Spoilers below for Season 1 of Netflix's The Punisher.
Netflix's super violent superhero series The Punisher has almost as many shootouts as it does episodes. Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle gets himself into a quite a few scraps over the course of the season, but he isn't the only one that got in on the action. Homeland Security agents Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah) and Sam Stein (Michael Nathanson) get involved in their own hectic shootout against the bad guys in a warehouse filled with mannequins. Similar to a real life experience, filming the scene got a little scary for the actors, as CinemaBlend's Nick Venable learned from Amber Rose Revah.
The production design was just magical. You go in there and it almost gives you chills when you walk in, with all the mannequins around. It was brilliant. But it's one of those things where you will probably see my genuine fear, because we've got these blanks we're firing. But typical me, every time I'm just...before doing a take, you're getting into your character, and you're preparing, and I forgot to put my earplugs in. So there was one take in particular where afterwards, everyone was coming up to me like, 'Wow, Amber, you look absolutely...like, that was really...' So I didn't actually tell anyone. I didn't tell anyone that my heart was pounding and racing because I forgot to put the earplugs in. It's one of those reactions where, I know they're not real shots, but when you hear it that loud, your heart just goes in overdrive. So I'm hoping they used that take, because it will look very authentic.
Amber Rose Revah plays original character Dinah Madani in The Punisher, who makes it her mission to avenge the death of her former partner. Eventually, this put her in direct contact with Frank Castle and she learned that they both share the same enemies. Madani tricked said enemies into storming a warehouse, where she and her Homeland Security crew were waiting to spring a trap. But even though all the actors were firing blanks during the filming of the action-heavy scene, Revah forgot to put in her earplugs. So she heard a whole bunch of guns firing around her, making it feel all the more intense and legitimately dangerous. (Not to mention mannequins being creepy most of the time anyway.)
Michael Nathanson, who played Agent Sam Stein, was also involved in the shootout and he agreed that it could be pretty scary. A bunch of fierce stuntmen chasing after you with guns would be enough to make anything a little nerve-wracking! But, as it turns out, it wasn't all bad. When CinemaBlend spoke with Nathanson about the scene, here's what he told us.
It was really fun. Those things are loud, and they're heavy. It's scary. You feel like you are in it. Because the guys that you're working with, who are shooting at you, mostly are stunt guys. So they really know what they are doing, and they are fierce. If you've got these guys coming after you, you start to feel like, 'Wow, I am so glad I'm an actor and I don't really have to do this for a living, because I don't know if I could handle it.'
While the actors themselves may not be used to being in a firefight, The Punisher has no shortage of characters who are professionally trained soldiers and government agents. In order to make sure that the show was as accurate as possible, professional consultants were on hand during filming to make sure that every detail was correct. Amber Rose Revah, in particular, loved this element, because it helped make her look all the more badass on camera.
We did a lot of training with that. We had our armorers at the start of the show. And then it was a lot of the tactical things: how you move, how you get around, what you're looking for, your work with your partner, and how you're entering the situation. All those tactical and physical aspects of it. I love that. So that whenever I'm able to do a project where I'm learning these things, it's the biggest joy and privilege to have people that provide you with training. And then we'd have people on set, where if I'm making it not look [correct], if there's something with my arm or my finger that doesn't look authentic, I have people that will say, 'No, Amber, that was wrong. Do it again.' That's the joy; as an actor, you want to make it truthful. I don't want people to look at it and go, 'Aw, she doesn't really look like she's proficient with what she's doing.' I want people to look at it and go, she is badass. So you do it as many times until you've got it. And that's what I'm hoping we nailed.
You can see both Amber Rose Revah and Michael Nathanson getting their hands dirty in this action scene and several others by watching The Punisher Season 1, which is out on Netflix right now. For more shows on the streaming giant, hit up our Netflix release guide. And don't forget about cable and broadcast with our midseason premiere and cancellation guides!
