Walking Dead's Norman Reedus cites this beloved late actor as inspiration at the beginning of his acting career

Actor Norman Reedus began his on-screen career starring in the 1997 releases of Floating, Mimic, and Six Ways to Sunday. These roles led to several other roles in the 90s, including one of his best-known characters, Murphy MacManus, in the cult classic The Boondock Saints. Reedus has often credited other actors as inspiration, and recently, he gave a shout-out to a beloved and greatly missed actor who died way too young.

Criterion Collection features a long list of incredible actors and creatives in a special feature on social media. The actors enter the Criterion Closet, which contains a massive collection of the greatest films from around the world. The actor enters the closet, selects their Closet Picks, and briefly discusses their choices.

Some notable names featured include Carrie Coon, Hans Zimmer, Francis Ford Coppola, Nicholas Hoult, and many more. You can search for your favorites on the Criterion website.

You can view Reedus' video below, in which he talks about Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, which stars River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. He states that the movie was released while he was "trying to become an actor," and Phoenix's performance was inspirational. He also mentions his favorite scene from the film and an interesting interaction with Udo Kier, who also appears in the movie.

Phoenix died at 23, but before his death, he made quite a mark with his performances in many notable films. He began acting in commercials at 10, and by the time he was 14, he had secured a significant role in Rob Reiner's coming-of-age movie, Stand By Me (1986). This role led to a long list of exceptional performances by the actor. His final movie, completed before his death, was Peter Bogdanovich's The Thing Called Love (1993)