“At first it started off as a feeling and being a junkie for this feeling, the feeling of being on stage, the feeling of holding an audience in my hands, the feeling of communicating with many people at once. Then it became much more personal. It was the feeling of doing it that I loved so much.”

Jon Bernthal’s words tumble, falling over one another. Little marching markers of enthusiasm. He’s talking about acting and what it means to him.

“It ends up being a duty in a way. There’s nothing better than telling stories, being a part of people’s stories and being a soldier for someone’s story. Being an actor and really trying to adhere to the principals of acting, to being truthful and to serving your writer, it’s a really important duty to inspire communication, to inspire feeling and thought in people.”

He calls acting “ a wonderful, necessary thing.” It strikes that statement, “a wonderful, necessary thing.”

“When I was a kid I remember being in a doctor’s office and reading this book about Babe Ruth, this little cartoon book about Babe Ruth, and I remember he was sitting, kind of leaning on this hotdog stand, on his bat, and he was sitting there eating hotdogs.”

With credits in World Trade Center and The Air I Breathe as well as coming feature credits on Bar Starz, A Line in the Sand and Pinkville, Bernthal, with Bryan Gunnar Cole’s Tribeca-premiered Day Zero, proves himself an actor capable of surfacing both empathy and pathos, his craft so precise that as he learns, we learn; as he breaks, we break; as he triumphs, so to do we.

“He was saying, “Man, I get paid to play baseball and eat hotdogs. Can you imagine anything better than that?” That’s kind of how I feel about acting. It’s an absolute honor.”

SM: One of the first things that [Anthony Moody and Brian Gunnar Cole] talked about was that you fought for this part. You sent an e-mail to Tony saying, “Hey, you don’t know me. You won’t have heard my name yet, but you should really consider me for this part.” It wasn’t until a few months later, during open calls, that you were able to get your way back in there. What resonated with you in the script so much that you would fight that hard for this part?

JB: For the record, Tony definitely ignored my first e-mail too.

SM laughs.

JB: It’s very rare that you can remember the exact time, the exact place, the exact moment—exactly where you were when you read a script, and that’s what it was when I read Day Zero. I had read a character breakdown on Dixon, and there was just something about it that made me just start making phone calls and say, “I need to read this script.” I remember who was in the room. I just remember everything about it, and when I read the script, I just knew this was a part that I had to play. Then the madness insues of calling your agent and trying to get into the room.

It’s tough to be a producer because the fact of the matter is that people in this country, for the most part, won’t go see film unless there are stars in it, and I know that they were really bent on putting stars in this film. And, you know what? The script deserved it. The script deserves to be seen by a lot of people. That being said, I just knew that I was the guy to do it.

From that moment on, I was just a guy on a mission. It was funny because I got my TV series at the time, and I’d gotten four or five other movies. Every single time things started to click for me in my career, and every single time that it happened my agent would call and say, “Well, you got this job. You got this. Aren’t you so excited?” And, I’d say, “What about Day Zero? Can I get an audition for Day Zero?” That was it. That was really the thing for me.

SM: In approaching the role, you were really methodical, and partly, I think, that has to do with coming out of a theater background. You went through and read [Fyodor M] Dostoevsky, Vicktor Frankl and used their works as bounce boards. I was hoping that you could tell me a little bit about what you gleaned from those pieces of literature.

JB: The thing that I really loved about Dixon is that he’s a guy who lives by a code,—he’s a guy who does have these friends and is fiercely loyal—but I felt a real loneliness in him. I felt that he was really alone in his city. There’s something about him being in New York, living by himself. I felt that his best friend and companion was the city itself, and there’s something especially in Man’s Search for Meaning about [the idea that] no matter what happens in life, no matter what cards we’re dealt, to have a peace of mind. To have peace of mind means living by a strict code, not letting your circumstances ever get the best of you…That really resonated with me from that book in particular.

