Actor Jon Bernthal has been gaining praise for his role as Michael Berzatto in the FX series The Bear. The comedy-drama has been garnering acclaim in its third season and Bernthal’s performance seems to be looming over every pivotal scene in the popular show.
Bernthal has proved his acting chops in multiple shows such as The Walking Dead and The Punisher. He has also worked with acclaimed directors in films such as Sicario, a crime drama written by Taylor Sheridan, in which he only had a few minutes of screen time.
Jon Bernthal Jumped At The Opportunity To Work In Taylor Sheridan’s Sicario
Jon Bernthal had his breakout role in the AMC series The Walking Dead, in which he played the role of Shane Walsh. The zombie drama saw him play an anti-hero survivor to perfection and his performance was universally acclaimed. The actor also starred in multiple films such as The Wolf of Wall Street, Fury, and Baby Driver.
Bernthal has constantly chosen to work with acclaimed artists when given the chance instead of doing work for stardom or just for a paycheck. The actor has worked with filmmakers such as Taylor Sheridan, Edgar Wright, and Martin Scorsese.
Jon Bernthal mentioned that he jumped at the opportunity to work with filmmaker Denis Villeneuve when he was offered the role of Ted in Taylor Sheridan’s screenwriting debut Sicario. Bernthal barely had a few minutes of screen time, in which he even attempted to kill Emily Blunt’s character. He said to Collider,
When Prisoners came out, I thought it was the best film of the year that year, a highly under-rated film, and then I saw his movie Incendies and Denis [Villenueve] quickly became one of my favorite directors working today and I was desperate to work with him. I didn’t even listen to the movie I just told him I wanted to be a part of it no matter what it was, I would do anything to sort of get a shot at that.
I got the script and was really into [Taylor] Sheridan and he’s one of the most exciting writers out there right now, I think because of the fact that he’s an actor he delivers really rich dialogue and I had the pleasure of reading some of his other scripts for movies that are coming out soon and he’s just something else, and then, look, Roger Deakins is the best of all time.
The actor also mentioned that the ensemble cast which included Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Daniel Kaluuya, and Benicio Del Toro made him even more excited to work on the film.
Jon Bernthal Geeked Out Over Denis Villeneuve’s Films Before Working With Him
Jon Bernthal is one of the few actors in Hollywood currently, who is known for his intensity in his performance. Be it his harrowing performance as the broken mercenary in The Punisher or the troubled chef in The Bear, the actor brings a lot of humanity to his roles and brings a lot of intensity to them.
Despite being an acclaimed actor and an Emmy-nominated performer, Jon Bernthal could not contain his excitement at working with Dune director Denis Villeneuve in Sicario. The actor became a huge fan of the filmmaker after watching Prisoners and Incendies and was equally excited about Blade Runner 2049 at the time. He mentioned to Collider in 2015,
I think with this guy it’s the real f*cking deal, there’s just no two ways about it. I mean, go watch Incendies, go watch his shorts. Everything he’s done is so different and so bold, he’s a true genius story maker, that’s what I think. And then you’re talking about Deakins, this will have its own flavor, this will have its own spin, it will be exciting and I would flock to the theater to see anything that these guys do, and I think the fact that they’re committed to each other is exciting.
The actor also appreciated the craft of the crew behind Sicario, praising their dedication to the film and allowing the freedom to change things on set and figure out the film while making it.
Sicario is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
