I was about halfway through the second season of Daredevil, when they show a large man, wearing the typical orange prison jumpsuit, as he lifts weights. I think to myself, "Is it him? Could it be? Please let it be?" Then he sits up, and turns around, revealing the face of Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin. Even in the split second before he speaks, I am already in a state of joy.
I have always had a fascination with Kingpin, even as a kid seeing him in comic books. Here is a large man who is subtly evil, almost like a devil who makes no pretense about his horns and tail. But he also has the strength to crush any average man easily, so he is as dangerous on an abvious level as he is on a subtle level. When I first saw D'Onofrio's Kingpin in the first season of Daredevil, this was a new villain, with depth and heart...and far more evil than the comics could ever envision.
In an editorial about D'Onofrio's Kingpin, Andrew Battershill channels a little Norman Mailer and Gay Talese in his essay about D'Onofrio's acting history. I recommend the essay for Battershill's writing (At least until he tries to make it some kind of big social commentary near the end, and instead ends up sounding like some politically correct twit. Sometimes, a great actor is just a great actor.).
But I do have to agree with Battershill's praise of D'Onofrio: It has been many years since I saw an actor whose work was so good that it made me want to watch everything he has done. Heck, I even re-watched Full Metal Jacket recently, where D'Onofrio played a Vietnam era Marine recruit who loses it and kills his sergeant before killing himself too.
The first actor I ever saw like D'Onofrio was Jack Nicholson. His portrayal of Jack Torrance in The Shining not only saved the movie, but showed me how a great actor can portray change in a character. Unfortunately, by the end of the 1980's, Nicholson was reduced to chewing scenery in films like Tim Burton's Batman. It was in that movie when I came to appreciate another actor, Jack Palance. I went to the movie expecting to appreciate Nicholson's Joker, but in reality it was Palance's mob boss Carl Grissom that stood out to me as scarier than Nicholson's Joker.
I still remember Palance's Dracula from when I was 9 years old. It gave me nightmares. However, as I have watched Palance over the years, I realized he was a one-trick pony, even if it was a wonderful trick. He knew how to give off an evil vibe like few other actors. He even used it for comic effect in City Slickers.
One thing I noticed about D'Onofrio's Kingpin, was how much he sounded like Jack Palance. If you had to pick a voice for Kingpin, you couldn't pick a better one than Palance. Whether that is intentional on D'Onofrio's part, I have no idea. But here is the neat part: I can't picture Palance playing Kingpin. He never had the build for it, or even the physical mannerisms.
Thank God for Vincent D'Onofrio.
There is a reason acting is considered an "art". When an actor plays a character, they can play it as everyone envisions in their own heads, or he/she can take the character and make it different. Like a painting, that difference can be good or bad. But when it works, when the actor is capable of fulfilling the vision in their own mind, and the vision is a good one, we get a walking/talking work of acting art.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have to finish watching the second season of Daredevil, and then go and watch everything Vincent D'Onofrio ever made. It should be fun.
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