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While Jon Bernthal was a decorated athlete growing up, he had never really stepped foot onto a tennis court until he was cast as Rick Macci, one of the most successful tennis coaches in the sport’s history, in King Richard. So to believably play one of Venus and Serena Williams’ mentors, Bernthal dedicated himself to the game for three hours a day during the industry shutdown last year.
“I trained at this tennis academy up in my home of Ojai, the Weil Tennis Academy. It was one of the things that was really important to [director Reinaldo “Rei” Green] and ultimately really important to me as well,” Bernthal tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We really wanted to get the tennis right. Tennis was totally foreign to me, as it was to Rei. But just as athletes, we’ve seen sports that we know in movies, and when you don’t get that right, I find it so utterly disrespectful. So I think there was a real sentiment in the tennis community that there hadn’t really been a tennis movie that got it right yet.”
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Bernthal not only learned how to play tennis, but he also picked up the lingo and mindset of a coach. He even went so far as to train with a junior tennis player while in character.
“So I was really grateful because they let me train there about three hours a day with these unbelievable coaches,” Bernthal says. “And it wasn’t just the training in tennis, but I got to train as a coach. I learned the vocabulary and psychology of coaching, and how to feed and run drills. I worked with this young junior and top 50 national player, Kamea Medora. I got to train her for an hour every day and sometimes in character, which I’m sure was totally annoying for her. So I do think that the shutdown helped because it let everything sink into the bones a little bit deeper.”
In a recent conversation with THR, Bernthal also discusses his collaborations with Taylor Sheridan, the improvisation on the Sicario set and whether Frank Castle would make sense in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Well, King Richard is a wonderful film, and I was impressed by how you disappeared into the role of Rick Macci.
Thank you. This is one I really wanted to be in. I fought for it. I remember meeting Rei Green, the director, for the first time, who now is like my brother. We just got done doing a David Simon project in Baltimore [We Own This City]. We’re both ex-college baseball players, athletes, fathers, sons, and I just felt that King Richard was this beautiful meditation on family and fatherhood. It uses sports with all of its toxicity and beauty. It explores how beneficial sports can be in the development of a kid and also how it can do just the opposite. So this is one I really, really wanted to be in and I’m glad it worked out.
The industry shutdown gave you more time to learn the game of tennis and how to carry yourself as this world-class tennis coach. Did you feel more confident in Rick’s shoes once you returned to set?
I think we all did. I trained at this tennis academy up in my home of Ojai, the Weil Tennis Academy. It was one of the things that was really important to Rei and ultimately really important to me as well. We really wanted to get the tennis right. Tennis was totally foreign to me, as it was to Rei. But just as athletes, we’ve seen sports that we know in movies, and when you don’t get that right, I find it so utterly disrespectful. So I think there was a real sentiment in the tennis community that there hadn’t really been a tennis movie that got it right yet. So I was really grateful because they let me train there about three hours a day with these unbelievable coaches. And it wasn’t just the training in tennis, but I got to train as a coach. I learned the vocabulary and psychology of coaching, and how to feed and run drills. I worked with this young junior and top 50 national player, Kamea Medora. I got to train her for an hour every day and sometimes in character, which I’m sure was totally annoying for her. (Laughs.) So during the shutdown, we continued with the tennis training and the dialect work, and Will [Smith] continued to have us over at his house to conduct rehearsals and show us footage. So there was a lot of joy in this process. There was a lot of love. It was really one of those things. I know you probably hear actors say that all the time, but this one really was like that. There was really just a familial and joyous aspect on set. So I do think that the shutdown helped because it let everything sink into the bones a little bit deeper.
Most fathers let their kids gravitate toward whatever they’re interested in and then they support them from there. But then there are “sports dads” like Richard Williams, Earl Woods and Marv Marinovich, who groomed their kids to achieve what they couldn’t. So did you ever feel tempted to put a ball or an instrument in your kids’ cribs? Do you understand why these guys went to the lengths that they did?
