If you’ve seen a character get kicked, punched, tossed, or otherwise manhandled in a major genre project over the past decade, chances are it was Eric Linden. The stunt performer and coordinator has been a staple since his breakout gig doubling as Chris O’Donnell on 92 episodes of “NCIS: Los Angeles.” Since then he’s appeared in what feels like every superhero film, including “Avengers: Endgame,” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “Hawkeye,” “The Suicide Squad,” and James Gunn’s upcoming “Superman.”
Most notably, Linden has served as Jon Bernthal’s stunt double for every one of the actor’s appearances as Marvel’s trigger-happy antihero Frank Castle, aka the Punisher. That includes his 2016 arrival on Netflix’s “Daredevil” Season 2, two seasons of standalone series “The Punisher,” and Disney+’s “Daredevil: Born Again,” which officially brings Frank into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
We sat down with Linden for the low-down on how doubles work with their onscreen counterparts, the importance of threading character into choreography, and what sets the fights on “Daredevil: Born Again” apart.
Linden’s stunt double bond with Bernthal is a unique one
The relationship between an actor and their stunt double “varies pretty wildly” from project to project, according to Linden. “It might be one episode, it might be one day, so you may have a chitchat or whatever. You should be cordial, but they really don’t want you bothering the actors,” he says. “Because sometimes their scene might be heavy; you don’t know what they’re dealing with. Business is business, right?”
But it’s fair to say that Linden’s double-to-actor bond with Bernthal has evolved beyond business. “That’s a vastly different one,” he says. Their relationship started with a shadowy rooftop brawl that convinced Linden that the actor was going to despise him.
“It’s about the little beats in between and how you emphasize different parts of the choreography to bring out character. So when you watch fights that are very lackluster, it’s just a bunch of punching.”
On the “Daredevil” Season 2 premiere, titled “Bang,” Bernthal’s Frank Castle meets Charlie Cox’s titular blind superhero for the first time, and the two vigilantes immediately get down to fighting. “[Bernthal] had just gotten to town, so he didn’t know any of the choreo whatsoever,” Linden remembers. “I met the man, shook his hand, and filmed for, like, eight hours straight, fighting. And he sat in a chair and didn’t do a single thing.”
Bernthal finally stepped in for the final moment of the sequence, a single line delivery (“bang”). “That was the only shot he did all night. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, this dude is gonna hate me,’ ” Linden says. “But he was stoked. He was like, ‘You’re awesome.… I want to learn more of the fights.’ ”
When it comes to stunt work, Bernthal likes to get his hands dirty
How much of the actual punishment an actor takes also varies from set to set. Linden recalls doubling for Jake Gyllenhaal in Doug Liman’s “Road House” remake. “Jake had to do a lot of that by himself…until we came to, like, Conor McGregor suplexing me over a bar,” he says with a laugh. “Jake’s like, ‘Cool, man, high five, that’s all you.’ ”
Bernthal is, once again, built a bit differently. “There’s not a ton of actors out there [like him]. He does so much of his own stuff,” Linden says, including a “couple of” fights on “Daredevil: Born Again.”
“I come in and work with [stunt coordinator and second unit director] Phil Silvera; I run the whole fight in its entirety. We’ll shoot a pre-viz, so I know the fight forwards and backward by the time Jon gets there,” he says. In the days leading up to the actual fight, “we run it with him. He gets in there and does it. He’ll watch me do it, and he’ll do it.”
How to Get Cast on ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ When it comes time for cameras to roll, Linden says Bernthal is “so dialed in that he’s essentially doing everything except for what would be considered, quote unquote, too dangerous or too hard of a hit.”
Look closely for the “Daredevil: Born Again” moment when the Punisher leaps over a table to tackle another guy. “That’s me, because that’s not going to end great on my end,” Linden says. “Although I was there for weeks and did the whole fight a hundred times, that was the one and only move I did on camera for that one particular fight.”
The Disney+ show also includes an action set piece designed as a oner—a staple of the “Daredevil” series since the beginning—where the Punisher gets in on the action. “I did one run in its entirety, but that was just a wide master shot they could pop out to if needed. Jon did the entire fight by himself,” Linden says. “The dude’s a stud, and he has an incredible memory. I’ve never seen somebody come to set so prepared. He never has a script in his hands. He knows his lines, other guys’ lines, and he remembers 80 beats of choreo. It’s insane.”
Linden believes character (and Silvera) are the keys to your favorite “Daredevil” scenes
“There’s not one person that knows the Daredevil character more on the face of this planet than Phil Silvera,” Linden says. Disney brought Silvera back when “Daredevil: Born Again” returned to set for reshoots. His choreographed violence is backloaded toward the tail end of Season 1, including a fight with the serial killer antagonist Muse that Linden calls “the next thing everybody watches on YouTube over and over.”
Having a stunt team that truly understands both physicality and character is vital to crafting memorable action. “This is why Phil is back for ‘Daredevil: Born Again,’ ” Linden says.
“I’m not going to name anything specific, but there are certain ‘Daredevil’ fights that basically are [just] choreography,” he continues. “They lack conviction, they lack intensity.… It’s about the little beats in between and how you emphasize different parts of the choreography to bring out character. So when you watch fights that are very lackluster, it’s just a bunch of punching.”
When it comes to Daredevil done right, Linden points to the Season 2 set piece that sees the character fighting off an entire biker gang in a stairwell. “The first thing he does, he’s got this chain wrapped around his arm from the roof, and he swings it and smashes a light,” Linden says. “That’s the type of little thing that makes those fights. A lot of times, the audience doesn’t necessarily understand why they like one [fight] better than the other, and it’s that type of stuff,” he continues. “Charlie breaking the light, that was in the choreography. And it [shows] the rage that Daredevil has in that one shot.”
Courtesy Marvel Studios
Here’s how to get into stunt work
The road to becoming a stunt double looks different for everyone. Here, Linden identifies four key components to getting yourself on the right path:
1. Gymnastics skills
“You don’t have to be great,” Linden says. “I was really good at what we call ‘backyard gymnastics.’ I can throw a backflip and a flip, but it all looks pretty dirty. You should be good at doing trampoline, because that’s your air awareness and being able to find your back.”
2. Boxing and/or MMA training
“You’re gonna need to throw some kicks and some punches, and it helps with your cardio,” Linden says. More importantly, “when you’re hitting the training pad, you do different combinations. Sometimes they’ll be eight beats, 10 beats, 12 beats. What you’re practicing is learning choreography—it helps your memory and body movement at the same time.”
3. Location
“You have to live in the city where this is possible,” Linden says. “If you live in, you know, Idaho, it is probably not going to happen, man.”
Outside of a series like “Yellowstone” filming in Montana, the main hubs for stunt work are largely the same for aspiring actors: Los Angeles, New York, New Mexico, and Texas.
4. A solid timeline to network
Ironically, stunt work isn’t something you just jump into. It’s a career built on referrals, which means you need time to integrate yourself into the community—but not too much time. “Plan on it being a four-year plan,” Linden suggests.
Linden’s first year-and-a-half of living in L.A. produced “nothing” professionally while he worked a side gig and got his name out there. “The whole time I was training, networking, and meeting people,” he says. “In year two, I got two jobs, nonunion but still on my résumé. The next year, I was doing something once a quarter, and then a year after that it became about once a month. After that, I was rolling.
“There is some patience involved, but also temerity,” Linden says. “You can’t give up. Keep going toward your goal, whether it’s networking, social media, submitting, or training, so that you’re ready when that opportunity does happen.”