The Punisher is brutal, bloody and exceedingly violent. But that doesn’t mean that the Netflix show’s star, Jon Bernthal, is here for any of the bullshit, especially when it comes to white supremacist trolls and terrorists appropriating the franchise’s logo for their own purposes.
In fact, Bernthal quite simply and succinctly told any of the “alt-right” fans of the show that they could go fuck themselves.
“Fuck them,” Bernthal said in a tell-all interview with Esquire when asked about the alt-righters’ use of the logo.
In the interview, Bernthal acknowledged his own extensive history with violence, which, in some way, probably made him perfect for the Punisher role, but also noted that that chapter of his life was now far behind him.
“Sometimes when people write about me, it sounds like I’m glorifying the violence,” Bernthal said.
“I know now life is more about working things out and heading off that violence,” he added, noting that “extremism and lack of compromise is the enemy of what I want to teach [my sons].”
Bernthal also touched on the issue of gun violence, pointing out that he himself is a gun owner.
“I’m a gun owner,” Bernthal told Esquire. “I have a gun in my house to keep my family safe. I’m trained in that gun’s use. I know how to keep it away from my kids, and I know how to use it if I need to.”
Still, the star noted that a great part of the conversation is lacking in American dialogue, especially when it comes to mental health.
“Should there be a way that a guy with mental issues like the asshole in Texas can’t get guns? Absolutely,” the star said, referencing the shooter who opened fire at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and killed 26 people last year. “We have to have a dialogue, and that’s not happening.”