Norman Reedus Thought He Was ‘Going to Die’ After ‘The Walking Dead’ On-Set Injury

Norman Reedus thought he was “going to die” after suffering a severe on-set injury in March while filming the final season of The Walking Dead. The actor, who plays Daryl Dixon in the long-running post-apocalyptic drama, suffered a concussion far more serious than what was being reported at the time, he revealed in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.

“Oh dude, that was horrible. That whole ordeal for me, personally, was terrifying. I thought I was going to die,” he said of the aftermath of his “very serious” unspecified accident, which resulted in production pausing on the show while he recovered. “It was scary. I’ve been hit in the face and the head a million times. I’ve gone through car windows – but that one rang my bell,” the actor admitted.

“I had a neurologist. I had all sorts of s-. I failed the light test. I had a security guard in the driveway, just in case. I was holding onto the walls and walking through the rooms. It was nuts,” Reedus continued of the aftermath of his injury. The Sky actor, 53, has suffered some wild injuries throughout the years, even undergoing surgery in the past to construct a titanium left eye socket and add four screws to his nose, making his concussion even more painful.

“I have headaches already because I have a metal eye socket and light sometimes affects me in weird ways,” Reedus explained. “I’m sitting in the dark right now. And then you download every calming app you can possibly find, you’re listening to crickets on your phone, and waterfalls, but then you have the ringer off so nobody can really get in touch with you because they’re like, ‘Do not answer your phone. Do not watch television. Just sit in the dark.’ And I’m listening to waterfalls and rain. I did listen to the New York City rain app a lot.”

Reedus also felt guilty for delaying production on the show. “You’re shooting over a year, and now we’re having to postpone some of the shooting because I’m lying in bed,” he explained. “So the guilt of me not being at work and people are like, ‘Are we going to go a week over? Are we going two weeks over?’ That was bothering me.” The Walking Dead returns for its final season on Oct. 2 on AMC and AMC+.