Thursday evening Vincent D’Onofrio advised Seth Meyers a few mistake that just about cost him his career.
D’Onofrio was working the ground on the Hard Rock Cafe on 57th Street in New York when an opportunity encounter set his profession on a distinct trajectory. His buddy Matthew Modine, on hiatus from a movie shoot, walked previous along with his spouse. When D’Onofrio requested what he was working on, Modine advised him it was a Stanley Kubrick film, and handed alongside an deal with the place hopefuls had been sending supplies.
D’Onofrio, who had a theater agent however no movie illustration, scraped collectively about $60 with a buddy, rented a digital camera, and sat on a stoop at tenth Avenue and twenty first Street to file a monologue. A movie pupil at NYU edited the tape. D’Onofrio mailed it in, anticipating nothing.
About per week later, the cellphone rang. The voice on the opposite finish claimed to be calling on behalf of Stanley Kubrick. D’Onofrio assumed it was one among his mates, off-duty firefighters and cops who labored second jobs and repeatedly gave him grief about desirous to be an actor. He hung up.
They known as again instantly. ‘Don’t hold up!’ mentioned Leon Vitali, Kubrick’s right-hand man. ‘Stanley Kubrick needs to speak to you.’
D’Onofrio’s mistake was comprehensible. He told Meyers he had assumed Kubrick was British. He did not know the director was from the Bronx.
The position was Private Leonard ‘Pyle’ in Full Metal Jacket, and touchdown it required D’Onofrio to realize 80 kilos, going from roughly 210 to 290. He was additionally permitted to take a seat with Kubrick in the course of the filming of Vietnam sequences earlier than his personal scenes started, which he mentioned, was a front-row education in how the notoriously exacting director labored. Kubrick communicated to actors by way of megaphone from 40 toes away, D’Onofrio recalled, and was recognized to push properly previous the takes most administrators would think about ample. The most D’Onofrio personally did was 9, for a scene known as ‘The Blanket Party.’ He mentioned he witnessed different actors pushed to round 60.
Related: Critics Are Calling ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 One of the Best Marvel TV Seasons Ever
Forty years later, D’Onofrio is again as Wilson Fisk, a.okay.a ‘Kingpin,’ in season two of Daredevil: Born Again, now airing Tuesdays on Disney+. He not positive aspects weight for the position. Instead he wears a fats swimsuit, and has been open about discovering it depressing. He famous that Colin Farrell, who wore an analogous swimsuit for The Penguin, grew to become a buddy partly by means of that shared grievance.
For the boxing scenes this season, D’Onofrio wished Kingpin’s arms and shoulders seen, which meant coaching exhausting sufficient that his higher physique appeared proportional to the swimsuit. The result’s on display screen.
D’Onofrio’s journey from a stoop on tenth Avenue to the undisputed crime lord of New York has actually had its ups and downs (should you’ll pardon the pun). But it was properly price it.
This story was initially printed by Parade on Mar 27, 2026, the place it first appeared within the News part. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