SM:…And, then both Aaron and George have meaning. George has his work and his wife and Aaron has his writing while Dixon has to find his meaning throughout the film.

JB: Yeah, and I think that loneliness that I was referring to earlier has been his meaning. The way in which he lives his life has been his passion, but it’s when he really finds another person who will give him the same loyalty he’s given everyone else that he’s cared about in his life, that’s when he finds that passion. The love has finally reciprocated, and he realizes that that’s something that’s even greater than the code which he’s lived by, which is that if he’s called to fight by anyone—whether by his country or his friend that he loves—that he’s there to do it. In my opinion of Dixon, love wins out.

SM: That’s the nice thing about the end of the film, as Brian mentioned. You don’t really know what’s going to happen. It’s up to the audience to decide, and so everyone has their own opinions. I’d like to keep the mystery, but I’m on your side of that one. I hope love wins out.

JB: It is a great thing about the script, that it is left up to the audience, but as an actor, at least for me, I felt I had to make a decision. As far as I’m concerned, for whatever it’s worth, I think he stays.

SM: I’ll try to keep myself linear as we talk about the acting process. One of the first things you did was to return to Saratoga Springs and work with Alma Becker in the blackbox. Working in a blackbox I feel is a very specific interaction to have with a character. You’re literally isolated from color, on a stage. How was it to develop this character in a theater, with one of your first acting teachers and then have to bring it to a film?

JB: That place, that specific theater—without sounding cheesy or grandiose—that’s the most spiritual place that I’ve ever found in my life. That specific blackbox theater that we were rehearsing in was the first place I ever did a play; it’s the first place I ever took an acting class; it’s with the woman who taught me how to act; it’s the woman who discovered that I was an actor, urged me to go forward with this and sent me to go study in Russia. She’s one of the most important people in my life…She’s just the master of truth as far as I’m concerned. There’s no sneaking around. There’s no getting away with anything, no bullshit in front of her.

When I say we worked together, Alma was just there in the room. That’s the kind of director she is and the kind of acting teacher she is. She’s not really one for telling you to do it this way or do it that way or work some of this in. She just sort of exudes an energy, comes up to you and almost like a sorcerer, just with a touch or a look of the eye, coaxes different energies out of you.

What was such a testament to Brian was here he is directing this feature film, and I told him, “Hey, listen man, I’m going to Saratoga Springs to work with this woman.” There was no preciousness, no guardedness, no saying, “Well, I don’t want her going this.” Everyone was just so open to the process, and it was really the three of us in the room acting out parts, trying different things, talking about past experiences.

Oftentimes in film especially—I’m working on a film right now with Oliver Stone [Pinkville], and I just got out of a rehearsal with him and Bruce Willis. Every moment on these studio films, every second is just so precious. There’s a deadline, and there’s something just so wonderful about these open rehearsals where they can flow seamlessly between conversation and work. That’s where real discovery is made, that’s what rehearsals about, that’s what’s so wonderful about theater, and it’s what I miss so much.

I really do think in the film it’s there. The things we discovered in rehearsal are there, even though you’re in a blackbox theater, and then you get onto set and you’re actually in the rooms, and there’s so much more to play off. It was the things I found in rehearsal that totally carried into the work on film.

SM: How much of that process do you feel is unconscious? No matter how much you control, even with method acting, I always assume that there’s something, as an actor, that you miss.

JB: Absolutely, and that’s why people have studied this endlessly. It is completely unknown at the end of the day. It is completely an in the moment art.

For me I grew up playing sports. I went to college to play sports, and so for me acting has always been a very athletic thing. I’ve always looked at rehearsal and training as preparation, just the same as you would do in a sport. What you do on that day, in that field, in that game or on that stage, in front of that camera, you prepare and you train just so you actually can be free in that moment.

Every artist is different, but I know for me that the more training I do, the more prepared I am, the more rehearsal I have, all it does is free me up to be open and ready for those things to inspire, touch and let me react truthfully in the moment. That’s the age old saying, “You rehearse so that you can let go.” You use structure to gain freedom.

