The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is back on a different streaming platform. Daredevil: Born Again is premiering on Disney Plus years after Netflix canceled the Marvel Superhero series in 2018. The change will introduce Daredevil to a brand new audience, but there’s still one thing about him that will remain true.
Charlie Cox stars as the titular character Daredevil / Matt Murdock. Murdock is a blind lawyer by day and a masked vigilante at night (or whenever the neighborhood needs him). The series serves as a continuation of the Netflix series and it follows the events of She-Hulk and Hawkeye where both Murdock and his archnemesis Wilson Fisk appeared. Now in the series, Fisk is running for New York City mayor which causes lots of trouble for Murdock and his crew.
Daredevil’s origin story starts when he is blinded by an accident as a child, and eventually develops heightened senses thanks to his training with Stick. With lots of fighting scenes and emotional heart-to-heart scenes with fellow actors, Charlie Cox has been open about the challenges of playing a blind character.
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Is Charlie Cox blind?
Charlie Cox is not blind. He worked with teacher Joe Strechay at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) on the role, observing his movements and learning to walk with a cane while blindfolded.
In the first season of Netflix’s Daredevil, Cox tried to blind himself to accurately play his character. “I don’t know if you know this [or not] but on the first season, I was trying to figure out how to do it,” he told Screen Geek at Wizard World in Pittsburgh. “I went to this specialist, an opticianist – and I had these lenses made that were identical to my eyes but they completely blinded me. You put them in and I couldn’t see a thing and I thought great, I’ll do that and I don’t have to do any acting. The problem with that was that after every take, someone from the crew had to come and get me and lead me away and kind of sit me down. After the second day, I was like this is going to get really old, really quick.”
Cox also explained the hardships of playing a blind man when he’s trying to connect to characters. “When I have an emotional scene with another actor, it’s a shame sometimes that we can’t use eye contact,” he said in a panel. “Eye contact is so powerful. I often think in real life, you feel a lot because of what you see in the other person’s eyes. If someone is looking at you, and the person you’re talking to is vulnerable, it makes you feel emotional or sad. That’s something challenging for playing the role, and the other actors. Because you have to find other ways to connect.
The actor also supports various disability groups dedicated to blind people. Months before the Daredevil: Reborn premiere, Charlie Cox talked to Students at the New York City Institute for Special Education in the Bronx about the importance of representation of people with disabilities in the media.
