Kingpin Actor Reveals How Much Weight He Gained for Hawkeye
Marvel Studios' Hawkeye finished off the MCU's biggest year of content in history, and just the way other projects have done all year, the show ended with a bang. That bang came mostly courtesy of Vincent D'Onofrio, who reprised his role as Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin of Crime, in a Disney+ series after first playing the role in Netflix's Daredevil for three years.
Throughout his run in Marvel Comics and his live-action stories, Kingpin has been known as one of the most physically dominant villains in franchise history, even outside of his natural height and weight. Combine that with a ruthless nature and elite fighting skills, as well as D'Onofrio's intimidating persona on the screen, and Marvel fans have an antagonist that truly scares anybody he towers over.
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Upon the conclusion of his first Marvel Studios production, D'Onofrio has had the chance to share developments about how he's approaching the character along with how he's adapted since his Netflix days. Recently, the actor touched on how he has to evolve physically for the role and truly make Fisk the "big guy" that loomed over all six Hawkeye episodes.
D'Onofrio Reveals Weight Stats for MCU's Hawkeye
Speaking with ComicBook, Hawkeye star Vincent D'Onofrio shared details on how he transformed his body to play the Kingpin in the MCU.
While some of the look was achieved through classic movie magic, D'Onofrio revealed that he "gained upwards of 20 pounds" to get the full comic-book look for Wilson Fisk. This was mostly to make sure he had the "round face" that Kingpin has on the pages:
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"In a couple of shots, there were [camera perspective tricks]. But we tried a couple of different looks and the one we came down to was some extra shoulders, and extra chest, and extra girth around the middle. But I did [put on weight], I always go up about somewhere between 15 and 20 pounds when I play Fisk. Because he needs that round face… I have to put on additional weight to get some weight [in my face], to fill out my cheeks a little bit more, and then the rest [is costuming and effects]."
Unfortunately, with D'Onofrio now being 62 years old, he admitted that it's much more difficult to put on that kind of weight in the ways he could back in the day:
"I can't put on that much weight anymore because of my age, it's too hard to take off and it's just not healthy anymore. Back when I was young, I could go up and down fairly frequently."
D'Onofrio also addressed the equally tough task of slimming down from his Fisk weight, which mostly means being "on a healthy diet," even though it's not necessarily less in quantity. The actor has consistently worked out and stayed in good form, mastering the ability to change his shape without getting out of shape physically:
"You have to be a on a healthy diet and that doesn't mean less food, it just means the right kind of food. I've always worked out my whole life, I never stopped working out. I only changed my size. So I never lose my stretching and I never lose my strength, I just change sizes."
D'Onofrio's Physical Regimen for Kingpin
On his own off-camera, Vincent D'Onofrio is an intimidating force at 6'3", with the ability to use his size to his advantage in any role he takes on. This particularly comes into play with Wilson Fisk, who is almost always the biggest and most intimidating person in any space he occupies.
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These quotes make it clear how dedicated D'Onofrio is to staying in shape, which gets increasingly more difficult as he gets up into his early 60's agewise with a role as physically demanding as this one. Although gaining 15-20 pounds is a tough task at that age, it appears that D'Onofrio has nailed down exactly how to work the character with his own physical efforts and using the camera the right way.
How long D'Onofrio will keep his Kingpin shape is a mystery, although that could indicate how soon he will return to the role within the MCU. Whenever that may be, these quotes only confirm the hard work the actor puts into making sure fans see the most accurate and terrifying version of Kingpin possible, particularly with how much fans celebrate him in the role.
All six episodes of Hawkeye are available to stream on Disney+.
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