The Punisher's Thomas Jane Dished Out Real-World Punishment To Co-Star Kevin Nash... By Stabbing Him With An Actual Knife
To date, there have been four notable live-action filmed renditions of the Marvel Comics character, the Punisher. The character, also known as Frank Castle, saw his family murdered by an overzealous and vengeful gangster, and soon thereafter became the world's most deadly vigilante. Imagine Batman with bloodthirst and guns, and you'll have a good idea of what the Punisher is all about.
It's worth mentioning right away that in recent years, the Punisher's skull logo has become a source of controversy. In about 2012, the skull began to be co-opted as a positive symbol of fascist violence. It was seen on the police cars during Black Lives Matter protests and adopted as a symbol of a "Blue Lives Matter" countermovement, used to support police brutality. Eventually, Marvel Comics had the Punisher confront some of his cop disciples, saying out loud that he is not a role model and that cops should hold themselves to higher standards. The logo was subsequently changed.
Jonathan Hensleigh's 2004 film "The Punisher" was the second attempt to bring the Punisher to cinemas (the Punisher had previously appeared in a 1989 feature film, a 2008 follow-up called "Punisher: War Zone," and a 2017 Netflix series), and it was a stirring origin story with an impressive cast. John Travolta played the mob boss villain, Will Patton his enforcer, and Laura Elena Harring his moll. The Punisher was played by Thomas Jane, a capable antihero who had to fight and kill. A lot.
Filming "The Punisher" was difficult for Jane, as he related in a recent interview on "The Rich Eisen Show." It seems during a notable fight sequence when Jane went to stab co-star Kevin Nash with a knife, he accidentally really stabbed him. It seems, luckily, that Nash took it in stride.
'That was a bad day.'
Kevin Nash is a professional wrestler with a long and varied career. He started his high-profile WWF career as a character named Diesel, a.k.a. Big Daddy Cool, before co-founding the nWo faction with Hulk Hogan and going by his real name. Nash began acting in movies in 1991, appearing as the mutated Super Shredder in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II." He has also appeared in the three "Magic Mike" movies, the first "John Wick," and the Channing Tatum vehicle "Dog." In "The Punisher," he is a Russian assassin, called simply The Russian, hired to break into the Punisher's apartment and kill him.
The fight between Jane and Nash is a highlight of the film, as Jane is hurled through walls, and the apartment is utterly destroyed by the violence. The Punisher is out of his league against an outsize fighter like the Russian. Jane mentioned in his interview that on one of the days of filming, he grabbed a prop butterfly knife ... only learning too late that it wasn't a prop knife. Jane recalled well:
"That was a bad day. I gotta tell you, when I was swinging around, and grabbing the prop knife, and he's there, and I plunge it into his chest ... and it stabs him, and it goes in. And I'm looking at the knife, I'm looking at him. Kevin, he's just looking down at me, and there's a knife sticking out of his chest ... Yeah, that was rough. And you know what made it worse? He was so nice about it. You're like, 'Oh my god, this guy's going to knock me across the room.' Just out of a reflex. He just sat there, looked at the knife, looked at me, and shook his head."
'It's not that bad.'
Jane wanted to make things right and said that he send a case of beer to Nash as an apology.
So what happened? According to a 2012 interview Nash gave to IGN, Nash gave more details, saying that he was okay after the accidental stabbing because Jane just happened to get him right in his clavicle. In his words:
"He actually stabbed me! Thank God he got me in the collarbone! He stabbed me right in the collarbone. If it had been up in the meat, who knows? He could have drilled that thing right in me pretty good. That would have been a nice one."
Nash figured that a crew member forgot to swap out the real knife with the prop knife. Luckily, even the real knives were dulled down, but it still looked bad, and Jane was still shocked. Despite the accident, Nash said he tried to continue the scene and didn't break character. That's quite a lot of dedication. He said:
"I guess one of the stunt coordinator guys didn't change the real butterfly with the retractable. And he went 'Shh shh shh shh,' and he just looked at me. I'm not going to go, 'Jesus!' because I don't want to kill the scene. And he goes, 'I just stabbed him.' I go, 'It's not that bad.' And he goes, 'No, it's bad. You're bleeding.' I said, 'It's not that bad,' and I looked in the mirror and there was a little blood ... because they'd squared the blade off anyway. So it was just a puncture wound. It was nothing. Poor Thomas ... it was like, 'Geez, man ... I just stabbed this guy.'"
Nash doesn't seem to have any hard feelings. Jane's beer must have done the trick.