As Charlie Cox approached 30, he watched his friends become superheroes — Andrew Garfield was Spider-Man, Henry Cavill was Superman, and Tom Hiddleston was Loki — and made peace with his fate.
“I just assumed that the Marvel call was not coming unless maybe for a villain in another 20 years,” he said.
Then something crazy happened. The role of the blind vigilante Daredevil became available in a Netflix series in 2015, and Cox was the right age for it. But three seasons later, the show was canceled, and that was that. Or so he thought.
Now Cox, 42, is back, this time on Disney+ in “Daredevil: Born Again,” a sort of reboot that finds the crime fighter at war over New York City with his nemesis, the gangster Wilson Fisk, played by Vincent D’Onofrio.
“I’m still pinching myself if I’m honest,” Cox said of his return — and hoping for an extended run with the announcement of a new comic in which Daredevil is 60.
“That’s excellent; it means I’ve got another 20 years of this, or as long as they’ll have me,” Cox said before elaborating on the virtues of Russian baths and cold plunges, TSA PreCheck and mastering the art of plowing snow.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Wall Street Bath & Spa 88
There’s the Russian room, one of the hottest rooms you can go into, which is a dry heat. There’s what they call a shvitz. Then there’s a steam room and a plunge pool. You do it with friends and enjoy the extremes. I find that when you do it regularly, particularly the cold, it completely slows down my mind and it becomes like a meditation. There’s very few things that a cold plunge won’t solve.
Beth Carter’s Sculptures
My brother was given a piece of her art by a girlfriend 25 years ago. It’s of a crouching minotaur holding his fists together, and inside the fists is meant to be a butterfly. Over the Christmas period, I went online and there was this big minotaur sitting down reading a little gold book. I found it to be incredibly touching. So I finally purchased one.
Decluttering
The “clutter age” is where you find yourself grumpy or intolerable, primarily because there’s too much accumulated stuff in the house that’s making everything feel hectic. I am not someone who needs to live in a museum. But I’m a big fan of putting things away right after you use them.
Social Media Blackout
I’ve never been on social media, and I feel quite smug about my choice. If you are someone in an industry where the idea of celebrity is part of the job, for mental and emotional health it’s much safer to not engage.
TSA PreCheck
I don’t have to take my shoes off. I don’t have to take my laptop out my bag. I can show up at the airport and not have to worry if the lines are going to be long. And the last time I came through Global Entry, I didn’t even have to take my passport out. Little things like that go a long way for me.
My Wife’s Book Recommendations
Sam inhales books, so there’ll be a book by her side of the bed and the following night there’s a different book. I’m a slow reader, so I will have a book on the go for a month, easily. Also, if I get 50 or 100 pages into a book and I’m not really loving it, I have no problem moving on. The great thing is she’ll recommend books and they’ll always be perfect for me.
‘The Rewatchables’ Podcast
What they do is take these movies that they deemed to be watchable — over and over and over again — and talk about them for a couple of hours. The other day I rewatched “What About Bob?” and I laughed all the way through. Sure enough, they have an episode.
Arsenal Football Club
I often ask myself how detrimental it is to my health, because I get so stressed out and become such a child. The one thing I’m grateful for about living in America is the games are earlier. So if we lose on Saturday at 9:30 a.m., I’ve still got the whole day to find a way to be a big boy about it.
My Beard
Whenever I’m not working, I grow my beard out. It makes me feel, if I’m walking around, a little bit more in disguise.
Snow Plowing
We have quite a significant driveway in Connecticut, and I’m trying to learn how to plow the driveway so that I can feel like I’m actually a real man. The first time I did it, a couple of months ago, it took me about two and a half hours to figure it out. And right as I was coming in the door the snowplow guy came down, plowing it. So I went outside and waved and said, “I’ve already done it.” And he looked at me and went, “Really?”
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