Charlie Cox is about to break your heart — gently, and with a boisterous smile. The English actor might be best known for playing Matt Murdock in Daredevil, but it’s the often quiet, aching humanity he brings to every role that lingers with viewers the most. From the morally gray Owen Sleater in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire to the grief-stricken Michael Kinsella in AMC’s Kin, Cox doesn’t just perform from the heart — he exposes it with an instinctual honesty that cuts deeper than you’d expect.
Between his humble and affable nature, there’s a soft-spoken charm to the 42-year-old actor that’s immediately capable of putting anyone at ease. So, when we meet over Zoom in between scenes Cox is filming for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 in New York, the London-born performer appears relaxed and cozy in his East Coast home, dressed in a green cardigan and dark green beanie that makes him look more like a grad student than one of Marvel’s most beloved leading men. He’s warm and gracious, quick to laugh, and a great listener. When he answers, he pauses, thinks, then speaks with a gentleness that feels increasingly rare. It’s why it’s all the more disarming when he says, “Oh no, I’m going to break your heart” — and you still trust him.
He’s currently preparing to crush any lingering hope regarding the now-legendary story — the one that’s been circulating for years — that he once shared a Los Angeles apartment with Andrew Garfield, Jamie Dornan, Eddie Redmayne, and Robert Pattinson: the Avengers of British Acting, or some kind of Sad Boy Justice League. As Cox unspools the story through laughs, he admits it’s “not true,” and gives a soft chuckle as he leans in, almost as if he hates to ruin the fun.
“Okay, look, whatever that apartment was — the apartment did exist — I never lived in that apartment. I think it was Eddie, Jamie, and Rob. I think it was those three, and I was living around the corner, and Andrew was living around the corner, and we were spending all day, every day with each other because we were all trying to get work in Los Angeles, and we’re all British actors.”
Cox admits it was a “magical time tinged with a huge amount of insecurity and fear” that they would be broke with no jobs and sent back home. “There was always a visa running out, someone’s visa. We were all going up for the same jobs. We were all asking each other how it went, who got callbacks.” There’s no ego in his retelling of the events — only humility, warmth, and a kind of reverence for that strange, uncertain chapter.

God, I wish I could go back in time and tell those boys, ‘It’s going to be all right.’

Cox also regales me with an anecdote of playing volleyball on Venice Beach with Garfield, Dornan, and Redmayne. There were no auditions that day. No jobs. Just four young actors trying to stay hopeful. “But no, sadly, I didn’t live in that flat,” he adds with a smile. “I do sometimes look at that photo I have of us, and I’m like, God, I wish I could go back in time and tell those boys, ‘It’s going to be all right.’”
While that rumor has finally been put to rest, it’s been replaced by something quieter. Maybe even more relatable: a story about the fragile hope of making it and Cox’s unwavering commitment to share a piece of his heart with the world. During the time he spent auditioning and navigating his early career alongside industry titans like Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons, Cox learned just how much of the industry is about endurance and faith, even when the odds feel stacked. It’s this perseverance that speaks to the kind of actor he’s becoming, prioritizing substance over stardom. In Daredevil: Born Again, Cox brings that same vulnerability and depth to a reimagined Matt Murdock — older, wearier, but just as resolute as when he first began.
Finding Freedom in Chaos

