Jon Bernthal Shares Wild Story of Accidentally Punching a Real Criminal While Filming ‘We Own This City’
Jon Bernthal has made a name for himself by portraying characters that feel strikingly authentic, whether he’s instilling fear as Frank Castle or depicting corruption as a Baltimore police officer. His dedication to realism took an unexpected turn during the filming of HBO’s ‘We Own This City,’ where he played Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, the real-life officer embroiled in the notorious Gun Trace Task Force scandal.
The limited series, adapted by David Simon and George Pelecanos from Justin Fenton’s nonfiction book, prioritized on-location authenticity, often shooting in the very neighborhoods where the actual events occurred and sometimes involving community members who experienced them firsthand. This commitment to realism nearly led to a serious incident for Bernthal during a particular fight scene.
Bernthal recounted that the incident unfolded while filming a stunt sequence surrounded by professional stunt performers he was familiar with from ‘The Punisher.’ In the midst of the action, he noticed an unfamiliar man with dreadlocks charging toward him, someone he did not recognize as part of the choreographed scene.
Before he could react, the stranger threw a real punch that struck Bernthal’s face. Instinctively, Bernthal retaliated with a right hand, genuinely aiming to knock the man out on camera rather than faking the blow. What happened next was even more bizarre than the punch itself.
Once the scene concluded, the man Bernthal had just hit approached him, bleeding, and embraced him, expressing his respect for the actor. It was at that moment Bernthal realized a group of actual Baltimore police officers were pursuing the man, revealing that the entire encounter was not part of the production.
The man was reportedly a real criminal fleeing from the police, who, upon spotting Bernthal mid-chase, decided to take a swing at the actor to claim he had knocked him out on television. Instead of reacting negatively, the hug afterward left Bernthal with a sense of having gained an unusual kind of street credibility.
Bernthal described the incident as encapsulating something uniquely Baltimore about the production experience, viewing the encounter as an unpredictable yet respectful clash between fiction and the reality the show aimed to portray. This story aligns with Bernthal’s previous comments about how deeply he immersed himself in Baltimore’s culture while preparing to portray Jenkins, a character he approached with empathy despite his extensive corruption.
‘We Own This City’ premiered on HBO in April 2022 as a spiritual companion to ‘The Wire,’ featuring several alumni from that series while detailing the troubling rise and eventual fall of Jenkins and the corrupt task force he led. The production’s focus on shooting primarily on location in Baltimore seems to have set the stage for Bernthal’s strange real-life encounter with the chaos his character helped perpetuate.
For an actor known for fully committing to physically demanding roles, this unexpected encounter stands out as one of the wildest moments of his career, reminding us that sometimes the line between performance and reality can blur in ways no one on set anticipates.
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