Jon Bernthal’s Guide to Becoming a Supporting Actor

Your first screen roles were guest appearances in TV procedurals such as “CSI”, “Without a Trace” and two different “Law and Order” spinoffs. What do you remember about that time?

I remember being very open-eyed and very naive. They told me to go to hair and makeup on one of the first televisions I went in and I didn’t know what hair and makeup was. So I walked into a trailer and in that trailer the show was changing and he yelled “Get out” and threw a shoe at my head. I had to do a scene with him that day!

It took me a really long time to feel comfortable on set. I remember Vincent D’Onofrio talking to me after a shoot when I did his show. [“Law and Order: Criminal Intent”], and he said, “Hey, what you did there was pretty good.” Something like this can lead you to months of rejection. I always try to remember this with younger players because the smallest thing can keep you going.

And what happens when you get the role you want and succeed?

Then you get the job, now you gotta do it, right? I gave 30 pounds for this part of “King Richard”. I started playing tennis. Right here in my hometown of Ojai, California, there’s a tennis academy called the World Tennis Center that looks a lot like Rick Macci. I started training every day just to get to know the game, and then I started training on how to coach and how to train. Tennis coaching has a vocabulary. There is a psychology, a sincerity in it.

I heard he even started coaching. Kamea Medora, a Top 50 junior player.

Going to that tennis center every day and coaching Kamea as a character, I’m sure it pissed him off and made him laugh, but I really believe he really looked forward to our sessions together to get this crazy actor’s coaching. Friend. It was so much fun and I really felt like I knew how to go in and coach tennis on day 1 of that shoot.

The first thing Serena told me was that her time with Rick Macci was the most fun of her life because she had a pure and undeniable love for the game. Coaches are often portrayed as these task managers in movies and TV, but I’ve had coaches like this where they just love it. They’re just as tough, just as masculine — they just do it with a smile, and that’s why I really wanted to play this role so much.