Photography by Yellowbelly for Collider

Cox’s journey into acting wasn’t a straight line, but rather a series of unexpected twists. His first major role came at just 18 in Dot the I, alongside Gael García Bernal and a fresh-faced Tom Hardy. The East Sussex native admits that landing his first gig was “such a baptism of fire,” but laughs while recounting it now. “I was just completely winging it and just trusting that what they saw during that audition process was enough to see me through the movie, as it were.”
With no formal training to rely on at the time, Cox acknowledges the freedom that can be found in not knowing what you don’t know. Looking back, however, “the lack of training and the lack of a basic skill set is quite horrifying,” so at the time, he simply “put one foot in front of the other.”
After shooting the psychological thriller, which made its Sundance Film Festival premiere in 2003, Cox went on to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, one of the most prestigious drama schools in the UK, where he learned the technical side of acting. But he also quickly realized that, after training, actors often go through a phase where they need to “re-find [their] creative freedom.”
“Suddenly, you’re so acutely aware of the technical side of the craft that that’s all you can see and think of, and you’re not free to just be in the moment,” Cox says, with a crease of thought between his eyes. He found that, in the short term, this type of exercise can limit an actor’s freedom. “There’s a period, a few years after you finish training, where you have to unlearn some of it so you can walk on set and be surprised by what the other actors do, by what you do, and by what the director does.”
That lesson in the balance between preparation and spontaneity played out in real time when Cox was cast opposite Pacino in The Merchant of Venice. “I auditioned for that film on the first day of the summer holidays after my first year of drama school,” he reminisces. At the time, he’d been cast in his school’s Nativity play and was supposed to spend the break learning Christmas carols on the recorder, but that wasn’t part of his plan. “I decided I would start learning once I found out I hadn’t got that job.”
But the callbacks kept coming. “The night before school started, I still hadn’t heard anything — and I hadn’t learned a single tune on the recorder. I was in full-blown panic,” Cox says, with an almost nervous laugh. But then the phone rang. “It was hugely exciting, and still to this day, just the idea that I was on set with Mr. Pacino is a self-pinching moment — but it was also tinged with a lot of relief, because I was about to be in a lot of trouble.”
That early experience of landing a career-defining role while still figuring things out reinforced something Cox still believes today: the best actors are those who perform from a place of real freedom, like Bill Murray. “One of the things he said [on a podcast] is he never understands why actors do a take, and then try to recreate that the next time around. That moment is gone, and so now you have to create a completely new moment. Great actors can do that, but within the boundaries of the text and the script.”
When ‘Stardust’ Turned Into Survival

Image via Paramount Pictures

Though Cox had worked hard to score a handful of extraordinary opportunities, that early streak gave the fresh-faced actor a front-row seat to the highs of the industry before fully grasping its unpredictability. The then 23-year-old landed his breakout role as leading man in Matthew Vaughn’s 2007 fantasy adventure, Stardust — one of the biggest British productions of its kind at the time — which has since become a cult classic.
“In my mind, everything up until Stardust, I was kind of blissfully ignorant of how challenging this profession can be,” Cox says. Plucked straight from drama school, he was now bouncing between high-profile sets like the aforementioned Merchant of Venice, Casanova alongside Irons and Heath Ledger, and Stardust, starring Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, and Peter O’Toole. “I remember being incredibly excited and feeling like it was a huge challenge.”

In my mind, everything up until Stardust, I was kind of blissfully ignorant of how challenging this profession can be.

However, the reality of sustaining that momentum proved difficult for Cox. When Stardust underperformed at the worldwide box office, only pulling $137 million, the roles stopped coming as easily. “Suddenly, I went through a period where I found it very difficult to get jobs,” he admits. “A lot of people didn’t think that I was past the stage where I would do the jobs I had been doing before — the supporting roles — but then I wasn’t a proven lead in any capacity, so I wasn’t getting the leading roles.”
It was a humbling turning point for Cox, who confesses it was a “very difficult period” in his career. He found himself reevaluating everything while heading back to the drawing board. But the climb back up wasn’t immediate; he calls that hurdle his “first mountain.” More formative than anything, Cox began saying yes to roles that might’ve once felt like a step backward. But instead, they allowed him to stretch, recalibrate, and stay in the game.
Taking a Stroll Down the ‘Boardwalk’

