Montreal Comiccon returned with 65,000 attendees this year and a slew of celebrities on stage. The first one I sat in with on July 6th was none other than Vincent D’Onofrio, perhaps best known for his work in Full Metal Jacket, Law & Order, and Daredevil as the Kingpin. It was a really insightful and interesting conversation with him and I’m happy to share the breakdown with you today!

D’Onofrio has a history of playing darker characters, so naturally, he was asked how difficult it was to get into the mindset of these darker characters. He stated that when he’s picking scripts, he makes sure that the character is written in such a way that they’re not just evil for the sake of being evil. He seeks characters that always have a reason for their actions and often sees darker characters as misunderstood; if the script fails to meet these criteria, he’ll pass. Once he’s picked the script, he states that as a method actor, he puts his neck on the chopping block by going as close to the darkness without actually ruining his life. He claims that he can’t “pretend” to act the role, he must fully dive into the character, know their day-to-day routines and figure out why they are the way they are. With that in mind, he emphasized that as a method actor, it’s his job to not bring the role home.

To help get into characters, he often does research and sometimes he goes too far in that regard. He cited the 2000 film The Cell, in which he worked with the FBI to enter the world of serial killers to prepare for the film. But he admitted he may have delved too far, as he saw some truly horrific things, which resulted in him suffering from nightmares. Despite that, he claims that that level of preparedness only makes his performances that much more real and thinks the ends justify the means.

The conversation then shifted to Daredevil and his turn as Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin. D’Onofrio described Fisk as a broken man that couldn’t be fixed, which was one of the selling factors for joining the show, along with the scripts, and he liked the idea that Fisk was a master manipulator. He also touched on Fisk’s nervous ticks, revealing that he incorporated those reactions organically into the role, calling it a human reaction as opposed to a rehearsed act. With there being stressful scenes, D’Onofrio tapped into that stress and anxiety, which caused him to tremble on set and stated that the body’s nervous system doesn’t know when you’re acting, so it feels that stress and exhaustion, something he says is the best case scenario for a role.

With Fisk being such a popular role, it’s no surprise that he touched base on Daredevil: Born Again, the upcoming Disney+ series. He confirmed that the troubled production has completed principal photography and the vision is very satisfactory to both him and leading man Charlie Cox. Both men were not too happy with how Born Again was shaping up and they brought their concerns to Marvel head Kevin Feige. He agreed with D’Onofrio and Cox that the current iteration was not in line with fan expectations of the previous Netflix run, prompting the show to restart production from the ground up. Now, D’Onofrio believes that Daredevil: Born Again will resonate with fans of the original series, the fans who want that darker and more character-driven story and helped make the show as popular as it was. Reflecting back on the Netflix cancellation, he shared a brief anecdote about how Charlie Cox had no hope about ever returning as Matt Murdock, but he would console his friend by saying that he wasn’t convinced that the cancellation was the end.

D’Onofrio then saw the conversation pivot to Men in Black, when asked if he would return to doing creature features. Apart from stating he would love to play Frankenstein’s Monster, he dove into the creative process for Edgar. He got the call for a role in Men in Black and was told he was not allowed to talk to director Barry Sonnenfeld at all about the script or performance in advance. With some hesitation, D’Onofrio agreed due to Sonnefeld’s reputation. D’Onofrio noted that there wasn’t anything descriptive about the bug version of Edgar in the script, which gave him a lot to work with despite how crazy he thought that was. Not being able to talk to Barry about the creative process, he was forced to create Edgar on his own without any input or guidance.

He ended up watching a lot of bug documentaries but claimed that was too boring and ended up panicking as production inched closer and he had no direction. Then, as he was passing a store that sells braces and canes, he noticed some hinges for the knees and an idea came to him. He asked the store owner, who got the full details about the role, what he thought and the store owner, probably visibly confused, helped Vincent out with his purchases. After working out the knees, he bought more braces for Edgar’s arms and started doing day-to-day tasks while wearing the hinges in order to get the movement down. For the voice, he found inspiration from John Huston’s role in Chinatown and George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove.

When D’Onofrio did his first scene as Edgar on set, Barry Sonnenfeld actually called for everyone to leave the set so he could speak one-on-one with him. Sonnefeld quietly asked him if he intended to act like that for the whole film shoot, to which D’Onofrio, worried he was about to get fired, confirmed that was his vision. So Sonnefeld told him to do it again and again before stating “Oh my, that’s horrible! But it could be great.” So they brought everyone back in and resumed the shoot and never spoke of the voice and character again.

We then pivoted to Jurassic World of all things. D’Onofrio mentioned that at the time, he was super excited to get the chance to join that iconic franchise and he knew it was something his kids would absolutely love. While he thinks he may have lost some credibility points having done the film, he’s still glad he did it, citing it was a fun shoot. In fact, when he was face to face with the stunt guys in leotards doubling as Blue the Raptor on set, he kept bursting out in laughing fits because he couldn’t take the scene seriously. They had to bring in a cutout of a raptor and place it on a stick to “act” opposite Vincent just so he could finish the scenes.

He closed out his time at Montreal Comiccon with a story about his thoughts on his career. After working with Stanley Kubrick in Full Metal Jacket, D’Onofrio actually returned to the world of bouncing, unconvinced he had made it as an actor. But at a stoplight in Los Angeles, right near the old Tower Records on Sunset, the car next to him singled Vincent to roll down his windows, to which a fan began talking to him. Then, the car to his left joined in on the conversation. When the light turned green, both cars departed and Vincent was left at the intersection with one thing in mind: “Fuck, I’m an actor!”

Thanks to Vincent D’Onofrio for making the time for us at the Montreal Comiccon 2024!