Jon Bernthal (The Accountant 2, The Bear, Real Ones) is an Emmy Award-winning actor and podcast host. Jon joins the Armchair Expert to discuss making peace with the beard, how looking like a real person has been an asset in his career, and teaching his kids to not react to negative emotions. Jon and Dax talk about the positive values he was exposed to growing up in a Quaker school, keeping an anger journal through boxing, and the impact of attending acting school in Russia. Jon explains playing baseball in Moscow to make some extra rubles, he and his brothers outgrowing their issues, and the meaning he gleans from talking to real ones on his podcast.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who is Jon Bernthal and what are his latest projects?
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts, or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dan Shepard. I'm joined by Lily Padman. Hi. Today, we have one of my favorite actors on. I've been slowly becoming obsessed with him.
I got a handful that I follow that I'm really intrigued by, and this is one of them, Jon Bernthal.
I'll be honest, because that's what we do here. When I first saw him, I was like, oh, I don't know who that is. And then as soon as I saw his face, I was like, oh, I do. He's in everything.
He's in absolutely everything. I think so many, most people will probably know The Walking Dead because it was such an enormous hit.
And he was in King Richard.
Yeah, King Richard. And everything. The Punisher. He is The Punisher. The accountant with your boyfriend.
Mm-hmm.
Daredevil, Fury, and he has a new movie in theaters now, The Accountant 2.
Also with my boyfriend.
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Chapter 2: What is Jon Bernthal's acting background and journey?
The school that I sort of came up with was vast, vast majority scholarship students. It really put a real onus on all kinds of diversity. There's kids that weren't allowed to go to the public schools that were allowed to come to our school.
And what I saw was this really sort of utopian, beautiful thing where kids that were in some cases involved in things out of school that were genuinely dangerous. Kids were lost to gun violence. were on school grounds really a part of this community where they felt respected and safe and even when things would flare up.
there was a way of dealing with them where there was no principle saying you're suspended, you're kicked out. It was a group of your peers. And we would try to get to the bottom. Okay, well, why are you doing what you're doing? And let's see if we can bring you guys together. And maybe you need to go spend a night in his neighborhood. And maybe you need to go to her house and see what that's like.
For me, it really worked. And man, do I believe it. If you had asked me then, I would have been like, this is a bunch of bullshit. But now I'm like, those Quaker values are beautiful. I love the school and I'm so grateful to the school and the people who are my best friends who I played on my undefeated high school football team with are still my best friends. Oh, they play football.
That's a little bit of a shocker. Yeah, I guess.
Yeah, that's true.
What? Conflict resolution, God, and then you have a football team. I like it. We were a really sort of violent group of guys.
And there is really that element there, this dichotomy, but support it. Anyway, truthfully, what I'm most grateful for is it really was a place and a city that was diverse. People throw that word around, but the kind of folks that I got to grow up with were from all walks of life and in that city. And at that time, I'm just so grateful for it. And I think where D.C.
is, it's such an interesting thing because you cross one river in your Virginia and then you go out this way, you're in Maryland and there's the Eastern Shore. It's such a wildly different place. Okay, so you go to Skidmore, but you're there for how long? I'd gotten in trouble in high school, so I had this sort of thing looming over me while I was in college. Trial coming your way?
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Chapter 3: How did Jon Bernthal's upbringing influence his career?
It gives you a lot of empathy. As you said, when you hear about these stories of people, it's so easy to say like, yeah, they're just bad.
You know, when I go into prisons and I get to know these people and there's some folks that we've been a part of reducing their sentences and getting them out. The biggest thing that I'm aware of when I talk about my life, there's shame in it. Because the truth is, man, I had every opportunity. I went to a great school. I had good parents who loved me.
And I hit these walls over and over and over and over. So many chances. This wasn't the worst thing that I had ever. Like, dude, what are you doing? But the thing that I find is the only reason that I got these second chances is because of that privilege. Honestly, it's the only reason.
And there are so many folks who just don't have that or who made that same deal with whatever and it didn't work out for them.
And they're no better than me. They're no worse than me. Do you have an explanation for what was driving this side of you?
For me, it's always, again, been I have these pillars of brothers who never fucked up, just got it all fucking figured out. And by the way, always made me feel like I had real worth. In a bond, you go to John. You really want to talk about something in motion? You really want to have an honest conversation? I know they come to me. They'll always come to me. And I was always that guy.
That being said, I know it all came from shame. It all came from the times I was beat up, the times that I was jumped and I didn't do anything about it, the times that I was really scared.
I can explain all this by one event. I let a kid beat me up in sixth grade. And for years, I laid in bed at night going, oh my fucking God, why didn't you fight me?
Do you know how much violence has happened because of young men laying in bed in light, hating themselves because they couldn't make their hands move?
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