Norman Reedus has bashed a report claiming that he was begging "The Walking Dead" producers not to make his character Daryl Dixon gay on the hit AMC show.
"Producers of the run-away hit zombie show want to make heart-throb Norman Reedus' character gay - but the actor has been begging them not to do it. Insiders say he fears the same-sex shocker would hurt ratings by disappointing his legions of female fans," read the story published on the Nov. 3 edition of GLOBE Magazine, as quoted by Celeb Dirty Laundry.
Sources told GLOBE Magazine via Celeb Dirty Laundry, "Norman isn't anti-gay in his personal life, but he's become one of the biggest male sex symbols in television. He gets thousands of fan letters from women each week - along with dozens of marriage proposals."
There is no doubt that the 45-year-old "The Boondock Saints" star receives thousands of fan letters and proposals, but Reedus does not share the same sentiments with the so-called insiders. The hunky actor recently took to Twitter to slam the report. "This is total bs by the way," Reedus wrote on the microblogging site with the link to the same story reported by Inquisitr.
Apparently, Reedus has no problem portraying Daryl as a gay character. In fact, in a recent interview with GQ, the Hollywood, Florida-born actor revealed that he previously agreed to play Daryl as a homosexual character.
"I remember Frank Darabont, after the first season we were at a party in LA. He said, 'I've got an idea for Daryl. He's gay. Would you be interested in that?'" recalled Reedus. "I was like, 'Let me hear you out.' He said, 'Well, he's prison gay-like, you'll catch him looking at a member of the same sex, but if you mention it to him, he'll just stab you and be like what the fuck?-he will never admit it.'"
And Reedus agreed with the idea, saying, "That'll blow minds-let's do that. And he [Darabont] said, 'I knew I hired you for a reason.'"
Earlier this month, Reedus stopped by the set of Entertainment Tonight to promote the Season 5 premiere of "The Walking Dead," and unsurprisingly, he was once again asked about his character's sexual orientation.
"I wanna ask you about Daryl's love life: Carol (Melissa McBride), Beth (Emily Kinney), maybe he's gay," Entertainment Tonight co-host Kevin Frazier told Reedus. "Give us a hint on where is this going."
"Whatever that decision is, I want to play it as real as possible," the actor replied. "When a boy meets a girl, it's usually very awkward, and I would like to play the awkwardness up as much as possible."