SmartLess

Podbit · SmartLess

"Jon Bernthal"

Explore episode Jun 8, 2026
Society & Culture
The Ojai Community Theater: Giving Back to the Public School

"Jon Bernthal" · Jun 8, 2026 Society & Culture

Bernthal has lived in Ojai, California for 15 years and watched the community shift as Angelenos moved in and the public school system suffered. His response: build a community theater in an old defunct school building and direct all proceeds to the public school theater department. He's also been coaching youth football there for six years and teaches boxing to kids. The goal is to be the kind of man his father was — someone every kid in the neighborhood could count on.

2m 30s

Where this was said

Jon Bernthal's Father, His Community, and His Philosophy of 'Never Too Late'

At 48:30 · chapter starts 42:50

Will draws a contrast between his own privileged upbringing and Jon's, noting that Jason and Sean also came up without industry connections. Bernthal describes his father as a D.C. neighborhood institution: when kids in trouble didn't know where to turn, they went to his dad. Not for validation, not for a lecture — for someone who would say, let's work through this, deal with the judgment later. Bernthal has tried to be that man in Ojai, where he's lived for 15 years, coaching youth football for six of them and teaching boxing. The town has changed significantly as Angelenos have moved in, and he's watched the public school theater program suffer. His community theater in an old defunct school building sends all its proceeds back to that department. He tells every kid who comes to him — his own or anyone else's: I hit every wall you can hit. It's never too late. He tells them their parents love them, whether they left or not, whether they're incarcerated or not.

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