Jon Bernthal embraces 'honour' of playing The Punisher

DAVID BETANCOURT

WASHINGTON: Even before he was on the show, Jon Bernthal loved the show.

During its first season, Netflix’s Daredevil was one of the “best things on television”. And as he became a fan – as he watched Vincent D’Onofrio deliver a menacing performance as the debut season’s Kingpin – Bernthal wanted to be a part of it.

Bernthal praises “any world in which they’re letting an actor of that stature come in and play a guy who’s so villainous and so dark and so messed up”.

“To give him an opportunity and a voice to show where he’s coming from and why he is the way he is, and to try to make an effort to understand that character – it was really beautiful work,” said Bernthal.

For the new second season, Bernthal would get his shot at inhabiting such a world. He makes a powerful impression as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher – one of Marvel’s most lethal antiheroes.

“After getting the part, one of the real joys I had was going around the country and stopping in every comic-book store I could and buying them out of Punisher comics,” Bernthal said. “I love the comic. There’s a lot of iterations of the character – I think the Punisher Max series (by Garth Ennis) is my favourite.”

And because so many comicbook readers have long felt an emotional attachment to The Punisher, Bernthal said he felt responsible to the fans upon inheriting and developing the role. “This is a character who has resonated deeply to mem- bers of law enforcement, the military, guys who have gone into battle with The Punisher logo on their body armour,” Bernthal said.

“I look at this as a real responsibility – a real honour.”

For all his love of playing a menacing character, Bernthal doesn’t think it helps actors to label characters they are portraying as heroes or villains.

That approach especially relates to Daredevil, because Marvel’s Punisher has been considered both – and sometimes neither. – Washington Post