De nieuwste Netflix hit The Punisher wordt goed ontvangen door de pers en de fans van deze Marvel anti-held die op en top Amerikaans is. Ter gelegenheid van de launch, had de website Collider een interview met Jon Bernthal die de rol van Frank Castle speelt en daar van kan je heir onder een klein stukje lezen.

Chris definitely did a great job on his role and with his work in the film. What I really like about the film is that it's a slow burn without unnecessary exposition. It's just a smart script. Talk a little bit about when you read the script - What was it that first hit you and said, "I need to do this?"

BERNTHAL: Look, man, I think what hit me was why I was wrong for it. I think that's what hit me more than anything else. I think you're right. I think it's a very smart script but it's enormously, unbelievably intelligent filmmaking. I think much of the script was sort of stripped down and that's just the kind of filmmaker Jamie is. He's making the film for an intelligent audience. I believe in the American film audience. I believe that it's an intelligent audience and I believe that we don't need to spoon feed information or try to manipulate people's feelings. I think we should present things and let people sort of heart and minds ... Let them make their own determinations.

When I first read the script, the part was written for a guy in his fifties or sixties and needed to be somebody who was sort of at the end of their life. There needed to be a feeling of someone who was very broken down physically, emotionally and, in a sense, was sort of just hiding, living out the rest of his life. They were originally talking to Forest Whitaker about playing the part and me and Forest don't really go up for too many of the same roles. Anyway, he ... When he was too busy and decided not to do it they came to me, which is not the most logical next step. To me, I was faced with this sort of enormous problem. I loved the film. I loved the filmmaker. I really wanted to be in it but I didn't think I was right. I said, "It's so essential that we get this broken down quality about this character.

I think often times with this kind of work, if you can really pinpoint and locate the crux of the problem, the number one problem or the number one sort of dilemma for a character and what doesn't work, if you can figure that out, everything else sort of trickles down from there. Jamie was bold enough to really collaborate with me on this and he came up with this idea of having him have early onsets Parkinson's. I was really built up and strong at the time, so going right into Punisher afterwards, so we needed to play against the way I look and play against the type of character I normally play. Jamie was completely open at every step of the way.

There's a scene where I get in a fight with the motel guest and it was written that my character beats him up. I offered, "What would happen if I got beat up? What would happen if I'm not the physical person that he once was?," and Jamie loved it. He ate it up and we really were partners on that. I think it's been my experience with all great filmmakers, they're truly collaborators and I believe that of Jamie. We made a special film.