Jon Bernthal on Rejection:
“You’ve got to remind yourself how lucky you are to be doing this.”
(By Carmichael Phillips)
(Jon Bernthal)
“You’ve got to remind yourself how lucky you are to be doing this, even when it’s not working out.”
In a recent interview with the New York Times, actor Jon Bernthal talked about his career in the entertainment business. The conversation eventually turned to the issue of rejection and how he dealt with it, when he was an up-and-coming actor.
Bernthal, best known for his roles on AMC’s The Walking Dead and Marvel’s The Punisher, described how he handled going on auditions that ultimately went nowhere, and the disappointment that comes with it.
“When you look at the entertainment industry, it’s amazing how doors are slammed in your face. I remember casting directors looking at my big nose and my giant ears and just being like, “What are you doing here?”
“Feeling like you don’t belong, agents never returning your phone calls. You get so much rejection and people make you feel so small, and the second that things start to change for you, those same people all want something.”
But, according to Bernthal, dealing with rejection is all about keeping things in the proper perspective.
“You’ve got to remind yourself how lucky you are to be doing this, even when it’s not working out. Look, when I was starting out and I was going through really hard times, my wife was an I.C.U. trauma nurse, so there’d be plenty of times I would get home and I would have tears in my eyes of frustration and then my wife would talk about her day. The things she was encountering – holding somebody’s hand as they were passing, or letting somebody know that they weren’t going to ever see a family member again – just put it all in such clear perspective for me.”
Jon Bernthal’s most recent work includes appearances in films like King Richard, Ford v Ferrari and The Many Saints of Newark.
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