• The Guardian
  6 Monday 2 May 2022

PHOTOGRAPHS: PAT MARTIN/EYEVINE; ALLSTAR

Folks who knew

me as a young

man would

say: ‘It’s not

gonna work out

for this guy’

‘Acting

saved

my life’

J on Bernthal goes all in.

On screen, he is known for playing
emotionally damaged bruisers –
big on machismo, short on temper

• while off it he is notorious for a
  deep, some might say obsessive,
  commitment to his roles. Extensive
  weapons training and periods of
  isolation from his family for The
  Punisher, intensive tennis coaching
  for the sports drama King Richard,
  Navy Seal boot camp for Fury ,
  socialising with maximum-security
  prisoners for Shot Caller – whatever

When fi lming commenced, he

didn’t stop. “There were most

nights where I worked full days

on the set and then I’d go with

Detective Severino – my buddy Dre

• right from set to drug raids.”
  Today, the 45-year-old is in
  calmer surroundings, video-calling
  from his home in California, where
  he lives with his wife, Erin, three
  children (two sons and a daughter)
  and three rescue pitbulls. A navy
  vest exposes his tattooed biceps;
  a black beanie wraps his head,
  accentuating his boxer’s nose. He
  speaks candidly and with fervour.
  Bernthal has barely come up for
  air since he broke through in 2010
  as The Walking Dead’s antagonistic
  police offi cer Shane Walsh. He
  racked up six credits last year
  alone, including opposite Sandra

Jon Bernthal, star

of HBO’s We Own

This City, tells

Chris Godfrey

about method

acting – and how he

learned to control

his violent temper

The G2 interview

the part calls for, he is game. It

was no diff erent for his latest role,

the real-life corrupt Baltimore cop

Wayne Jenkins.

“Wayne is a good example where

I’m all the way in, and I have no

shame in that,” says Bernthal. He

plays Jenkins in HBO’s forthcoming

series We Own This City. It is

another forensic analysis of police

corruption by The Wire creators,

David Simon and George Pelecanos,

this time portraying real events in a

Baltimore still reeling from the death

in custody of Freddie Gray in 2015.

Bernthal arrived in the city three

months before production started

and embedded himself in the

Baltimore police department (BPD),

learning everything he could about

Jenkins from his ex-colleagues , as

well as joining the BPD on patrol.

Bullock in The Unforgivable and as

Johnny Soprano in The Many Saints

of Newark. He excels at extracting a

lot from a little in supporting roles

where he comes in hot, steals a scene

or two, then slips away. A lthough

brawn and bluster are his hallmarks ,

he has shown range more recently

with subtler character work.

For four years, Jenkins led the

BPD’s elite Gun Trace Task Force ,

achieving legendary status for his

arrest statistics. The nine-man

squad was supposed to be getting

guns and violent criminals off

the streets, but in fact spent years

plundering Baltimore residents of

cash, drugs and other valuables

through baseless searches. They

planted evidence and fraudulently

clocked up overtime. After a

federal investigation uncovered the

Jon Bernthal;

(below left) in

The Walking Dead