Rosie O'Donnell says Jon Bernthal was 'never happy' playing a gigolo on American Gigolo
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Jon Bernthal did not find any pleasure in playing a gigolo on American Gigolo — at least, according to Rosie O'Donnell.
The actress, who starred as Detective Sunday on the now-shuttered Showtime series, revealed that Bernthal was less than excited about playing the lead role in the present-day reimagining of the 1980 Richard Gere classic.
"Jon Bernthal was not happy with the show, and it was very clear," O'Donnell told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's difficult to work that way on a set. He was never happy that he was playing a gigolo. And I'm like, 'Well, it's called American Gigolo.'"
Everett Collection (2) Jon Bernthal and Rosie O'Donnell in 'American Gigolo'
To be fair, O'Donnell noted that she also wasn't the biggest fan of the show's premise.
"I didn't love it either, and I questioned at first why you would take a movie set in the mores of the early '80s and try to remake it without having the seismic cultural shifts that have occurred since then incorporated," she said. "One review wrote, 'It's almost as though Rosie's in a different show,' and in a way, it was."
EW has reached out to representatives for Showtime and Bernthal, who did not immediately respond for comment.
Created by David Hollander, and based on Paul Schrader's original film, American Gigolo followed a recently-exonerated Julian Kay (Bernthal) as he attempted to uncover who framed him for murder 15 years ago. The series, which also starred Gretchen Mol and Wayne Brady, was canceled after one season amid Showtime's merger with Paramount+ in January 2023.
In her review, EW critic Kristen Baldwin praised Bernthal's portrayal of "a handsome lowlife who cleans up real nice and keeps his pain buried under a pair of bulging pecs," even if he was largely tasked with filling in "who-framed-me-and-why basics."
"For now, the best thing about Gigolo is O'Donnell's splendidly wry turn as Detective Sunday," she continued. "Stone-faced and steely, barking out dialogue in her staccato New York squawk, O'Donnell manages to bring some much-needed levity to this somber affair."
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