Photography by Yellowbelly for Collider

Although Cox acknowledges he was in the “rebuilding phase” of his career, it wasn’t long before Boardwalk Empire came calling. When his agents suggested a small role in the HBO crime drama, he didn’t hesitate. “I remember thinking, ‘At this point, I need to work. Even if it’s just three episodes, at least it’s something,’” Cox says. That seemingly minor role as Owen Sleater, an IRA operative, would soon expand to a two-season arc and open the door to Daredevil just a few years later. “There was a lot of luck involved. It’s almost like, only in hindsight, that I was able to really appreciate what was happening to me in my early 20s in my career, that I just caught a moment in life in general, but also, certainly, in the creative arts, you catch a buzz.”
Looking back now, Cox recognizes that what he experienced in those early years was a rare kind of success. “I remember Kenneth Branagh said once in an interview, ‘After a certain level of talent, it’s really just heat.’ That is the difference between a very successful career and a not-so-successful career. In those early years, I had heat. I was one of the young, upcoming British actors, and that gets you a lot. If casting directors are saying to directors, ‘This guy is one to watch,’ I think you’re looked at in a slightly different light. Then, when that becomes, ‘He’s interesting, but he kind of had his moment. It didn’t work out,’ then suddenly you’re looked at slightly differently.”
On Boardwalk Empire, Cox stepped into a new type of role, taking on an ambiguously complex character that would push him as an actor. “That was an amazingly enjoyable and challenging experience,” he says. “It was also the first time I played someone who was morally questionable. At that point, I’d played quite a lot of young boys on the journey of life, trying to do the right thing and be the good guy and all those kinds of things, which was also really fun. Owen in Boardwalk Empire was where I got to have a little bit more fun.”
The HBO series’ sophisticated and sprawling ensemble cast also provided Cox with an opportunity to build his character from the ground up. In 2012, Boardwalk Empire was honored with a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, proving that the win was not just a reflection of the show’s undeniable chemistry, but the dedication of every actor involved, including Cox.
“What was interesting about that role was that there were so many characters in that show, so many actors…” Cox recalls. “I was cast, and I had a very brief, maybe half an hour, conversation with one of the writers, who gave me a very brief backstory. Then I had three months before I was shooting, and I only had two scenes in that first episode.”

It was really fascinating to discover how much nuance you can add to a scene just by delving deep into a history of your own making.

With only two scenes, a skeletal backstory, and plenty of time on his hands, Cox threw himself into shaping Owen from scratch. The lack of extensive material didn’t feel like a setback for the actor; instead, it gave him creative freedom to explore. “It was really fascinating to discover how much nuance you can add to a scene just by delving deep into a history of your own making, as it were,” he says.
Cox’s work on Boardwalk Empire wouldn’t have been the same without the solid foundation he built in theater. He knows how to bring depth to a character, and it’s his time on the stage that makes his performances pop like no other. On screen, he only has a few hours to shoot a scene, but in the theatre, it’s all about finding new layers every single night. It’s that constant reinvention that makes his performances feel fresh and alive. With his stage work acting as proof of versatility, Cox credits his time in the West End for Harold Pinter’s The Lover/The Collection as a benefit in understanding the type of actor he wanted to be.
“When you’re on stage, you have to find new ways to breathe life into the same material every night. You can’t just repeat the same performance and expect it to connect. It has to be truthful, and it has to feel real,” he stresses. And that’s exactly what you see in projects like Boardwalk Empire.
As Cox explains, the theater is like the gym for an actor. You keep working out the same muscles, and eventually, you’re ready to take on anything. “I think that’s where you become a better actor,” he says frankly. “You’re workshopping the same scenes, trying to deepen your connection to the material. Then, when you take that skill set onto a film set or a TV set, it’s almost like you’ve got more colors somehow. That’s just a hypothesis, really, but I’ve always felt like that — I’ve always felt that to be the case, with my journey at least.”
‘Daredevil’ Was Never Just Another Job

