Before he played the title role of blind Catholic lawyer/vigilante Matt Murdock in “Marvel’s Daredevil,” returning for a second season on Netflix on March 18, Charlie Cox played early 20th Century Spanish saint — and founder of Opus Dei — Josemaria Escriva, in a 2011 Roland Joffe movie called “There Be Dragons.”
Here’s a peek:
At a recent press event, I spoke to Cox, a British actor who was raised Catholic, one-on-one, and I asked him about this recent tendency he has to play roles rooted in the Faith.
“That’s a really good question,” he said, “because one part of me would say it’s just coincidence, and the other part would say it’s God. So, there you go.”
That about sums up Cox’s own attitude toward Catholicism, and in many ways, Matt Murdock’s. While Matt is a believer and visits regularly with his priest, Father Lantom (Peter McRobbie), he also beats the crap out of bad guys — while not actually killing them — while protecting the streets of New York’s Hell’s Kitchen as a masked vigilante.
But in season two, another vigilante, Frank Castle (John Bernthal), a k a “The Punisher,” lands in Hell’s Kitchen, and his brand of vengeance includes cold-blooded killing. That poses a problem for Matt, who came to a kind of peace between his faith and his fighting at the end of last season, after vanquishing the crime boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio).
At the press conference, I asked Cox about this. He said:
Season 2 begins, and, you know, a period of time has passed. With Wilson Fisk in jail, the crime rate has plummeted. Daredevil is looking after his town, his Hell’s Kitchen, pretty well, and things have kind of returned to normal, if not better than normal. What then happens is with the emergence of two people in particular, initially one person, in Frank Castle.
Having, as you say, put to bed a lot of the kind of arguments in his mind about who he is, what he is, what he’s capable of, how much of a right he has to do what he’s doing, having reconciled most of those inner demons, if you’d like, the world presents him someone who forces Matt to re-question everything that he is.
If people are going to draw parallels between him and Frank Castle, if the world is going to do that, there’s no way Matt can agree with methods with which Frank Castle employs his vigilante justice. Then it means that Matt has to reevaluate who he is and what he does, and whether what he’s doing is helpful or detrimental to the society in which he lives.
Regarding Matt’s internal moral dilemma, Cox said:
The Catholicism … helps the story. If you want to play a complex, turmoiled character, then give him a dose of Catholicism.
When I then asked whether doing the show has caused Cox to think more about his own Catholic faith, he said:
Yeah, it has, actually.
During our one-on-one chat after the session, I revisited this with Cox, asking this time if the show has caused him to rethink his faith.
Yeah. Rethink — I don’t think is the right word.
Telling him I’m a revert — a Catholic who lapsed and then returned, he said:
That’s what I am, I think. There are elements to my faith which are echoed very closely in the scripts that come through. I read certain moments, and I’m able to say, “Yes, I recognize that. I champion that. I ally myself to that idea.” Then there are times where I don’t. My feeling is, at this stage in my life, that it will be an ongoing struggle.
The question really is, how much do you allow it to be a struggle, and how much can you just allow it to just wash through and hopefully educate or inspire you, as it does … if that makes sense.
Sounds like the Holy Spirit may be working on Cox through his roles, and a few prayers to keep him close to the Faith wouldn’t hurt, either.
And, by the way, is this season as violent as last season? Yes. Is it sexier? With the eventual arrival of Elektra (Elodie Yung), Matt’s ruthless ex, yes.
You’ve been warned.
And, by the way … way, once you’ve had a chance to dig into the new season, we’ll talk about episode three. Oh, yes, we will.
Here’s the final Season 2 trailer:
Image: Courtesy Netflix
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