‘The Punisher’ Star Ben Barnes on Jigsaw’s Broken Journey

Billy Russo is not the man he once was in the second season of Marvel’s The Punisher on Netflix.

Ben Barnes plays the villain known as Jigsaw. He explains that the injuries Frank Castle inflicted on Billy during the show’s first season have transformed Billy.

“I think what I’m allowed to say is that it’s not just about the physical,” Barnes tells CBR. “He’s had his head very much traumatized in the same way that veterans receive these kind of head traumas and psychological trauma as well, so he’s dealing with both of those things very much in a similar way to how veterans might deal with TBIs from coming back from war and everything,” Barnes explained. “I think that that is what he sort of believes he’s gone through and he’s got brain damage and he’s got severe issues with his memory.

“I won’t go into specifically what he can and can’t remember because that kind of ruins the story, but he’s trying to piece together what happened to him and who he is and so there is the metaphor at one point used that his brain is the jigsaw which they’re trying to put the pieces back together, or it’s not necessarily about the lines joining up on his face, which is I think a much more interesting thing.

“That was really interesting for me, particularly because this is a character — as I said — whose sort of core drive was this sort of ‘succeed,’ narcissism, ‘I’m going to put across my most charismatic, attractive qualities to the forefront and hope that people respond to them in the way that they always have and hope that people want to do things for me and with me because of what I put out there’ and that is gone for him,” he shared. “He doesn’t believe he’s that person anymore, and it’s all literally been stripped away. So I came in on the first day and went, ‘Right. Shave my head, then.’ We’ve got to!”

Barnes has discussed the metaphor behind his character in past interviews as well.

“He’s trying to piece together what happened to him and who he is. There is the metaphor at one point that his brain is the jigsaw that he’s trying put the pieces back together of,” actor Ben Barnes said to Collider.

Are you excited about the second season of Marvel’s The Punisher? Let us know in the comments!

Marvel’s The Punisher Season Two comes to Netflix on January 18th.