He may not be Frank Castle in real life, but Jon Bernthal has a strong, Punisher-like message he wants to deliver to all of his alt-right fans: “F*ck them.”
Bernthal was featured in the winter issue of Esquire when he was asked about the Punisher symbol appearing on the shoulders of alt-right protesters at the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville last year.
Bernthal has no sympathy for any of them and doesn’t want to see any racist view Frank Castle is some kind of role model.
This led to a much longer conversation on the actor’s take on gun control and other issues. Bernthal admitted to being easily angered and sometimes difficult to work with, but he also shed some light on how he hopes to see real change.
"Sometimes when people write about me, it sounds like I’m glorifying the violence…” Bernthal said to Esquire. “I’m a gun owner. I have a gun in my house to keep my family safe. I’m trained in that gun’s use. I know how to keep it away from my kids, and I know how to use it if I need to. Should there be a way that a guy with mental issues like that asshole in Texas can’t get guns? Absolutely. We have to have a dialogue, and that’s not happening.”
Along with this, Jon Bernthal also said he was proud to play a character whose symbol can inspire something good — as it appears on the jackets and helmets of American soldiers who are fighting in foreign countries.
Well said, Bernthal. Honestly, the further we go along the fuzzier the line gets between Jon Bernthal and Frank Castle as they almost seem to be one-in-the-same at this point, but the points he raises are all valid.
The first season of The Punisher is now available to watch on Netflix.