Bernthal improvised a fictional story about his living mother giving him a baseball glove on her deathbed, moved the class to tears, and got discovered as an actor.
Where this was said
At 20:27 · chapter starts 17:30
Jason asks whether Bernthal would go back to Russia today, given the news. Bernthal says he'd love to but can't now. In 1999, Moscow was what everyone called the Wild West: shootings at the Duma, Chechen apartment building bombings, and a social landscape unlike anything he'd ever encountered. [1] — Jon Bernthal "When Bernthal arrived in Russia in 1999, there were shootings at the Duma and Chechen apartment building bombings happening in the city. He…" 15:00 As a boxer who fancied himself street-smart, the physical danger didn't deter him. What arrested him was the contrast: real brutality on the streets, and on every corner a statue of a playwright or a poet. Acting was a revered, masculine pursuit. His teachers had been part of a generation that performed in subway tunnels and abandoned buildings when public gatherings were outlawed, risking prison for themselves and their audiences because theater was that vital to them — it was religious. [2] — Jon Bernthal "Bernthal's first theater teacher, after catching him fabricate that deathbed story, sent him to the Moscow Art Theatre as both a punishment…" 17:30 Bernthal thinks he would not have responded the same way to American theater training. The Russian context cracked him open in the exact way he needed.
Bernthal's first theater teacher, after catching him fabricate that deathbed story, sent him to the Moscow Art Theatre as both a punishment and a revelation. His teachers there had performed illegal plays in subway tunnels and abandoned buildings during times when public gatherings were outlawed, risking prison for art they believed in religiously. That combination of danger, reverence, and masculine cultural respect for the arts hit Bernthal differently than anything America could have offered him at that age.
Bernthal's Russian teachers performed plays in subway tunnels and abandoned buildings during times when public gathering was outlawed, risking prison for themselves and audiences.
Jon Bernthal lived and studied theater in Russia from 1999 to 2001, a formative experience he credits with saving his life.
Bernthal signed up for an intro theater class thinking it was 600 kids watching movies in the back of a lecture hall. Instead it was 10 people who took it very seriously. When his turn came to share something meaningful, he had nothing — except his catcher's glove — and launched into a completely fabricated story about his mother giving it to him on her deathbed. His mom was alive and well in D.C. The whole class, including Bernthal, burst into tears. His teacher recognized something real in the chaos and changed his life forever.
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