Yeah, I most certainly do, but I wouldn’t necessarily put Richard Williams in that class with the other guys that you mentioned. First of all, for your kid to be some sort of world champion, it takes a miracle and it’s a near impossible task. But to do it twice is just beyond the pale. So I think that puts Richard Williams in a different category. But also, I went into this film with a ton of misconceptions and preconceptions of what I thought and who I thought Richard Williams was. He was really vilified in the press and I think we come to it assuming he must’ve been this taskmaster. Like you said, we assume he must’ve been this guy who just put the ball in the crib and didn’t give the young girls a choice. And who knows? It certainly doesn’t seem that way from the research we’ve done. It seems that what was more important was being a kind and contributing human being. They recognized what tennis could do for them and do for the family, which was more important than the goal and the end result. It was much more journey-focused.
But no question, I’ve got three kids who are athletes. I was an athlete. What we want more than anything in the world is for our kids to be happy. We want our kids to have good relationships. For me, there’s no question. The best relationships in my life are the people that I grew up playing sports with. My best friends in the world are the guys I played football with all through growing up and through high school. They’re still the folks that I trust the most. They’re still the folks that I’m closest with, that I share my most intimate secrets with. So I want that for my kids. I want my kids to have really, really good quality relationships, and I think relationships are forged through sports. I think you reveal yourself through sports. I think you figure out who you are through sports, so I want that for my kids. And with that pressure and with that desire, there are times when you might push too hard. And the one thing that I’ve found is that you’re going to screw up. Being a parent is the most important job you’re ever going to have, and you are not going to get it right. It is impossible to just have it licked. The same is true with this journey of being an actor. You’re never just going to arrive there. You’ve always got to get better. And what really goes hand in hand with being a good parent and what I try to push myself to do all the time is acknowledging my mistakes, admitting my mistakes, walking through my mistakes, diving into my mistakes and discussing my mistakes with my kids. So there have been times where I felt like I pressured my kids. There have been times where I looked at what my kids have compared to what I had, so I wanted to put adversity in their life. So I’m really glad that I made these decisions. I see it manifesting itself with my kids in super, super positive ways. Once they saw that mom and dad are both capable of making mistakes and also capable of admitting it, working on it and trying to get better, it’s all been a huge lesson for my kids.
As you mentioned, you were a decorated athlete when you were coming up. When you nail a difficult scene or a challenging piece of choreo, does the feeling ever compare to your best moments on the field or in the ring?
I’ve always approached this whole thing in an absolutely athletic way. Rei and I just went through this whole process again in Baltimore, and we only speak in sports metaphors. (Laughs.) When I first got on stage, there was a connection with something higher and more sacred to me than anything I’d ever felt on the sports field or in the boxing ring. That being said, what sports really taught me was work ethic, absolute dedication and a reliance on practice, on repetition, on pushing myself, on training. It taught me how to compete. It taught me to not let a win get to my head and not let a loss get to my head. It taught me steadiness. It taught me sportsmanship. It taught me camaraderie and how important it is to be a part of a team. Moviemaking is the most collaborative art form there is, and movies only work when you obliterate the hierarchy and always come in with support. How can I make my teammate better? How can I make my castmate better? How can I give them this pass? How can I really be in tune to what they’re doing? How can I be there for them? Once you get the attention off yourself, the work is always stronger. You always achieve something better with a group of people than a singular performance. I come from the Russian theater. It’s all ensemble-based work and it’s where I’m most comfortable. When I’m on a set where there’s true creativity and true electricity, like a Scorsese set, anything can happen, and it’s because there’s no hierarchy. There’s no one controlling or restricting. It’s all, “Everybody’s here for a reason. Everybody go fly.” But you still have a leader that you all trust, a coach that you all trust who’s shaping and sculpting. So there are so many parallels between the two; there’s no question. I don’t think I’d be doing the things that I’m doing now if I didn’t have a background in sports. Going back to your previous question, that’s why it’s so important to me that my kids not only play sports, but that they also play sports ethically, are good teammates and put the team before themselves.
Recently, I heard Denis Villeneuve talk about rewriting Sicario‘s bar scene dialogue with the actors on the day, and that scene happened to be your character’s introduction in the film. Since prep is so important to you, how did you react to that last-minute swerve?
