Jon Bernthal on His ‘Brotherly Dynamic’ With Tom Holland in ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘The Odyssey,’ and Why Punisher Is Peter Parker’s ‘Cautionary Tale’ 32 minutes ago ‘Wonder Man’ Star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Speaks Out After Marvel Series Canceled: ‘That’s Life… Everything Will Shake Out’ 19 hours ago John Legend to Play Harry Belafonte in Bill Condon’s Apartheid-Era Drama ‘The Road Home’ 1 day ago Jon Bernthal and Tom Holland ‘s superhero trajectory is so intertwined, it could make its own comic book storyline. In 2015, on the set of the period drama “Pilgrimage,” Bernthal and Holland filmed each other’s audition tapes for their Marvel roles as the Punisher and Spider-Man, respectively. Now, after playing the parts for a decade, they share the screen for the first time in “Brand New Day.” And the Sony/Marvel movie, which is now playing in theaters, is their second project together in as many weeks, following Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” Related Stories Los Angeles Dodgers vs.
New York Yankees: Here's How to Watch the MLB Game Live Online World Cup May Be Over, but Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks Thinks Hydration Breaks Could Return “It’s great to be able to do two in a row with my friend Tom,” Bernthal tells Variety . “It’s just so beautiful to come full circle.” Popular on Variety Bernthal took Variety’s call while he raced to the airport to finally head back to the west coast after a long tenure in NYC, where he’d starred in “Dog Day Afternoon” on Broadway, then did back-to-back press tours for “The Odyssey” — where he’d waxed poetic on his character Menelaus’ counsel of Holland’s Telemachus — and “ Spider-Man: Brand New Day ” — where Frank “The Punisher” Castle becomes Peter Parker’s unlikey confidant, using his life as cautionary tale. Lately, life has been blissfully busy for Bernthal: the past few months also saw him star in the massively successful Netflix limited series “His and Hers” opposite Tessa Thompson; headline the Disney+ special “The Punisher: One Last Kill,” which he co-wrote with director Reinaldo Marcus Greeen; and wrap up his Emmy-winning role on FX’s “The Bear,” with a special episode written by him and Ebon Moss-Bachrach titled “Gary.” “Beyond anything, I’m just enormously grateful,” Bernthal says.
“To be in New York for this time and doing this play on Broadway, I was very much in touch with that 18-year-old kid who had this dream, that at times seemed sort of impossible and far away,” he continues, referring to his younger self. “I really wanted to honor that kid by doing that play. And when I look at these other projects that I got to have a real hand in creating and writing myself, I’m just so grateful.
It’s been a really magical year.” But when Bernthal was revealed to be joining the cast of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” early reports didn’t make too much of the moment. Most stories (including mine) suggested that Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner/Hulk would slide into the mentor role that’s been a key dynamic in Tom Holland’s previous “Spider-Man” movies, with everyone from Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man/Tony Stark to past Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield playing wise sage to Peter Parker. After all, Bruce is one of the original Avengers, and until now, Frank has been relegated to Marvel’s TV output — first in Marvel’s Netflix shows and more recently in “Daredevil: Born Again” and his own standalone special on Disney+.
Plus, other Spider-Man characters, like villains Scorpion (Michael Mando) and Tombstone (Marvin Jones III), would also appear. But it should’ve been obvious that Frank would become Peter’s confidant in “Brand New Day” – and not just because the anti-hero is a mainstay in the Spider-Man comics. A lot of it comes down to the dynamic between the actors who play them.
“Jon and Tom have a rapport that would be very difficult to replicate in any scenario, and when the two of them are on screen, I could watch them banter for half an hour,” says “Brand New Day” director Destin Daniel Cretton. “I would just let them go off script, and so many wonderful moments came out of that that ended up in the final cut.” In “Brand New Day,” Bernthal’s Punisher is still the lethal vigilante fans know and love. His backstory is tragic: the former U.S.
Marine’s wife and children are murdered by the mob, leaving him aimless and (justifiably) angry at the world. And, as the Punisher, Frank is known to enact particularly brutal, bloody vengeance. How could that darkness fit into the heretofore brightly colored “Spider-Man” universe?
“I was very aware of that and very protective of Frank, and I really want to deliver for the fans and the people that he means so much to,” Bernthal begins. “And look, that was really the question. That was really the issue.
How tonally would he fit into this world?” Bernthal answers that question below and shares more about his “Spider-Man” experience — including what he thinks is next for the Punisher in the MCU. I was very clear with Destin: we have to believe that he would be able to walk off the set of “One Last Kill,” and be that same guy walking onto the set of “Brand New Day,” while also honoring that tonally it’s a much different project. I deeply appreciated that Amy Pascal, Destin and Tom Rothman all wanted the exact same thing.
They all really respected and wanted his version of Frank that I’ve been delivering over the years. A lot of times in this business, when there’s an issue, or a little bit of a conflict or a problem, something you’re trying to figure out, sometimes the answer is to sort of skirt around it, or to avoid it, or to gloss over it, rather than to dive into it and to really explore it. I feel like we really hit it head on.
My dear friend Colton Hill, who’s a Marine and a Green Beret, who I trained with for years, was on set with me as the Punisher. He was behind the camera every time I was there, and he was so helpful. I was so grateful not only that Destin welcomed that, but he was hungry for it, and they became very good friends.
It’s a real testament to the kind of filmmaker Destin is that he really wanted to accomplish both of those things — preserving Frank and blending him into the tone of this film. We really leaned a lot on improvisation and finding things on the day. What was great about this project was that you have all kinds of the bells and whistles — I mean, this is no mystery; this is a huge franchise and the level of artistry and talent is immense and unparalleled — but at the end of the day there’s a real vigor and vitality in going after the truth of the scene on the day.
It was not a strange thing on that set for them to stop things and have the actors and Destin explore and rewrite and find things and get closer to the kernel of the scene, or to explore through improvisation. I was really grateful for that, and I was very pleasantly surprised by it. This is a new lens in which we see Frank, but it’s not a different character.
It’s going to preserve what people love about him most. Tom and I have known each other for a really long time. We have this natural big brother-little brother dynamic.
It’s important to always note that Frank is a guy who’s spiraling and reeling from trauma. He’s not looking for any light at the end of the tunnel. He’s not looking to get out of the darkness.
He’s looking to dive right into it, and he’s also quite aware that this is no way to live. I’m always interested in characters who build walls around their heart, who reject the outside world. Reject the light.
Reject friendship, companionship, love. What I love about those kinds of characters is that’s actually an impossible task for a human being. No matter what wall you build around your heart, there’s got to be little holes for the light to shine through.
And Tom’s performance as Spider-Man really is that light. It’s very clear to Frank the steps that you know Spider-Man is headed [down]; he’s trying to emulate this kind of darkness and this lone wolf mentality. Frank looks at...
