Vincent D'Onofrio Confirms What We Suspected All Along About His Role In Daredevil - Exclusive
With an illustrious career that has spanned over four decades, Vincent D'Onofrio had played many a role. He burst onto the Hollywood scene in 1987 in Stanley Kubrick's war drama "Full Metal Jacket" and went on to star in such fare as "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Jurassic World." In his latest film, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," which is now in theaters, D'Onofrio plays ultra-conservative televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr. in the story of the rise and fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.
But perhaps one of D'Onofrio's most loved characters is that of Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin in the Netflix series "Daredevil." Based on the Marvel comics of the same name, "Daredevil" is the story of Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer by day who fights crime as a masked vigilante by night. One of his biggest adversaries is crime lord Fisk, a powerful New York City businessman who's working to control the lawless underbelly of the metropolis.
It's a role D'Onofrio has always spoken enthusiastic about — even recently stirring up speculation on Twitter that the character could make an appearance in Hawkeye. But how does the actor really feel about potentially reprising the role? Looper exclusively spoke to D'Onofrio about what it was like to play such a baddie and where the whole situation stands in terms of a possible revival.
Vincent D'Onofrio had a blast with Daredevil
"I've made it no secret that it was a really fun part to play and that I hope to play it again sometime," says D'Onofrio of portraying Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin on "Daredevil." "For this day and age, it's a good job to have. Marvel and Disney are a very cool company. And you never know what Marvel's doing, so I can only hope that someday I will [be tapped again for another project.] I don't know. I mean, I would love to just explore that character more."
As to why Fisk was so much fun to play, D'Onofrio admits that one of the reasons was the freedom that Marvel gave him to mold the character.
"I had a pretty spectacular time on 'Daredevil,'" says D'Onofrio. "The people at Marvel were very inventive and very creative, and the character was my kind of character. They created him a long time ago, but I was able to just freely ... Jeph Loeb, who used to run Marvel Television at the time, was very open to me bringing what I thought was needed to the character."
He wants to explore Kingpin on a deeper level
Another reason was the character himself, who, like many Marvel villains, has a duality that gets to be explored onscreen.
"He's an interesting character," says D'Onofrio. "He was a really big baddie in the comics, but even in the comics, they always depicted his life as a very emotional life like anybody has, but yet he was just this giant, iconic bad guy at the same time. I love the duality there, and that's why the part was so interesting to me. I mean, in any story throughout the history of that character, he remains one of the most interesting, to me anyway, bad guys of Marvel. That's just the way I look at it."
As for whether he hopes to be asked to portray a different character in the MCU or reprise his role as Fisk in another capacity, D'Onofrio demures. "I don't have dreams about being in this or that or the other thing," he says. "I look at it as, even if it never happens again, we had a great series in 'Daredevil' for three seasons. That'll always be good memories."