4 children, including niece
Bernthal has three biological children aged 14, 12, and 10, plus a 4-year-old niece who has come to live with the family in recent years.
Where this was said
Growing Into the Work: Failure, Fatherhood, and Finding Purpose
At 35:58 · chapter starts 34:50
Sean's question is layered: when did Bernthal go from using acting to escape his demons to truly embracing it as a career and identity? Bernthal resists the framing of 'arrival.' He says the healthiest relationship he can have with the work is to always be chasing it, knowing he'll fail, and treating each failure as an opportunity for connection and growth — exactly as he does with his children. He's grateful to still be terrified at this stage of his life while doing this play. His life simplified precisely when his family grew alongside his career, and the two are now inseparable. He connects his point to a documentary about soccer coach José Mourinho, who told a dejected team at halftime: the other team is going to score, that's the game, what matters is what you do next. Bernthal applies this constantly to both acting and parenthood.
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