I loved it. This thing is all about catching electricity and making the moment fresh and alive. I’m enormously in awe and just proud of the folks that I’ve gotten to work with in my career. The directors I’ve gotten to work with are all so enormously different, but they’re so damn good. The one thing that is uniform about all of them is that they all have this unbelievable ability to do so much work, to understand the work, to have the work be extraordinarily vital to them, and they take it so enormously seriously. But they also balance it with this absolute fluid ability to change and pivot in the moment and to make it electric, fresh and new. There’s this feeling on set with the real greats that anything is possible and that any idea is worth hearing. Everybody has a voice and everybody is free to go as far and as deep as they can go. Once you work with somebody who hinders that and starts saying, “Yeah, but it needs to be this way,” nothing reeks of mediocrity more than that. And trust me, I’ve worked with a lot of folks that aren’t that great, too. The first sign is this fear and restriction and, “It’s got to be a certain way.” Look, I want every take to be different. I love when directors just say, “Go, forget the words, let’s play, let’s figure this out.” And the most successful moments that I’ve had on set have all been those. Working with Denis was an absolute dream for me, and so much of that was improvised. I love going in and doing these movies where you just come in for a couple of days and you create a character that hopefully people will wonder about and say, “Wow, I would like to follow that guy. That guy’s got a full three-dimensional life.” My favorite thing in film is when you see a character come on to the screen and then they disappear, and you just can’t get them out of your head. Taylor Sheridan wrote Sicario, but I got to go do that with him on Wind River. I drove up to Utah, and we wrote that monologue about Ojai where I live. In The Wolf of Wall Street, that entire scene where I’m lifting weights outside had no dialogue. That was all second unit. They weren’t even going to mic us up. So it was all improvised. Every day was improvised. And I think it is the way to work. You can’t just show up and work that way, though. It needs to be a place where you’ve done so much rehearsal, so much exploration, and you’ve developed so much trust. And when you become a really well-oiled team, then that’s when you can start challenging each other, poking each and getting that kind of work from each other. And you know that the folks that are with you are going to be right there with you. So I love that opportunity.
Benicio Del Toro is also known for improvising on sets, such as Sicario‘s very uncomfortable torture scene earlier in the film. Was the violent “wet willy” he eventually gave your character another Benicio invention?
Totally, totally. The whole thing. I was in the back of that car that day, and I’d just got done doing Fury, which was all about how we could push the other actors. (Laughs.) It’s how [David] Ayer, another brilliant director, works. He likes to put the camera on somebody and everybody else throws a challenge. So I was in the backseat of the car in Sicario and the script called for me to break down crying. And I think these guys were sort of waiting for me to cry and I’m just starting to say, “Fuck you, make me cry. I want to see one of you motherfuckers make me cry.” And I started going at them. “What are you going to do?” And fucking Benicio just turns over and puts his finger in my ear, and I started playing like he was putting it right through my brain. He’s a genius. He’s literally one of the best of all time. And again, it’s Denis creating that kind of environment where I felt free with these two titans, with literally two of my favorite actors of all time, Josh Brolin and Benicio. I didn’t have to walk in there and think, “Oh shit, am I going to piss off the director? Is that producer going to look to replace me with somebody else?” Some of these folks that are supposedly supporters of the art and claim to be artists can hinder that kind of work. It’s such a huge mistake by putting that energy on a set. It should feel like anything is possible on set and that is all Denis. He brings those kinds of artists to the table and then that kind of stuff happens. There is a method to that without hindering and cutting people off. And it’s not just the actors. It’s every department. Everybody should feel free to do their kind of work there, and they should be encouraged and supported. That’s what this moviemaking is about. Too often is it about something else. It’s about doing it a “right” way. I don’t believe in a right way in art.
Sicario was also your first of three Taylor Sheridan projects. Did you guys meet during the making of Sicario? Or did he reach out to you afterwards for Wind River?