SM: You were talking earlier about the moments being precious when you’re working in a studio system, and to a certain extent that did happen on Day Zero because Elijah [Wood] was in and out so quickly. So, basically you, Chris [Klein] and Elijah had to bond very quickly, and what was it, that all of the scenes of the three of you together were shot in five days?

JB: If I remember right, it was the first ten days that we had to shot out Elijah. That being said, that includes all the days that Elijah was by himself or with Ally [Sheedy].

SM: How did you go about building relationships with those two guys and knowing that you had to do it quickly?

JB: The urgency of the film, the whole thing was shot so quickly, and we didn’t have a lot of money, so there was no part of it, aside from the rehearsal that I was referring to, there was no part of the actual shooting schedule that gave us any time to be patient or lax at all. There was a sense of urgency to every single day of the set—we had to be out of locations; we were running out of time. Every day was so ambitious just to try to get the scenes we had in, and it required us putting in scenes that weren’t in at the end of nights, sometimes at four in the morning. I hope this isn’t just something that we’re saying to ourselves, but I think that helped. It’s what the film’s about. It’s about having thirty days. It’s about trying to tie everything up in thirty days, to come to these decisions in thirty days. To not have time, to feel the clock that’s ticking, it adds to everything.

There was never any bullshit between the three of us. We came in, we went right into rehearsals, and like in many other rehearsals for film’s I’ve been in, there’s this feeling out process, this “Is he going to be okay if I come after him?” I remember my first rehearsal with Elijah. I had just come out of two weeks of rehearsal in Saratoga, I came in, and the first scene we rehearsed was the scene with the pimp, when he and I have this explosive argument…I just went right after him, started screaming him and pushing him. I don’t know if I did it purposefully or what, but I wanted to let him know who I was, what I was about and how much this meant to me, and he came right back at me. That was the flavor of our work together, all of ours. There was no time for bullshit. He and I figured out real quick who each other were, and there was a mutual respect right off the bat. And, I’ve got to tell you, somebody like him, Elijah to this day is the most professional, most caring and sharing artist that I’ve ever worked with. He came in and totally set a tone in ten days for an entire set, for an entire crew that was one of positivity and acceptance. He worked through the night pretty much ten days straight. He put so much work in, and he always had a smile on his face. It’s a real joy to see a real movie star like him that’s still so grounded and has such a wonderful soul.

SM: I’m glad you mention that scene. [Swindled by a pimp, Aaron calls Nixon to help him get his money—and presumably dignity—back.] It’s heartbreaking in that you can see in Dixon the hesitation, being torn about doing this, but also the other need to protect people. So this character has somewhat dual functions, to protect others and protect himself, and yet strong as he is, he’s always letting other people win out…When you guys shot that scene on location, how did you go about doing that?

JB: The level of intensity (the scene) reached had to do with a lot of things…Well, there’s two answers. One of the answers is that it was pouring rain that night, pouring rain, and we probably got to that scene at 3:30 AM. There was no dry area for us so we were just being soaked in all night, Elijah and I. That might have had something to do with it, and I think that really helped…As far as the film goes, it’s the exact same thing that’s going on with my character’s relationship with Chris. He’s been fighting people’s fights for them all the time, his whole life, and it ended up sending him to a juvenile detention center. He’s been paying the price for his loyalty for his entire life. So, there’s the frustration of feeling taking advantage of to come in to do this. I think the thing that most sets Dixon off is when Aaron asks him to come fight the pimp, and I say, “Okay, let’s go,”—my take was, “This is something we’re going to do together. We’re going off to war. We’re going to kick this guy’s ass together.”—but when Elijah sits back and says, “I’m afraid to go. You go do it for me,” it just brings up all these old feelings in Dixon. It makes him feel horribly disappointed, horribly taken advantage of, horribly unloved.

