Jon Bernthal Talks Punisher

It’s an important character, it’s one I’m honored to play. This is a guy who means a lot to a lot of people and his character has resonate with law enforcement and military. People have been coming up to me on the streets of New York saying, “Do not mess this up.”

The training and physicality is extremely important in whatever I do. Luckily I know guys in the military branch he was in. I trained with them and trained a lot with weapons. But with Frank, what was important was the emptiness inside him. He’s dealing with this unbelievable loss. There’s unbelievable anger and hatred and shame. There’s a sense of responsibility and as a father and husband, if I were to lose my family on my watch … I had to put myself in as dark of place as possible the last six months.

Especially at the beginning, what was powerful was a lot of isolation. The first few months I was taking long walks across the Brooklyn Bridge to the set, trying to shed any outside influence of joy. Whether it’s successful or not remains to be seen.

This is a guy who pushes the envelope. He’s brutal, but he’s coming from a place of unbelievable hurt. And the best thing about the character is he just doesn’t care. It’s a highly personal mission he’s on and if he offends you, it’s completely unimportant to him.

I think once you see these characters collide [Daredevil], it’s tremendously interesting and emotionally gripping as well. It’s going to be a special season. If you thought last season of Daredevil was dark, we’re going to a whole new place.