Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Kin, Season 1
Charlie Cox‘s performance as the titular vigilante in Daredevil: Born Again may be brilliant, but there is one particular scene in his underappreciated crime drama, Kin, where he gave one of his best performances yet. During the critically acclaimed first season’s third episode, Cox’s character, Michael Kinsella, sees his daughter, Anna (Hannah Adeogun), for the first time since getting out of jail.
The scene is emotionally charged, as Michael, a deeply complex and introverted character, is imprisoned for killing Anna’s mother during a drug-fueled delirium. This powerful reunion unfolds during the funeral of Jamie (Cian Fitzsimons), a young family member who turns out to be much closer to Michael than we initially realize.
The complexity of the scene’s set-up, as we switch from one emotional context to another, is matched only by how Cox portrays the layers of grief, guilt, and joy he feels when looking at Anna. Often, an actor in this context could be accused of overacting, but Cox walks the line between breaking down and holding it all together behind the faint veneer of a smile, using his voice very differently from what we see in Born Again.
However, the way he plays the overwhelming emotion once Anna leaves the scene is his most impressive piece of acting, as he tells us so much about his desperation to be a father to Anna through subtle physical cues.
Two Versions of Grief Unfold in This Complex ‘Kin’ Scene
The context in which the scene between Michael and Anna takes place presents a complex shift in performance for Cox to pull off. What we learn in Episode 3 through heavily implied dialogue is that Michael is the real father of Jamie, the young boy who was killed. While Jimmy (Emmett J. Scanlan), Michael’s brother, gives the eulogy, Jamie’s mother (and Michael’s former lover), Amanda (Clare Dunne), first asks Michael if he will perform it.
Therefore, when Anna enters the funeral, wishing to pay respects to her deceased friend, Michael’s grief for losing his son shifts to the guilt and regret of losing his daughter. Furthermore, because Michael runs out of the church to follow Anna, their conversation takes place in an isolated environment where the focus is solely on them. It’s a small distinction in emotion and a huge change of setting, needing a strong actor to pull it off, and Cox does so smoothly, with his first strength being how he uses the direct cinematography on display in the scene.
Charlie Cox Portrays Layers of Guilt With Intimate Close-Ups
When Michael follows Anna out of the church, the two stand opposite each other in rather intimate close-ups, with Cox’s face filling the screen, which puts us uncomfortably close to the characters with some very nuanced micro-expressions. The entire time Cox uses this claustrophobic framing in his performance, he strikingly holds tension in his face, smiling through the pain, creating strained wrinkles across his face as he holds back waves of emotion.
This facial tightness contrasts with how he asks Anna a simple question, such as if they can go to a café, showing how much he is struggling with trying to pretend there is anything normal about the subtext of the situation. The tension in his face also helps to make his eyes look full of hope at seeing Anna, but seeing so much of the whites of his eyes makes Michael look more vulnerable.
We see that he is craving her approval and company, telling her he is appealing to the courts, but in doing so, he deludes himself into believing she will say yes to a coffee or be happy he is appealing all because of how Cox juxtaposes his expression with the lines he delivers.
Charlie Cox Uses His Voice in a Way We’re Not Used to Seeing
Cox’s voice is crucial in this scene, conveying his character’s deep desperation and pain of reuniting with his daughter. As an actor, the way his voice cracks repeatedly adds a raw, vulnerable layer to his performance, showing the audience just how overwhelmed he is feeling. By the end, several of his lines falter, with Cox portraying Michael as a broken man whose final words to his daughter are a clear struggle. Unlike the rest of his dialogue in the show, his tone is noticeably shakier, lacking the usual strength we typically see from Michael. Just a few seconds later, we see him confronted by Ciarán Hinds‘ Eamon, the antagonist of the first season.
Despite Eamon’s intimidating stature and power, Michael shows no fear, nodding his head and shrugging off Eamon’s threats that Jamie’s death will be the end of the ongoing conflict in the underworld. Because of the shift in tone in this scene, we see how much guilt he holds for what he did, as he doesn’t show fear or timidness in the face of larger threats. Cox’s voice in this scene brilliantly conveys his understanding of the power imbalance between Michael and Anna, while subtly reflecting Michael’s sense of vulnerability. He knows he’s at Anna’s mercy—beholden to her promise not to tell anyone they’re speaking, or she could get him into serious “trouble.” His tone shifts between hesitance and desperation, underscoring his lack of control in such a fragile moment.
Cox Beautifully Shows the Crushing Guilt Michael Feels in ‘Kin’
Unsurprisingly, Anna leaves despite Michael’s pleas to restart their relationship, and when Anna rounds the corner, Cox’s facial barriers finally break, and we see the emotion gush out of him as he sobs. The release is an effective display of the stakes that Michael feels when it comes to fixing things with his daughter, but Cox crucially doesn’t overact in that moment. After one or two sobs, he rubs his face, and the way he leaves his hand, pulling his eyes down as he stares at where Anna just was, shows how he is so fixated on her. It’s as if he is stretching the tension out of his face so that he can focus and not leave that moment where he and his daughter were finally together again, even if she hates him.
There was so much that could go wrong with this scene. Both actors could have lacked chemistry, and Cox’s Michael could have been seen as overzealous, creepy, or annoying with the extreme range of emotions he needs to present. However, he does a brilliant job in this scene at portraying his joy, fear, guilt, and grief while talking to his estranged daughter, Anna, and it all occurs within two minutes during one conversation.
Kin is streaming on AMC+ in the U.S.
- Release Date
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2021 – 2022
- Network
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RTÉ One
- Directors
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Felix Thompson, Tessa Hoffe, Diarmuid Goggins, Joseph Lawlor, Christine Molloy
- Writers
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Ciaran Donnelly
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David Herlihy
Detective Paul Breslin
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Danielle Galligan
Pharmacist Molly
