Vincent D'Onofrio reveals what he is still learning about Kingpin after 10 years
The release of Daredevil: Born Again earlier this year almost exactly matched the 10th anniversary of the original Daredevil show's premiere on Netflix. But even after a decade of playing supervillain Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, Vincent D'Onofrio is still learning things about his character 'every day.'
'As an actor, every day you go to work, something new happens,' D'Onofrio tells Gold Derby during a brief break from filming Daredevil: Born Again Season 2. 'You either fail and learn something from that, or you succeed and learn something from that. And throughout the day, both things can happen. So, yeah, I'm totally, constantly learning about Fisk and about how to execute the character. That never stops, it's continuous.'
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Of course, it helps to have new material to play, and Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again put both D'Onofrio and his character in a whole new place after Fisk successfully ran for mayor of New York City. During a rare meet-up with his rival Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) in the premiere episode, Fisk promised that he was done with his criminal ways and ready to be an upright politician. But D'Onofrio knew that things wouldn't go that way, even if his character didn't.
'You can't take these characters and then suddenly turn them into good people, or even less complicated people,' D'Onofrio says. 'I knew that the idea of putting him in the light and having him run for mayor was going to cause a lot of frustration and a lot of struggle for that character. As the actor, I knew that it would never work out. I even felt that putting him in those situations were some of the most difficult things to play. To put a broken person, who really belongs in the dark, in the light is an interesting choice. As the actor, I could feel the frustration of it. I didn't like it myself, but it was good to play it that way.'
But despite Fisk's new office, there's also plenty of continuity in the form of his wife, Vanessa Fisk. Though Sandrine Holt was originally cast to play Vanessa during the first attempt at Daredevil: Born Again, after the show's creative revamp the role was recast with Ayelet Zurer (who had played Vanessa on the original Daredevil series), and she and D'Onofrio picked up where they left off.
'Ayelet Zurer is an amazing actress,' D'Onofrio says. 'I've known her for years now, we're very close friends, and to work with her is incredible. Vanessa helps a lot to tell Wilson Fisk's story, like it did in the comics years ago. It defines who he is as a man, not just as a villain.'
Vanessa is her husband's moral compass, but not in a good way. During the time he's been absent from New York City (depicted in the Disney+ series Echo), Vanessa took control of his criminal empire, and she's the one who helps him re-embrace his Kingpin side even after becoming mayor.
'Whenever you show somebody that's supposedly a bad guy and you humanize him, it's more scary for everybody,' D'Onofrio says. 'So we did whatever we could in the first season to humanize Fisk, to make sure that people understood that he was a man who didn't consider himself to be a villain, but that the actor who plays him considers him to be broken.'
Criminal mayors are not relegated solely to the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eric Adams, the real-life mayor of New York City, was indicted last year on criminal corruption charges from the FBI.
'I don't have any interest in all that,' D'Onofrio says. 'I have my own personal views about all that, but I don't connect those to the show in any way. I think other people may or may not, that's up to them, but I've been playing this character a long time now, and I'm on that track. I'm on that evolution of the character. If it's somehow, in some uncanny way, following what's going on out there in the world, then I guess that's all the better for everybody. That means it's good storytelling, and if people are getting pissed about it or happy about it, that's good storytelling.'
Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again is streaming now on Disney+.
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