Taylor’s great, man. Taylor reached out to me. I was so envious and I was so in awe of Taylor. I loved him on Sons of Anarchy. He walked away from that and wrote three of perhaps the best screenplays that were written in that decade, as a trilogy [Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River]. So I’d never met him, but after Sicario, he did reach out. And it really shows you just how important it is to reach out to somebody who’s not quite as far as you are in your path and the effect that it can have. Taylor called me up and just said, “Hey man, I saw what you did with this script and this movie. I saw the improvisation, I saw your creativity and I loved it. Will you get lunch with me?” How amazing is that? I was just aspiring to write my first TV show at the time and Taylor was really instrumental in encouraging me to do it. He read it. He helped me with it. And then when it came to Wind River, he called me up again and said, “Hey listen, man, I’ve got an acting exercise for you.” It wasn’t, “Hey, come play this role.” He said, “Hey, I want you to open this door in Wind River and I want everybody to think you’re the bad guy. And then we’re going to give you a monologue and in the course of this one monologue, you’ve got to convince everybody that you’re, in fact, absolutely not the bad guy. And then you’ve got to do this scene where you show them what happened. And we’re going to do this at the end of the movie and not the beginning.” So it was just this beautiful sort of study and exercise for his directorial debut, and he put this enormous amount of trust in us to find this. I drove up to Utah, and we did that entire thing in one day. I think it was 22 hours on set that day. And as I said, we got up there and we wrote it. So whether it’s Sicario or Wind River, these are true titans and unbelievable artists that had profound effects on me, and I’m so unbelievably grateful that I got to be in their presence. So I carry them with me in absolutely everything I do.
I’ve been fascinated by third-act flashbacks ever since Wind River. They’re a bold storytelling device, but they’re often dealbreakers to most executives. Taylor had trouble getting that movie made because everyone insisted on cutting your flashback. Were you ever concerned that it wouldn’t make the final cut?
I don’t really ever think in those terms, especially in things like that. Acting is one of my favorite things to do. So I literally get in my truck with my dogs, drive somewhere across country, and show up. My friend James Badge Dale calls it being a hired assassin. They call, you show up, you throw down and you get the fuck out. It’s all about what you do between action and cut. Whatever happens after that is what happens. I wanted to deliver for Taylor. I remember talking to Kelsey [Chow] that day and then Taylor said, “Before we shoot that scene, why don’t you guys go take a walk in the mountains?” So we did and I asked her, “What do you want to do here? What do you want to do with this scene?” And she said she really wanted to make something truthful and authentic for all of the young women who have been in that position before. So it was a really, really brave performance on her behalf and I really wanted to honor that. So I was there to honor Taylor and I was there to honor Kelsey and to protect her and stand by her. So I’ve got no control over what they do with the material.
That’s what I admire about you because you could easily insist on only playing lead roles in films and shows. But you’ll gladly show up for a few moments and serve a story you believe in, such as Wind River or Peanut Butter Falcon. I also appreciate the fact that you’re willing to take a beating on screen, unlike some actors who go as far as counting the number of punches they give and receive.
(Laughs.) I’ve never heard of anything like that before.
I’ll send you some links.
(Laughs.)
So where does this lack of ego originate?
Like I said before, I come from the Russian theater, and they coined the phrase, “There’s no such thing as small parts, just small actors.” To me, this has always been about what company I get to keep. Who do I get to learn from? This is a process of growth. I want to be doing this for the rest of my life. I found something the first time I stepped on stage that literally changed my life. It made me have a connection with something spiritual, something bigger than me, and it was the first time where I really felt like I knew I had purpose and that I belonged. The only time I ever felt like that again was when my first son was born. In order to get better, in order to keep exploring, in order to keep growing, in order to keep challenging yourself, you’ve got to try to always just live by the coda of, “Go for the best people. Surround yourself with the best people. That’s where you’ll learn.” As far as the physicality stuff, I remember I did a movie called Sweet Virginia.
I love that movie.
