In some ways, Marvel’s The Punisher—a guy powered by little more than boundless rage, easy access to guns, and a spirit of classic, all-American murderous industriousness—is the quintessential conservative superhero. That doesn’t mean the Netflix show’s star, Jon Bernthal, has any time for the modern trolls of the internet right-wing, though, bluntly telling any “alt-right” fans of his work that they can promptly go fuck themselves.
That sentiment comes from a much longer interview with Bernthal that appeared in this season’s issue of Esquire, touching on his own (extensive) history with violence, and the strange route that’s slowly brought him to mainstream success, from studying theater in Russia, up through mesmerizingly tense performances in stuff like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Of Wall Street.
The discussion shows Bernthal, who’s been wrestling for years with anger issues and a tendency toward impromptu brawling, keeping an even keel on almost every topic—except for the racists who gleefully hold Frank Castle up as a role model. According to Bernthal, he’s proud to play a character whose symbol appears on the jackets and helmets of American soldiers fighting in foreign countries. But his response to marchers at the “alt-right” protests in Charlottesville last year, who were also seen with the Punisher’s symbol on their jackets, was a lot less diplomatic:
TooShiftyForYou on January 4th, 2018 at 01:55 UTC »
Bernthal was asked how he feels about his character’s logo, a skull with long fangs, appearing on helmets and other military member’s clothing as well as some alt-right protesters at the controversial 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
To the men and women in uniform, Bernthal said he was, “honored to play a guy who people putting their life on the line identify with.”
As for the alt-right, his response was significantly less measured.
“F--- them,” he said.
So more specifically he was referring to the violent "alt-right" protesters at Charlottesville.
-GregTheGreat- on January 4th, 2018 at 00:54 UTC »
Anybody watching the series and thinking that Frank is an alt-right hero is delusional. He’s an awesome, interesting character, but he’s also a mentally broken man with major issues.
It’s not like the Punisher even pushed a political side. It purposely strawmanned both the crazy racist NRA nut job as well as the hypocritical anti-gun senator with armed security.
toofarbyfar on January 4th, 2018 at 00:38 UTC »
There was a really interesting article on Slate discussing the Punisher and politics. It argued that, while many people love the Punisher for his revenge-fantasy fascist violence, this was never the intention of the character.
The point is and has always been that Frank Castle is psychotic, that his solution is wrong, and the fact that he follows this absurdly violent, absolutist path is a symbol of the rage and violence that's wrong with the world.