Words by Justin Polk

Photos by The Social Trust

Remember when actors didn’t care about being celebrities and just wanted to be brilliant at their craft?  No doubt, it may seem like a minute ago and just when it seems like there’s no hope in sight (like Iran — too soon?), a group of young actors are leading its revival.   Jon Bernthal, who you may have seen recently in the blockbuster movie Night of the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, just happens to be part of that group.

Acting wasn’t the first love of the Washington DC native.  To put it bluntly Jon says, “my main focuses growing up were baseball, football and getting into trouble.” While in college on a baseball scholarship, he got into acting by “fluke” but found his love.  Jon found his passion in theater, and went on to one of the best theater schools in the world, the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia. “The Russian method of acting was much more disciplined and way harder than any sports practice I went through,” he says. Jon left Europe and swooped through Harvard to pick up his M.F.A in acting before coming to LA.

His first break came in Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, followed by the short lived but critically acclaimed TV show, The Class, where he got to put his theater chops to use. In 2009, Jon has been getting it in.  After Museum he’ll be in ABC’s Eastwick and then the Band of Brothers’ much darker sequel, The Pacific.   Early 2010, Jon will be in Roman Polanski’s film The Ghost, in which the famous director saw some of Jon’s independent work and thought he was so raw that Polanski asked him to fly to Germany to be in the film.   Next thing you know, Jon is standing next to Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor, Tom Wilkinson, and Kim Cattrall showing he can stand on his own in what he called, “a real honor.”

Even after working with Polanski, Jon says that he’s still in a place where he has to “hustle and fight” for every job he gets. He just really loves moviemaking and I’m sure many more famous directors will be hitting him up on his iPhone soon.  Tarantino, where you at?!