Image via Marvel Studios, Disney+

Even after his success with Boardwalk Empire, Cox didn’t feel like he had a steady career path ahead. Despite booking two CBS pilots that didn’t get picked up to series, the actor humbly admits it was a reminder that nothing is guaranteed in this business, no matter how promising things look on paper.
“I never think that I’m going to work again after a job,” he laughs. “Sometimes when I chat with actors who just have an innate, confident belief that they just know the next job is coming, and it’s going to be a good one, my mind is always blown by that. It’s not my experience. I always think, ‘This is the last year for sure, this job.’”
That feeling didn’t go away, even after booking Daredevil for Netflix’s original run. “I never felt secure in the knowledge that we were going to do another year or another job would come along,” he says. “I’m not sure I’ll ever change. I think that’s just part of who I am. I’ve always felt that very keenly from the moment that I started. It’s a very tricky thing to be in an industry where your employment with any given company is for three, four, or five months at best, and then you’ve got to go back on the circuit of getting a job, never knowing how to organize your life.”
As Cox learned firsthand how unpredictable the industry could be before Daredevil came along, he reveals that, in 2013, he’d finally earned enough money to put a down payment on a house in London — but within six months, he moved to New York for work. “I never lived there. I eventually sold it 10 years later, [but] I basically never lived there. I went on a couple of holidays to my home,” he laughs, while reflecting. “I wouldn’t change that for the world. It brought me out to New York to do Daredevil, and it was such a gift. My life ended up being here in America. I met my wife [Samantha Thomas], and we have children here. But it’s just a really good example of trying to make any decision, and the industry will convince you it was the wrong one.”
With this particular decision being the absolute right one at the right time, Cox admits landing Matt Murdock felt like lightning in a bottle. “Getting Daredevil felt massive to me at the time for a couple of reasons. One, because I was the lead of a show on Netflix, which at the time, Netflix was everything. House of Cards had been out, Orange Is the New Black had come out — a couple of really classy shows, and they were the future.”
But it wasn’t just the platform that excited him. Cox says he was struck by the quality of the scripts and the weight of the opportunity once he got the job, knowing very well the reputation Marvel had built over the years with films like Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers.

I’m going to love every minute of this, and I’m going to work my ass off.

“I got this job as not only the lead of a Netflix show, but it’s also Marvel. Everyone knew how big Marvel was,” he says. “I’d read the first four scripts, and I just had this feeling of, ‘This is special. It’s a really special show.’ So, I felt like, ‘This is a big moment. This is a really massive opportunity.’ And I just wanted to make sure that I worked my butt off, and I also wanted to make sure I loved it. Whenever it ended — even if it hadn’t worked — I didn’t want my memories of it to be that I was worried the whole time that I wasn’t going to do a good job. I was like, ‘I’m going to love every minute of this, and I’m going to work my ass off.’”
A whole decade later, the character still defines Cox’s career in ways he never could have anticipated. Admitting how it’s surreal to be sitting here 10 years later and still doing it, he rubs his cheek while thinking, in an almost incredulous gesture. “To think that… we’re still doing it, and people still like it, and that it still gets this much attention, as well — because often a show goes into a fifth season or sixth season, and the core fanbase are there, but it’s not really talked about. How many fifth seasons get billboards all over the country? Not many.”
Cox is also acutely aware of how rare a role like Matt Murdock is — something he deeply cherishes as he reflects on the significance of the character for him over the last decade.. “It’s really just such an unbelievable gift and blessing. I don’t know how that’s happened. For me, it’s just been a case of just always loving the work, always loving the personnel, all the cast, the crew, and just never not being grateful for the opportunity and always trying to work hard and make sure that you do justice to a character that has changed my life.”
He smiles, thinking about the road ahead. “There’s no two ways about it. At the end of my career, whenever it is — probably after the next job,” he laughs warmly, “I will undoubtedly look back on this character and this period of my life as being the pinnacle, the highlight.”
The Gospel According to Matt Murdock

Photography by Yellowbelly for Collider

After years of embodying Matt Murdock — the relentless “Man Without Fear” across numerous Marvel projects, including Echo, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Spider-Man: No Way Home — Cox says his character’s fearlessness has made a real impact on how he approaches life offscreen. The way Cox speaks in awe of his character proves that Matt is a personal exploration of what it means to live without fear in the face of adversity. Daredevil’s struggle with his limitations, his willingness to risk everything for what’s right, and his unwavering determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds mirror so much of Cox’s own career trajectory.
“I think you do inevitably learn quite a lot from all the characters you play. The thing with Matt, what happens for me is that there are elements to a character that you admire, and you often find that you really enjoy playing those colors. Usually, there’s a lesson there for you to learn,” he says.
One quality that Cox has taken to heart is Murdock’s unflinching honesty. “He doesn’t worry about other people’s feelings — but in the best way,” Cox explains. “He respects people enough to know that the best thing you can do with people is tell them the truth.”

