Steven Yeun spoke with fellow thespian Riz Ahmed for Variety's Actor on Actor, and naturally, "The Walking Dead" came up. Being part of a series that big doesn't just vanish from the public consciousness when an actor moves on to different projects, after all — especially when they play a character as beloved as Glenn. It's an extremely special role to Yeun, but he also openly admitted that he didn't mind leaving the character behind.
Glenn is a "plucky, nice guy — nice to everybody," Yeun said, and, while he enjoys expressing that part of himself as an actor, he was only able to do it for so long before it got to him. "There was a point in which I realized that, he almost became a ceiling, because I became an idea over a human character," Yeun said. From his perspective, that limited where he was able to go as an actor, and being or feeling boxed in is the last thing any actor wants; it was time to move on. "There really wasn't much of a fight on my end," the actor clarified about the writers' decision to kill Glenn off, adding that "it was still sad" regardless.
Since departing from post-apocalyptic Georgia, Yeun has made the most of his time, appearing in critically acclaimed projects like "Sorry to Bother You," "Burning," and "Minari" — productions that allowed him to explore roles other than the "genial natured guy." Fans will always remember and miss Yeun as Glenn, but it's a wonderful thing that he's been able to expand his body of work elsewhere.
