It’s a question that has boggled even the closest observer of The Walking Dead: why did Shane rub his head so much? Was it because the trim haircut he gave himself started growing back, hence the skin irritation? No, that’s not it, because he was rubbing his locks before the buzzcut. Perhaps it was a case of lice — they did venture into the woods quite often. If you happened to catch just a smidgen of Jon Bernthal’s performance as Shane Walsh, then you know exactly what I’m talking bout, but if not…
My mission was simple: find the person responsible for getting Jon Bernthal to wax his dome on camera so often before the second half of season five starts (the investigation was triggered by a recent binge on Netflix). There had to be answers somewhere in the interwebs. I traversed the layers of conjecture, fan theories, and rumors, and finally I happened to stumble across this:
Oops! Sorry. That’s from my personal stash. I meant that I had stumbled across this, courtesy of a Q&A on AMC’s site:
Q: Shane has a very distinctive walk. He also rubs his head a lot. Are those Shane or Jon gestures?
A: No man, I hope that what I’m doing is Shane. I’ve tried to find mannerisms for him, especially this season. He has things he does when he gets nervous or agitated. Shane is constantly boiling and constantly at war with himself, and I think that these gestures and movements come out of what’s going on inside of him.
The mystery is solved. Shane was just nervous. Like, a lot. All the time. Seriously, someone get this guy a xanex. Here’s hoping that Jon Bernthal rubs his head — either on-screen or off-camera — in every single TV show or movie he films from now on in reverence of Shane.
