TV Topics: Vincent D’Onofrio Reveals the Man Behind Kingpin and the Power of Television

It may sound foolish but, I don’t think I have ever been as intimidated for an interview as I was when I began my conversation with Vincent D’Onofrio, and with good reason. Over the years I have watched the actor bring some of the most memorable and haunting characters to life across movie and television screens and made me believe the humanity in each one. Awards Radar has interviewed him several times before, including here with Joey, but this felt different.

My introduction to his work was in film school watching him portray the abused and vengeful “Private Pyle” in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. It is a role that shook me and is forever notched into my brain. His dedication to the role is present in each frame and it only becomes more impressive after learning D’Onofrio gained 70 pounds for the part. That is dedication.

Later he played a deranged serial killer who haunts victims’ dreams in The Cell, an alien-possessed corpse on a mission to take over the earth in Men In Black, and a powerful, but troubled detective in Law and Order. His most intense and unforgettable role has been as Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin, a ruthless crime lord with a stronghold on New York City in the Daredevil: Born Again, a physically hulking man with a voice of gravel who is as strong as he is unpredictable. He’s a character you would not want to be alone in a room with and D’Onofrio makes him as terrifying and complex as any villain in recent memory.

When the interview cameras turned on, the feeling of intimidation did not fade after seeing the actor waiting with a serious, pensive look on his face. I felt his eyes piercing through the computer screen, as if he could sense my nerves and see into my soul. As I said hello, welcoming him to TV Topics, my voice betrayed me, a slight quiver, and my trademark stammer unleashed. I was doomed.

I awaited a response. There was a slight pause and a pit formed in my stomach. I anticipated he would announce, “This interview is over!” before abruptly shutting off the camera. The pause, which felt like forever but was more likely less than a second, concluded. He spoke, and what came out was more shocking than anything I could have expected, a soft, warm voice returning my greeting and quickly shifting into small talk.

Not only was D’Onofrio not anything like his character, the conversation that followed was one of the most endearing and insightful I have had across the hundreds I’ve conducted. It was even filled with some smiles and laughs. Listen to the full conversation below.

Behind the gruff exterior conveyed on screen was a thoughtful man, dedicated to his work and with a strong focus on family, both his current one and the one he grew up with, led by a mother who did anything she could to provide for him and his siblings. The revealing and, at times, moving conversation showed me a person who became the artist we know today in part thanks to television. 

Specifically, a small black and white television which served as much more than entertainment. It was a window to a new world that his humble upbringing could not provide, opening his mind and creative spirit.  Artists like The Beatles, and Barbara Streisand showed him a world of possibilities and planted the idea that you could make a living entertaining others. It was life changing.

The relief I felt when given the time to actually speak with D’Onofrio instead of the image I created in my head was immense. It is also a true testament to his work. Vincent transforms from a reflective, thoughtful family man into the hulking, power-hungry Kingpin/Fisk. The character feels completely real and lived in, to the point it blurred my instincts. The actor’s transformation is from the inside out, a complete shift in psyche, a physical transformation that started with a very deliberately crafted voice chosen for the character based on D’Onofrio’s read on Fisk as a man, digging deep into the heart of the man, not the supervillain.

“I always thought that to juxtapose his emotional sensitivity and his monstrous, brutal ways of handling things, I thought that there was an interesting character to try to do. When I was looking for this voice, I just kind of sat in my office by myself, relaxed, and started to riff in my mind about events, hard, painful events that happened in my life. I remembered an incident that happened in a taxi in the city, a very emotional thing that happened with my son. And I went back to that and just started to riff on that and get specific with that. Emotion started to bubble up more. It was more deep than I imagined it would be,” revealed D’Onofrio.

“Then I had the script in front of me with a couple of lines and it kind of came out like that. No matter what my character’s going through, whether he’s happy, sad, whether he’s killing somebody or he’s falling in love, anything that goes on to that voice always has a feel of emotion in it. I wanted Kingpin to be looked at like that, to juxtapose his emotional sensitivity and his monstrous, brutal ways of handling things.”

