The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal reveals intense King Richard prep – Metro.co.uk

He plays Serena Williams former tennis coach (Picture: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Punisher and Walking Dead star Jon Bernthal, 45, on his latest film King Richard, fatherhood and being the black sheep of his family.

I wasnt a huge fan. I certainly hadnt played before this but Im really into it now. We really wanted to get the tennis right so I trained for about nine months, about three hours a day, at a tennis academy.

I not only trained in playing the game but I trained in coaching. And then I got to train my own top 50 Junior National Player, a young woman called Kamea Medora.

Ill be honest, Im pretty good. I play a lot now. Its one of the great things about this job, you get to learn the trade of the character you play.

I take that part of the work enormously seriously. Im pretty confident!

Definitely not! They were around a bit. Its enormously humbling, telling a part of the story of the most influential and important athletes of all time. Theyve got behind the film completely.

We talk about it all the time. Kurt won the gold medal for America in the Olympics besides doing his pro wrestling. I know a lot of pro athletes. Everybodys journey is different.

I played a little bit of professional baseball when I lived overseas. You must be extremely committed to it if you ever want to excel.

Everybody gets to a point where they can no longer compete at a certain level unless youre going to really dedicate yourself fully. So there was never a time in my life where that was ever really a reality.

Things were not looking up for a long time with me, especially with brothers like mine! I was definitely the black sheep, I was definitely the one nobody really liked to talk about too much.

But look, Im really grateful for my past. Im grateful for how I grew up, where I grew up, who I grew up with, but more than anything, my brothers are my best friends.

Were all enormously different but were all enormously close. And its not just my blood brothers, Ive got a ton of brothers from growing up. A lot of people grew up in our house. My parents took on foster kids. Weve all stayed extraordinarily close.

Ive always looked at myself as a bit of an outsider. I felt extraordinarily shut out from the community. It can be very unwelcoming at first, until you start picking up a little bit of success, then all of a sudden those same people that wanted nothing to do with you want a piece of what youve got.

And I was not a guy who could walk into a room and blow people away with my good looks. But from the second I stepped on stage, I knew this was what I wanted to do.

As you can imagine, were quite different. Parts of it potentially will be what people expect but I think mostly its going to be vastly different.

Its from the people behind Ray Donovan. It will be an interesting thing to explore in todays age and its going to deal with some pretty complex issues.

Yeah, there are no words, man, and especially when I was starting out in this business and every door in the world was being slammed in my face and it was not looking good I would come home to her and cry in her arms, telling her how Im never going to make it and how hard it was.

And she would gently, softly remind me that she was holding someones hands as they passed that day or dealing with families who were losing loved ones and seeing people at their absolute most vulnerable and weakest.

And it puts things into huge perspective. I respect and admire her completely. Shes the strongest and toughest person Ive ever met.

Theres nothing in the world more important to me. My kids made me better. Fatherhood is something youre never going to get right I love that.

Same reason I love acting. Youre never going to just have it licked. I always just try to admit my mistakes and talk to my kids about them. Ive simplified my life into two components work and my family. Thats it.

King Richard is in cinemas and on premium VOD now

MORE : King Richard review: Will Smith serves in heartfelt biopic of Venus and Serena Williams father

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The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal reveals intense King Richard prep - Metro.co.uk

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero