“They thought I was a dangerous person”: The day Jon Bernthal got arrested in character
Jon Bernthal is one of Hollywood’s most unapologetic ‘tough guys’, and it appears that he is finally getting his moment in the sun, but one time, he paid the price for taking his part too seriously.
In addition to winning a Primetime Emmy for his moving performance in The Bear, Bernthal has taken his version of Frank Castle to new heights by appearing in Daredevil: Born Again, this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and the recent Disney+ special The Punisher: One Last Kill. He’s also been a consistent theatre actor, but he just pulled off his most ambitious performance to date with Dog Day Afternoon, in which he took on Al Pacino’s Oscar-nominated role.
There’s no better evidence of Bernthal’s hard work than looking at his credits; he’s been appearing in many films in smaller parts for well over a decade. Before he became one of the most recognisable faces in television, he popped up in everything from The Wolf of Wall Street and Sicario to Shot Caller and Fury. Despite having made his name based on his turn as Shane in The Walking Dead, Bernthal’s most sincere passion has always been his love of the stage.
The actor took his work so seriously that he would develop specific rituals in order to prepare for auditions. However, he said that this process backfired when he landed one of the most critical opportunities of his career. “I used to go to auditions three, four hours before,” he revealed, “I was auditioning for a show about this street fighter from Philadelphia.”
“Chazz Palminteri was directing and was having me at his house for the audition. I got there about four hours early, and I was walking around his residential neighbourhood in character, doing movement exercises,” Bernthal recalled. “When it was time to get ready, I called my mom and said, ‘Hey, Ma, this is the day that it all happens for me’. I was so confident.”
While getting into character was effective in boosting Bernthal’s confidence, he had given some passersby the wrong impression. “As I was walking up to the house, four police cars pulled up, they draw guns on me, and they told me to get on the ground,” he reflected. “The next thing I knew, I was handcuffed and in the back of a police car outside of Chazz Palminteri’s house.”
Apparently, people who saw him had reported that he “was a guy in a skull cap walking around the neighbourhood talking to himself and moving crazily”. Finally, with the help of the casting director, Bernthal explained that he was just an actor out to audition, and things fell into place.
The risk of method acting is that actors can lose themselves and no longer become aware of their surroundings. While a situation like this could have done significant harm to Bernthal’s career, he said that everyone was able to laugh it off, adding, “I guess I was hanging out at a school and I didn’t realise it, and they thought I was a dangerous person,” with the casting director encouraging him to tell the story to Palminteri, because he’d “love it,” which he did.
While Palminteri is best known as an actor who has played mobsters in films like Goodfellas and Bullets Over Broadway, he is also an incredibly accomplished playwright, and while Bernthal has yet to appear in one of his productions despite getting nicked for it, he has followed in his footsteps by beginning to write his own material. In addition to penning the script for The Punisher: One Last Kill, Bernthal helped to develop the heartbreaking standalone The Bear episode ‘Gary’.
