Ethan Hawke Praises Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin as His Favorite Marvel Performance

Moon Knight star Ethan Hawke is getting overwhelming praise for his portrayal of villain Arthur Harrow in the Marvel  Disney+ series – but there' 's a different Marvel Cinematic Universe villain actor that Hawke prefers even over himself: Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin! D'Onofrio helped set the bar for modern superhero TV by playing Wilson Fisk in the Netflix Daredevil series; he owned the role so much (and the screen) that Marvel Studios didn't even bother to recast it, instead choosing to bring D'Onofrio's Kingpin into the MCU as part of the Hawkeye Disney+ series. 

Ethan Hawke was doing an Instagram story where he answered fan questions – one of which was "Do you have a favorite marvel character?" That's when Hawke had to give D'Onofrio his flowers: 

"It would be very easy to say Robert Downey because that was a high watermark for me," Hawke explains. "But in truth, I do think I have to give a shoutout to Vincent D'Onofrio as Fisk. That is a great character portrait. That's a great performance, and when I took this job, I was aiming at him [makes handgun motion and shooting sound]." 

No doubt A lot of Marvel fans agree with Ethan Hawke's assessment: Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin is one of the greatest villain performances in any comic book movie or TV show. 

Vincent D'Onofrio sat down with our ComicBook Nation podcast to talk about having his Kingpin character transition from the Marvel Netflix Universe to the MCU. According to D'Onofrio, his strength as Kingpin is all in the gravitas of his performance: 

"You know [Kingpin's] about emotional brutality. And he is just a mess. He's a broken monster. And he is capable of many different kinds of brutality. Because he just is a brutal monster," D'Onofrio explained, while later adding, "Best case scenario for me is that that [menace] does exist, no matter what he's doing. But that's up to me to carry in [the menace]. When you see Wilson Fisk, it needs to make you uneasy – no matter what's happening."

Vincent D'Onofrio's Fisk certainly achieves that goal: moments of him going from a deadpan, almost emotionally detached state to a state of fury like a wild grizzly bear, have shocked and haunted fans. It's now to the point where there are dozens of .gifs and memes of D'Onofrio's violent sequences of going "Full Kingpin" on unsuspecting victims. 

On the other hand, Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow was intensely compelling for an entirely different reason: the actor's uncanny charisma, which made him deliver even the most evil lines or commit horrific acts in a way that not only didn't horrify, but could sound scarily reasonable by his logic. Hawke spoke about the variety of political and/or cult leaders he studied for the role. (SPOILERS) And even though Harrow's story seems to be done now, his backstory of being a former Moon Knight leaves room for any number of ways for his return. 

Both Moon Knight and Hawkeye are streaming on Disney+.