SM: That goes into this idea that Dixon sees himself more as a moral barometer, and people keep placing him in this position of the physical. You see that most clearly in the scene of the three of you in the houseboat. When Chris is telling George’s story involving the [violence against the young] girl, there’s the cutaway to Dixon, who looks so betrayed that that situation would ever happen with a friend of his. So, it’s an interesting space, positing him as a moral barometer.

JB: Naturally, among friends there always is a moral barometer. There’s always one guy like that, and it’s funny because in this case—and I think a lot of times it’s true—it’s the guy who’s been in the most trouble; it’s the guy who’s lived the most and seen the most; the guy who on paper might be the most morally corrupt. I think those people usually are the moral barometer in relationships and the people who are willing to go the furthest for their friends.

And, I love how Chris plays it. He does look up and check in with me. That was the one scene in the movie that we did have a lot of time to play with. We had the boat for the night, and we were able to just run the scene over and over again, and we just found more and more things. It’s my favorite scene in the movie just for that reason, that we really got time to play with each other.

SM: Now on the flipside you were also working with (Sofia Vassilieva and Elisabeth Moss,) and those interactions are just as important if not as highlighted as those Dixon has with Aaron and George. So, I was hoping that you could talk a bit about working with both Sofia and Elisabeth.

JB: Even when you say their names…Woosh! They’re just so great. They’re just so great. Sofia came in and was a whirlwind. She tore us all apart. She came in for three days, and by the end I was just so in love with this little girl. She’s just so talented, so sweet and so positive. One of the things about her character was that she needed to play baseball. She needed to throw the ball against a wall and catch it with her glove, and she’d never put on a baseball glove in her life. When she got to set—she came with her dad, got off the plane—she was told that she’d need to throw a ball, and they were going to just nix the baseball glove. She just went into a room by herself,—and I was a college baseball player—and she comes out a couple of hours later, and we’re throwing a ball back and forth. She totally got it.

In our good-bye scene at the end, where she breaks down—which I think is the best acted scene, her performance is just the best part of the movie—she nailed that level of emotion on every single take, whether she was on camera or off. It was just alive in her. She’s just a phenomenon, and it was a real gift to work with her.

As far as Lizzie goes, right away, the second I saw her at rehearsal we just fell in love for real. I just can’t imagine a better partner to act with. Every day all I was looking forward to was seeing her. She’s so good at what she does. She’s just a force.

Also, you have Ginny [Ginnifer Goodwin], and I was such a fan of hers. The woman in this movie are just amazing. Everybody says it’s a movie about three friends, but these women are just so damn talented.

It was just a great little family and one I was really honored to be part of.

SM: We are kind of children in understanding the concept of what it is to be American. We have these lofty notions of what it is to be American, but until you’re forced into a situation where you have to understand it, I don’t know that you do. Given the parameters of the film, did you have to learn anything about what it is to be American…?

JB: There’s a lot of forces out there for Americans these days to not have a point of view. We’re coaxed into being as comfortable as possible so that we don’t really have to take a stance about what’s going on in the world. Historically, being American has meant the opposite.

…Is that what you’re saying, that the view of being American is childlike because it’s uneducated or innocent?

SM: I don’t think it’s uneducated at all, but there’s a certain amount of awe that we approach that concept with. In large part, it’s idealistic. The idea that we’re predicating something on the pursuit of happiness is so innocent and childlike. Perhaps, down the line, when we’re an older country, I wouldn’t say this, but there’s a blind faith and wonderful enthusiasm that Americans have. It’s not until they’re confronted with a situation like this one that they have to question whether or not that blind faith and trust is based on anything more than what they’ve been taught.

JB: Rhetoric.

That’s what the point [of the film’s issue] is. When do you test that blind faith, trust and pride in being American? What about when it starts affecting you and your decisions? Would you actually change your life or put your life on the line for it?

For more information visit www.dayzerothemovie.com.

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