Yeah, I loved that whole process. It was directed by a wonderful filmmaker named Jamie Dagg. In the film, I was a hotel manager, and there was a guy who kept on abusing his girlfriend. So there was a scene in the film where I was supposed to go and pull him out of the room and beat the shit out of him. And my role was originally going to be Forest Whitaker. It was written for a much older guy and he ended up not being able to do it. And look, being able to step in for him, those are impossible shoes to fill. (Laughs.) So it was a much different thing with me. That’s why we set up the early onset Parkinson’s. That’s why we set up his hobbled walk because there needed to be an element of vulnerability to this man that was going to be hard for me as a younger guy to play. So we decided to change something; I said, “What if I knock on that guy’s door as if I’m going to save the day and what if he beats the shit out of me?” And it was hard to convince, but Jamie was all about it. So I could never imagine thinking in those terms. As an actor, you’re a soldier for the story. It’s about the story. It’s about the filmmaker’s vision and the story you’re going to tell. If you ever think in terms of your own ego or what you want people to represent you as an actor with, you’re already missing the boat. (Laughs.) You’re just really in the wrong deal, man. And I could just never think in those terms. Anyhow, what the scene is about is the decision to go knock on the door and do that, and what happens there is just what’s more truthful for the circumstance. You’ve got to play the truth of the circumstance. Unfortunately, I’ve been in my share of scraps in my life and there’s nobody who wins them all, man. (Laughs.) There’s nobody who wins them all. And the truth is your guiding light in this business. It’s got to be what you’re going for at all times. Just go for the truth. It’ll never do you wrong.
With Small Engine Repair, you reprised your stage character for the screen. To what extent did you have to recalibrate your performance for the new medium?
Yeah, I recalibrated it for a few reasons. Number one, you throw Shea Whigham into anything and you’ve got to recalibrate. He’s one of the most inspiring and best human beings that I’ve met in this business, period. I love Shea. I love his family. I love his brother. I love his daughter [Giorgia Whigham]. I love his sons. It was so beautiful that he came and joined us on that. And we were approaching the work ten years later. We’re ten years older. So it’s a totally different story now. We’re ten years further into being gripped by the throngs of social media. So yeah, it changes. Having a brilliant actor like Ciara [Bravo] play Crystal totally recalibrates and changes it. So that’s one of the thrills for me, but I’ll always be a theater-head. It’ll always be my first love and my deepest love when it comes to an actor. We did that play in L.A. at that teeny little 40-seat theater with sold-out shows for months ahead of time and in this unbelievably humble space. Everybody wanted to be at this hot, hot show, and you had cops, firemen and the theater community coming together. It was one of the highest moments of my artistic life and one of the purest and best moments of my artistic life. It was right between season one and two of The Walking Dead. I had just been married. My wife was about to give birth to our first kid. It was this magical time. Ten years later, all of our kids were in the movie. Everybody who’s ever played the part in New York and in other places were in the movie. Our best friends came in and did cameos. Our dogs were in it. It was just this beautiful sort of family affair. John Pollono is an unbelievable talent and he’s one of my closest friends in the business. So it was a dream for him and I’m glad that we were able to make it come true.
In September, Gavin O’Connor said that a deal for The Accountant 2 has been made and that your character has a much bigger role in what he hopes is a trilogy. Are you optimistic about its chances of actually getting made?
I love Gavin. I love [screenwriter] Bill [Dubuque], Ben [Affleck]. That film really affected a lot of people. It’s one of the things that people ask me about a lot on the street, which is really cool. And Gavin and I, especially, are enormously close. But I don’t know. The last time we spoke, he said he’s really excited about it. And if Gavin says that… Gavin is as honest and good of a man that this business has, and I love him. So the best thing and the worst thing about this business is you never know what’s going to happen next. For me, I really, really, really try to keep that as only the best thing. I totally look at that now in a positive light. I love the fact that you never know. You can either be like, “Damn, I don’t know when my phone’s going to ring,” or you can be like, “Damn, I don’t know when my phone’s going to ring because my phone might ring and it might be that project.” It might be that project that challenges you in a way that you’ve never been challenged. It might be that project that literally changes your mindset and makes you a better artist, a better man, and a better father. You never know and I love that aspect about what I do. So with that, I never will sit here and say, “Hey, I hope this works out or I hope people respond.” All of that stuff is out of your control and I think that that’s a good thing. I think that that’s a healthy thing. Look, I’m enormously busy. It’s been a crazy last couple of years. I literally just wrapped this six-part miniseries for HBO. I’m literally going right into a new series for Showtime. It’s amazing, man. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all of this. But I can’t get caught up in what the next thing is going to be. I kind of have to be where I am while I’m there.
Did you enjoy slicing fish with Sandra Bullock in The Unforgivable?
