On “The Walking Dead,” Daryl Dixon often can be found on a motorcycle, speeding toward or away from one zombie adventure after another.
It’s a tendency shared by the man who plays him, minus the zombies. Norman Reedus has ridden motorcycles since childhood and AMC, which broadcasts “Walking Dead,” has channeled his enthusiasm into “Ride With Norman Reedus,” a motorcycle travel series making its debut June 12. An AMC executive pitched the idea and Reedus said yes “before he could change his mind,” he recalled recently. “It’s a dream job.”
Each episode is based on a different road trip, with the actor and his companions riding, exploring and riding some more. The first show tracks a jaunt up the Pacific Coast Highway in California, from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, with breaks for dune buggy rides and visits to custom bike shops, among other diversions. On future shows, he will travel to places like New Orleans and Death Valley.
The tone is loose and informal — Reedus mostly skips hair and makeup help, he said, to give the series a more authentic feel.
“I want to have people feel like they’re on the ride with us,” he said.
On the telephone recently he discussed wheelie mishaps, biker churches and Porta-Potty races. One thing he won’t address: whether this show means that he has been killed off “The Walking Dead.” (The show dispatched a core character in the Season 6 finale in April but didn’t reveal who it was.)
“We shot this during the winter hiatus,” he said, refusing to take the bait.
Following are edited excerpts from a conversation with Reedus.
Q: So is this a travel show or a motorcycle show?
A: It's like a travel docu-series. What Anthony Bourdain does with food, we do with motorcycles. It has that sort of energy to it. I'm learning as I go along and I'm making mistakes, and it's fun.
Q: What kinds of mistakes?
A: You'll see me going crawfishing with my pants full of swamp water. You'll see me trying to pop wheelies on a dirt bike in the desert, and failing miserably. I'm not trying to be a motorcycle expert. I'm just an enthusiast and want to learn, and with that sometimes comes mistakes.
Q: None serious, I hope.
A: Oh no, we're really safety conscious and careful. We always wear full-face helmets and we don't do anything too stupid. People that ride motorcycles are the best drivers on the road — you have to be completely conscious of what's happening around you. You have to assume every car is texting and driving.
Q: How long have you been riding?
A: Since junior high school — I started on a friend's [Yamaha] YZ-80. Now I have two Triumphs, a Honda, a Harley, and I got a new [Triumph] 800 Tiger, which is kind of my new favorite. [A fan starts yelling enthusiastically at Reedus, who chats with him for a moment.] Where were we?
Q: I guess another advantage of motorcycles is the anonymity of a helmet.
A: I do some of my best thinking with a helmet on. I do that when I'm doing "Walking Dead" — I go over my lines as I'm riding to work in a helmet. I decompress on my way home in a helmet. I think people know my motorcycle in Georgia [where the show is filmed]. But I can escape quicker.
Q: Will any "Walking Dead" co-stars be appearing on your new show?
A: I hope so. We have a couple good riders on the show now. Steven [Yeun] rides. Jeffrey Dean Morgan rides. We actually all ride together in Georgia whenever we can. It's such pretty riding down there — you can ride for hours and it's just cows going by.
Q: What are some of the more surprising things you've experienced while shooting "Ride"?
A: I went to a biker church. The priest was giving his sermon while sitting on a Harley-Davidson, and he was like, "You know, life is like a Harley-Davidson. You gotta put gas in the tank or you're gonna end up on the side of the road." And then we raced Porta-Potties. So there's been lots of weird stuff.
Q: You raced Porta-Potties?
A: We had these two big dudes on Harleys pulling two different Porta-Potties, and me and a friend raced each other.
Q: You didn't try to pop any wheelies on those, did you?
A: Oh no, I was just holding on for dear life. It was terrifying.
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