https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/vincent-donofrio-kingpin-return-marvel-mcu-hawkeye-daredevil/
There's like 4 articles so this is the good stuff here:
"[I was approached] earlier this year," the actor tells us. "Kevin called me and of course I said, 'Hell yeah.' I was told from my representatives that he [Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige] wanted my phone number and he called me directly."
The actor then went through the first thoughts that went through is mind. "My first thought was 'Wow, maybe he's gonna invite me to the MCU,' and that's what he did immediately. He started talking about
Hawkeye."
As it turns out, it was D'Onofrio's idea he took to the wardrobe department. After all, the actor tells us he's a major fan of the
Family Business graphic novel the look was first featured in.
"I may have told you this before, but the screensaver on my computer is that
Family Business cover of him in that shirt," D'Onofrio says. "It has been for several years. And yeah, that is something that I brought to the table for
Hawkeye."
"The thing about Vincent is he and his doubles would arrive under cloaks because no one could see them," Bert, one half of the directing duo Bert and Bertie, told
Buzzfeed of D'Onofrio's role in Episodes 5 and 6. "We were filming some things in public places and we had to get them to set. We realized the scale of how important it was to keep it a secret, so we would smuggle them in under black cloaks. Vincent and his doubles too because once you see his double, you would know it's Kingpin."
"I knew that he would be physically stronger, and I knew that he would be able to take more physical abuse. I knew that [going in]," D'Onofrio tells us.
But even then, he wanted to treat the character similarly because, as he sees it, that's largely the only way to keep him interesting.
"[Marvel was] just so excited that I said that, because it's what they were thinking," he tells us. "And I think that everybody realizes that the only way this character, as of now, stays interesting is if he has these, even if you make him stronger, as long as he's always based that his foundation is his emotional life and the pain, everything comes through the pain that he went through as a child. Then we've got a character there, an interesting character."
We recently caught up with D'Onofrio and the actor tells us his approach to the character this time around was the same as when he played Kingpin on Netflix's
Daredevil. "The process was to be treated exactly the same," the actor tells us.
That's when D'Onofrio says his conversations with Marvel Studios went similar to the ones he had with Marvel Television regarding the beloved villain.
"Early on in our first conversation, I was about his emotional life and that how I approached, how I figured out how to play the character in,
Daredevil, and that I based my whole character on his emotional life. And that was how I needed to play him for
Hawkeye," the actor adds. "And they were just so excited that I said that, because it's what they were thinking."