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As a parent, the father-of-two says this philosophy has been especially valuable. Rather than sugarcoating difficult truths to protect his children or, as he puts it, to protect himself from feeling bad, he tries to be straightforward and open even when conversations are hard. “What are the circumstances in my life where everyone will benefit from me just being completely upfront about something, even if it’s quite a difficult conversation to have? That’s a very Matt Murdock trait,” he adds.
Another element of Murdock’s personality that Cox admires is his emotional honesty. Growing up in England, Cox now observes how emotions like frustration and anger are often treated as a negative — something to be hidden or suppressed. “We can vilify quite human emotions like frustration or anger or rage,” he says. “You can’t feel those feelings. They are ugly, and they are a sign of someone who’s unwell, and you kind of sweep everything under the rug.”
He admits that being able to watch and unravel the layers of how Matt confronts and processes those emotions taught him the importance of acknowledging difficult feelings instead of burying them. “He’s comfortable feeling his feelings and expressing them, and that’s another element that I admire in him.”
The Uncertain, Vulnerable Future in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’

With Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 currently filming in New York, Cox says the highly anticipated sophomore return will push Matt into unfamiliar territory. Following the events of Season 1 that left things in a bit of a chaotic mess, Cox admits one of the things he’ll be exploring in the eight-episode return is “a combination of uncertainty and vulnerability” for Matt and his friends.
“Matt has the ability, and this is one of his strengths in the past, to see things quite clearly — often incorrectly, but he sees things clearly,” he says of his character, who has been overwhelmed by grief and vengeance this season. Digging into a dark, emotional depth unseen with his character, Cox delivers a striking and absorbing performance that allows the audience to feel Matt’s pain every step of the way across tense, decisive moments. Season 2 will be no different as he teases.
“He makes a decision, and then he follows through with that decision. He communicates with people that way. He says, ‘No, this is what we have to do. We’re going to do that. That’s what we do next. That’s the next step.’”
Sharing how Matt is “very good at committing to those decisions” and, because of what happens by the end of Season 1 with Fisk, played most astoundingly by his co-star, Vincent D’Onofrio, he finds “an opportunity for him to no longer trust those with instincts and no longer be clear-minded about what the next right step is.”
It’s this trajectory that creates doubt in Matt, where he ends up questioning things. “He kind of backtracks a bit. He’s clearly unsure and finding that he has to take gambles and hope that he’s making the right choice.”
Having played the beloved character for so long, Cox is now entering a new era in his career, where he will be a part of the Marvel universe in a greater way (just don’t ask him about Avengers: Doomsday yet). But as he admits, his relationship with Daredevil has changed greatly.

Despite it feeling like a big character… I was trying to ground him in reality.

“The tricky thing that I’ve found when you’re playing a character for this many years is, when I started, it was very clear to me how different Matt Murdock was from myself, and it did feel like showing up to work, particularly with that character,” he says, adding how the multiple facets didn’t come as naturally as fans would believe. “There were skill sets that I had to learn, including an American accent, some martial arts training. My body transformed very quickly from all the gym work that I’d never done before, not to mention things like the visual impairment and stuff like that.”
Cox discloses how going to work felt like “putting on this big character” with his main objective always ensuring that, despite the weight of his actions and persona, Matt was grounded in reality.
“What’s happening now [going into Season 2] is that the suit of armor that I would put on, I’ve been doing it for so long now, it doesn’t feel like I’m putting a suit of armor on,” he admits with a smile. “You put on the shoes, and you walk on set, and the muscle memory kicks in, and it’s there. The challenge now is to make sure that you’re not overdoing it, to try and make it feel like you’re playing the character and just trust that that blurry line where the character meets the actor is consistent with what it’s always been.”
Taking a Detour From the Alleyways of ‘Daredevil’