Behind the intense, hate-filled Fisk lies a man who is not so different from the rest of us – someone who loves, hurts, and carries the same vulnerabilities we all do. D’Onofrio spoke about the emotional demands of playing such a broken, complicated figure, specifically for a crucial scene where Fisk suffers a loss of someone very dear to him, leading to a rare moment where we see the man behind the monster.

“I mean, it’s not digging ditches, but it’s tough because you have to stay upset the whole day until we’re finished with the scene. When it felt like I had to deliver something truly, truly deep, like the death of somebody, I went back to my mom in my mind’s eye, I would put my cheek on my mom’s cheek and tell her to forgive me for all my nonsense when I was young and it would make me go really deep and get very emotional,” he confessed. “I used my mom because in those scenes in the hospital, right before she dies, I tried something… I went a bit out of the voice and went to more of a childlike voice for about two or three paragraphs in that scene. So that was why I used my mom too.”

The influence of television on D’Onofrio is irrefutable. It did not just shape his career, but was a catalyst to much more, an escape from the financial limitations of his upbringing. “Watching television was like a portal into the rest of the world. My mom supported three of us on a waitress salary. So it was pretty tough for her. She made it okay for us,” D’Onofrio shared.

“I did something very weird that my other friends didn’t do. I used to watch Masterpiece Theater. I remember watching every time it was on. I was sorry when I missed it. I saw amazing British actors… Alec Guinness was one of my favorites. These are the things that when I think about my childhood… [my parents] brought culture into our little family. They were very bohemian people who loved the arts and liked to participate in whatever they could and turned us all, me and my sisters, onto music and incredible stuff and art.”

Television moments like The Beatles and Elvis on Ed Sullivan, and especially Streisand spoke to D’Onofrio. He recalled the first time seeing her sing on television, “She was very young. I just couldn’t believe that a girl from Brooklyn was capable of doing such a thing. I had no idea that any young woman in the world could actually do it, especially from a place where I was born and that I visited every summer of my life… I just thought, ‘My God, there’s a whole world out there that I know nothing about. There’s a whole way of being a human being that I have no idea about. It made me so curious.”

“Those were such big moments in my life. It was like the world kind of saying, ‘Hey, if you let it, it will open up. The world will open up to you if you let it. There’s things out there that you have no idea how they exist, but you can find out.”

Thankfully, he did and shared with the world. How else do you craft such a nuanced and intricate character? While D’Onofrio exposed a more vulnerable side of Fisk this season, he still remains a feared and unrelenting crime boss no matter what title he holds. D’Onofrio explained how Fisk can be both at once, “It’s that dictator thing. It’s that king thing. I play him like he’s a king. I mean, if you want to call him a dictator, a dictator, but I play him as he’s a king and he’s a broken man who’s been broken since he was a child. He has a very cold, vicious side of him that can erupt at any moment because of his past. It’s uncontrollable. He’s a major narcissist. He’s a master manipulator and he’s broken.”

Our TV Topics conversation covered much more than the actor’s work, but also the TV that he enjoys most, like Hill Street Blues to Mob Land, the variety of The Dean Martin Show to the comedy of Carol Burnett. He even shares a story about one magical show, Bewitched, may just have blown up his family’s television.

It is a fascinating and surprisingly insightful chat where all the intimidation I felt from his on screen personas was washed away. There is much more to Fisk than what is on the surface and much more to D’Onofrio than the characters he plays. He quickly proved to be one of the most thoughtful and dedicated guests to date, with a great sense of humor and quite the memory. He even broke into a rendition of the seldom-heard, I Love Lucy theme song with such enthusiasm you would think he was looking for a record deal.

D’Onofrio’s insights into the effects of television on him tap into the heart of TV Topics. Be sure to enjoy the entire conversation, both to hear about his painstakingly crafted work as Kingpin, including getting into fighting shape and some of the secrets behind it, but also to learn about a man who, thanks to a hard-working, supportive single mother and some early influences from the television of his youth, has become one of the most talented actors working today.

I guarantee you will not look at Kingpin nor D’Onofrio the same way again. Plus, you need to hear him sing.

Vincent D’Onofrio’s work as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin in DareDevil: Born Again can be watched on Disney+.