I think The Rock would probably beat you up.’ I was like, ‘ You could be right.’ ”
Morgan doesn’t have to win that battle. Professionally, he’s beaming over what he calls “the Negan of it all” — the bump he has received since his character memorably swung into Walking Dead’s sixth season. Even for an actor with a résumé of gold-standard TV shows ( Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Wife and Supernatural), the change has been profound.
“This has afforded me more opportunities than I have ever had,” Morgan says. “I’m part of this pop culture phenom.
“I can’t really go anywhere now without being stopped. And that can be anything from 20 selfies to people telling me how much I’m ruining the show to how much they love me. And I’m just picking out a head of lettuce in the produce section.”
With Walking Dead’s Season 8 finale airing Sunday, Morgan has noticed that the show’s ratings have dropped. He insists he’s always working to improve the character and the show.
“After eight years, you’re probably going to lose a couple of viewers here and there. Am I concerned? Look, I just want to make it better. It’s always that.”
He’s hoping his Negan-propelled momentum carries over to more movie roles like Rampage, a film with an ending tailor-made for a sequel.
“Hopefully people go see this and it will all get even crazier. And see if I can mix that all together,” Morgan says. “But right now, the most important thing is being a dad.”