Photography by Yellowbelly for Collider

For an actor as beloved as Cox has become, it would be easy to coast on a character as iconic as Matt Murdock. But what has become increasingly clear throughout our conversation is that he’s always approached his craft with a refreshing sense of humility — and an eagerness to challenge himself beyond expectations. “I want to do anything that’s challenging,” Cox says. Interestingly enough, he admits that when choosing roles, he’s “not very precious about the character.”
Instead, what’s driving him more is a personal instinct — something he mastered over the years across ebbs and flows of a fickle ecosystem: “It really is the script as a whole. Do I read the script and go, ‘Oh, I want to watch that,’ or, ‘What a great story,’ or, ‘What great chemistry or great dynamics between the people?’ I really care about the piece as a whole.”
That passion has led him to tackle a fascinating range of morally complex characters post-Daredevil, while always bringing something uniquely his own. As Cox explains, he tends to “always approach them with a clean slate.” Working to explore how these characters are different from others, he admits that rather than forcing change for change’s sake, he leans into what feels authentic. “Sometimes it’s important not to try to make a character different just for the sake of it. If there are similarities, then you should probably lean into them,” he says.
Such could be the case in one of his best roles outside Daredevil with Kin, where he played the quietly tormented Michael Kinsella, a man struggling to protect his family while battling the weight of his past mistakes. But with 20 years of acting experience behind him now, Cox is candid about how longevity presents its own new challenges when choosing roles. “You don’t anticipate when you start isolating characters in your head that you’ve played and trying to have a fresh slate when you start a job,” he shares.

Sometimes it’s important not to try to make a character different just for the sake of it.

This month, fans can see him stepping into the new FX comedy series Adults, where he gives one of his funniest on-screen performances to date while working alongside a younger cast — something he reveals provided a whole new kind of education in terms of acting.
“I arguably learned more from them in those two weeks than I have on anything recently, because it’s a completely different skill set,” he reveals of the series premiering May 28. Watching his co-stars improvise and ad-lib pushed him out of his comfort zone. “I’ve just come from theater and dramas where you say the line that you were given, so it was really fun to have fluidity around that and to experiment with a different type of acting experience.”
And true to form, Cox is still finding new ways to stretch his talents outside the morally complex characters. One of his upcoming projects includes Merv, where he stars opposite Zooey Deschanel in a lighter, comedic role for Prime Video — a departure from his dramatic work. “Going to North Carolina and putting on a pair of board shorts and having fun banter with Zooey was really, really fun. Am I any good at it? I don’t know. We’ll see! I certainly enjoyed it. I certainly learned a lot,” he laughs.
Even as Cox proves he’s ready for the next big thing, the actor humbly admits there’s one genre of film and TV we might never see him in: “I genuinely can’t sing. Musicals are not in the cards for me,” he confesses, as if it’s the most obvious truth in the world. Fans will still likely catch a glimpse of his singing chops in Merv, set to release near the end of 2025.
“Funnily enough, I did say to them, ‘Before you cast me in this, I need to be clear about something — and this is not me being falsely modest — I am an awful singer. So you’re either going to have to rewrite that scene, or you’re going to have to lean into the fact that I cannot sing a note.’ So they’re like, ‘Great. We’ll lean into it!’” he laughs.
Charlie Cox might have begun by joking about breaking my heart, but what he’s really done over the better part of 20 years is show just how much heart he’s still willing to give to everyone else.
Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming on Disney+.
Photography: Yellowbelly | Location: Brooklyn, New York

Daredevil: Born Again

Release Date

March 4, 2025

Showrunner

Chris Ord

Writers

Chris Ord

Franchise(s)

Daredevil, Marvel Cinematic Universe