Jon Bernthal
speaker
633 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2025
last heard 8 Jun
Jon Bernthal’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
That event more than anything else. Like, yes, I was working. It was a really bad thing. Happened in Venice. And I think more than anything else, there's an issue sort of with one of my dogs. I tried to take my dog. It was a bunch of them. Oh. I ended up hitting a guy and he got knocked out and hit his head on the ground.
Being down in jail in LA and not knowing whether this guy was going to wake up. And it was literally as profound and clear a moment as I've ever had. Wow. Okay. If you're going this way, this is your life now. There's no more acting. There's no more girlfriend. There's no more any of this. You got to go be the devil. You're going that way. He's not waking up. This is your life now.
You just ruined your entire life. For me, it was way more active than that. It was like, okay, if we're going in that direction, I'm going to let you into my life. I will be the worst version of myself. I will fully give over to whatever energy that is. And I see with so many people, violent criminals, folks that we call monsters. I know that they've been in the same spot and I was ready, man.
It's not a tough guy bullshit. It's like, I am ready for whatever the fuck comes my way and I will meet it with whatever comes my way. And then the next thought was like, but... If just this one time, please, I swear I'm dumb, I will devote myself to this thing. I will devote myself to this woman. I will serve in every way that I can. I will really do your work. Whatever that is, I promise you.
Literally in that moment, he woke up. That was July 3rd, 2009. July 3rd, 2010, I was in Atlanta starting The Walking Dead, engaged to my wife, a year sober. Year later, my first son, Henry, was born. I'm like blown away with gratitude. And at any point, including now, if it all goes away.
That exact same moment.
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.
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.
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?
I know how toxic that road is, that shame and that I'm really a wimp. I'm really a coward if these guys find me out, you know, so I'm going to talk a little bit like all those things are just such horrible roads to walk down. And it is crazy that a lot of the things that I get to do is portray these uber tough, strong. And the thing that I find such a gift is,
is that I'm really aware of each one of their, not just deep vulnerabilities and sensitivities, but their shame. I just don't think there's any such thing as like violence without pain and shame. You're crying inside. You go into prison and you hang out among folks who have had real, real time to sit with this.
You go into prisons and you find folks who are, in my opinion, some of the most ethically and innovative and deep and spiritually sound because they've just had so much time to sit and really work a lot of this stuff out. And when you find folks like that, it's such a gift, fully evolved, like fully figured it out.
There are people who never get to be around their kids because they're behind walls. And I think they're some of the best parents on earth. The way that they breathe is in full consideration of their children, of their offspring, of their spiritual connection.
And you just know. Can I say one thing about that? Yeah. The guy who 2009 got knocked out, hit his head. 2010, July 3rd, I wrote him a letter and I said to him, I realized that when I hit you, I saw you in me and I wanted to fucking smash it. That's what it was. Yeah. Thousand percent.
Yeah, I feel so bad for David and George because they're so great, you know, it's The Wire. But that show was, I think at that time, especially in a subject matter that I'm so curious about, fascinated by, deplored by race and policing. It's like so at the center because of that show.
I got this unbelievable front row ticket and access point in this fucking city that is like right at the tip of the spear of these fucking issues.
And to really get to understand policing and for three months going out every single night on the east side with the gun squad and then on the west side of Baltimore with Nagovich and them on SWAT raids and like really getting to know these guys really, really well. And then at the same time, understanding it through the systemic lens that George and David shared kind of singularly can do.
Showing 561–580 of 633 · page 29 of 32
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