Jeffrey Dean Morgan reveals how Hilarie Burton convinced him for major career pivot
Jeffrey Dean Morgan was far from sure about his hosting gig in reality show Destination X, but his wife Hilarie Burton.
When he was asked to host the reality show, Morgan, who has starred in TV shows like The Walking Dead, The Boys, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Good Wife, didn’t think he was the right choice.
“I was in the middle of shooting Dead City and I got a call from my agent,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “My agent said, ‘You’ve been offered this thing with NBC, and it’s based on this Belgium reality show.’ Immediately, I’m confused. I’m like, ‘What do they want me to do? What language do I have to speak?’ And they’re like, ‘No, they want you to host!”
In Destination X, players get dropped in a European city and get a series of clues to figure out which city they’re in.
“My first reaction, which I told them, was ‘I’m not a host guy. I’m not Chris Hardwick. I’m kind of me. And people can only handle that in small doses.’”
But the producers were adamant, “They were like, ‘Look, we want you to be you.'”
“They were like, ‘Jeff, we just want you to be you. You may have to tone it down a little bit, but it’s just you being you and having fun at other people’s expense,” he shared.
The last push he needed was given by his wife Hilarie.
“A lot of the credit probably should go to my wife. She sort of talked me into it when I told her what was going on that I had been offered this thing,” he shared.
He continued, “She was like, ‘Here’s the thing, Jeff. You unfortunately aren’t getting any younger. You’ve been fighting zombies for 10 years. Who knows how much longer that’s going to go. You can barely get out of bed in the morning. Maybe this is something that you would enjoy doing.’”
Ultimately, the show turned out to be perfect for him.
“I actually really had a fun time. I didn’t know that I would,” concluded Jeffrey Dean Morgan .
