While it’s true that everyone is perfectly free to have their own opinions, others are free to point out just how wildly offbase those opinions might be. So it went after someone took to Reddit with an ostensibly innocent question asking others to list actors known for playing the same kinds of roles throughout their careers, and made the mistake of making the example a pic of Jon Bernthal, the past-and-future Punisher actor who’ll return to the role amidst the 2025 TV schedule.
It was, shall we say, a real boneheaded move. (Punisher skull pun intended.) Because not only did commenters quickly come to Bernthal’s defense with stacked-high piles of receipts from across his career, but they were also quick to call out the inquiring party for not knowing enough to be asking such a question. Bernthal fans don’t have time for this kind of short-sighted nonsense.
Here’s a small smattering of responses to the Reddit post that were mainly invested in pointing out how terrible the decision was to use a pic of the Walking Dead vet.
- OP used perhaps the worst example for this question. Bernthal has a ton of range. - @Exotic_Adeptness4190
- I think the people that say Bernthal plays only one type of character haven't actually watched a whole lot of his work. - @dqfilm19
- You can tell op saw him in like 2 things and decided he only plays one character. - @sparklingdinoturd
- This guy isn’t 1 dimensional anymore. He’s actually never been a terrible actor - @Constant-Refuse-74
- Yeah idk what OP is talking about Bernthal is one of the better character actors. He does typically play a tough guy aggressive asshole but he plays each one with nuance and an approach to character work that’s different. - @CopeHarders
While some commenters, such as the bottom one noted above, conceded that Hollywood producers and casting directors have certainly leaned into typecasting Jon Bernthal at times by bringing him in to portray a general kind of character, be it a hyper-masculine soldier or a seemingly friendly villain.
But the performances are where the differences happen, and seemingly all of the hundreds of comments made regarding Bernthal were completely in his favor, safe for the occasional reply from someone noting their aim to catch up with one project or another. Still on the positive side.
And when it came to examples of Bernthal's range, there was no end to the variety of choices, and most of the film and series mentioned were namechecked several times by multiple people. From David Ayer's Fury to James Mangold's Ford v Ferrari to HBO's We Own This City and Netflix's The Punisher, here are just some examples of the high praise the actor earned.
- In Fury he made me feel so uncomfortable whenever he was in a scene, such great acting to elicit that kind of response. - @s-lowts
- jon bernthal in Ford v Ferrari was surprisingly good and imho a different character than usual. In the pacific he is also quite different casted, yeah, big guy and stuff. It wasn't until The Walking Dead that this type casting came into play. - @truncateBob
- He also plays a wildly different character in The Bear and an incredibly different character in Sicario. - @cadegs
- He was also so so good in We Own This City. He absolutely nailed the whole Baltimore accent/vibe. Super underrated actor - @bigjarbowski
- He was awesome as The Punisher, and the way he plays his character in The Unforgivable opposite Sandra Bullock was a nice change of pace from being this overbearing hardass he's usually portrayed as. His podcast is also really great as well. He's definitely underrated. - @Muhfuggajones
- His junky drug dealer character in Wolf of Wall Street was not like any other character he has done. - @odinsbois
- He made the movie Wind River, and he was barely in it - @ProgrammerAshamed144
The Bear definitely came up multiple times in the comments as an example of a role unlike most in Bernthal's career, not just for the fact that it's one of the few "comedies" he's appeared in, at least according to Emmy genre placement. But it was just the icing on the "terrible example" cake alongside all the other proof of his talents.
While The Bear is the only project Jon Bernthal has on the 2024 TV schedule, he'll return to his Frank Castle persona for Daredevil: Born Again in 2025, so stay tuned for more on that one.