(Laughs.) Yeah, I haven’t seen it yet, but I really did enjoy it. She’s incredible, man. She is such a generous and beautiful soul. She is a committed artist, and I loved working with her. I was also really blown away by Nora [Fingscheidt]. I loved her film System Crasher. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but fuck, man, it was so brilliant. I did not really want to do that movie. (Laughs.) I was so busy and I really didn’t have time, but Sandy called me and asked me to be in the film. So whether it was Sandy or somebody who I didn’t know, I just have real, immense respect for the fact that she took the time to call me and that it was that important to her that it was with me. So I’m really, really glad that I said yes. Nora is brilliant. Holy crap. She knows exactly what she wants, but like these other brilliant directors that I’ve worked with, she also honors the moment. She also honors truth. But she’s got this unbelievable barometer of truth and this unbelievable eye for minimalistic work. And she just knows how to shave the fat off of a performance and she demands it. I loved working with her. I really felt like she was on me and I would die to work with her again. I loved her.
Whether it’s Citizen Kane, The Godfather or Chinatown, a lot of projects are in the works about the making of classic films. Of all your movies, which one would make for the most intriguing making-of movie?
(Laughs.) Oh shit, man. I’ve had some crazy ones.
Fury would be my guess.
Yeah, I would say it would be a tie between Fury and Wolf of Wall Street. And it’s funny because when I was doing Fury, I had done Wolf of Wall Street and they were not too far away from each other. I just remember thinking that Fury was going to be as intense and high octane and as magical of an experience as Wolf of Wall Street. It was just going to be shrouded with darkness, despair and decay, but it was going to match it on this magical intensity and dedication. And it really did that and more so. It was the most insane period of my artistic life, without a doubt. I started off in the avant garde theater with this theater company where we really, really pushed the envelope. In this Brechtian philosophy, we really wanted to challenge the audience, horrify the audience and put a mirror up to the audience. We flirted with real palpable danger, and Fury was like that every single day. On Fury, there was no process. So any actor that has the chance to work with David Ayer should freaking jump on it. It’s a process unlike anything else that I’ve been through. Those guys in that tank, we will be connected in a way that I’m not connected to anyone else in my life. I know their smells. I know their fears. I know their weaknesses. It’s this unbelievable intimacy that was formed on that. It’s weird. I’m in England right now, and everywhere I look, it’s like, “Oh fuck, it’s like I remember Fury. Even the weather.” (Laughs.) So I think you’re probably right. Ultimately, it would have to be Fury, but Wolf of Wall Street would make a really cool movie, too.
Do you think you’ll write about your life someday?
So I’ve written something and I’ve really fallen in love with the process. I got linked up with Lena Dunham last year, and she’s really inspirational and pivotal to me. We made this movie together, and then I wrote this kind of first-person memoir for this movie idea that we had together; it’s sort of about my life as a youngster. And yeah, man, I love writing. I’m swept up in it now, and it excites me in the same way that acting did when I first found it. It’s totally humbling. It totally scares me. It’s something that I feel like I’ve got to strip out of the darkest and the most special places in my soul. And I love that. I love the connection that it gives me with something bigger and higher. So you never know, but I’ve got the bug now and I’m not going to stop. I’m going to keep on writing.
Marvel has now opened up the multiverse. So any extension of Marvel can now link up with the MCU, whether that’s the Netflix shows or Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies. Do you think your version of Frank Castle would work in the PG-13, action-comedy context of the MCU?
That character, in particular, has real, real, real deep, deep meaning for me and resonance in me. He’s really in my heart, man. He’s really in my bones. I’m enormously protective of that character. I’ve said before that there’s nothing in this world more important to me than my wife and my kids, and only until you understand that kind of love and what it really means to willingly die for somebody, [do you understand] what it would be like if somebody took them from you. That’s a road and a darkness and a rage that really, really scares me and brings me to places that I’ve worked the last 20 years to get away from. So I was really grateful, respectful and wary of the places where that role took me and the world in which I had to live in. That being said, that’s where that character needs to be. It needs to be a level of darkness. I think if there’s any let up on that character, you do a disservice to the character, to every iteration of the character, to every comic book that’s come before, and to all of the unbelievable fans of the character. This character means so much to people in the military. So like I said before, it’s not about whether you do the character; it’s about whether you can do it right, and I’m only interested in doing it right.
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King Richard is now playing in movie theaters and on HBO Max.
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