As Stick on Netflix's 'Daredevil,' Scott Glenn learns from playing the teacher

Scott Glenn remembers the phone call from his agent, shortly before the veteran performer would become one of the more memorable additions to the live-action Marvel universe.

Marvel and Netflix, his agent told him, were looking for an actor to play the mentor to Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock in the Netflix original series "Daredevil." When Glenn, 74, listened to the word "mentor," he presumed his role would be limited to that of an elderly man wagging his finger, providing examples for his pupil only through his stern words.

At that time, Marvel and Netflix "didn't mention the name (of the character) - they just said they wanted me to play Charlie Cox's mentor. The Daredevil's mentor," Glenn said. "When I first heard that, my initial reaction was: 'Aw, s---! I'm going to have to play some old guy who sits behind a desk and spouts wisdom. That's what 'mentor' meant to me."

Gratefully, Glenn was quite wrong. Once he saw the script, he realized he was signing up for much more, and was thrilled. "I said yes right away," he recalled.

What Glenn jumped at was the role of Stick, the blind guide to the young and also blind Murdock. Stick pushes a soon-to-be Daredevil out of self-pity after Murdock loses his vision. The born-blind Stick teaches that having sight for even a short time, as Matt did, is an advantage. And the mentor guides him into living in a world of darkness, while learning martial arts along the way.

Teaching martial arts was a welcome element for Glenn, who has dabbled in Brazilian jujitsu, wrestling and boxing. Convincing the audience that he was blind, on the other hand, would be a challenge.

"I have a lot of (martial arts training), just in my own private background of stuff I like to fool around with. The tricky part of all of that was doing it blind, and sort of finding the key to working blind," said Glenn, who worked out ways for Stick to talk, walk and fight without sight. "Different actors find different ways of solving that. The most common way of playing blind is just staring at people's mouths rather than at their eyes. You'll start to read blind. But that didn't really work for me, because of all the physical stuff I had to do."

Instead, Glenn decided to employ peripheral viewing.

"Rather than taking in information that is directly in front of your eyes, in a really relaxed way, start taking in information without moving your head or your eyes," Glenn said. "How far can you see to the left? To the right? Above you and below you? And the more you start taking in that information, the more you'll start reading blind, but still be able to do things like walking up and down stairs, see punches coming at you - all of that stuff."

Plenty of punches came Glenn's way during "Daredevil," especially during a scene in which Stick and Murdock fight - the dynamic is that of father and abandoned son - after the two don't agree on Stick's methods.

"Someone told me that's the longest single fight ever shot on television," said Glenn of that scene, in which he and Cox engage in hand-to-hand combat in a Hells Kitchen apartment. "I don't know if that's true or not."

The role of Stick also interested Glenn because of the "moral tight rope" that his character "skips around," he said, as well as his fractured relationship with Murdock.

"For me, the first thing that I respond to - whether it's doing a play, or movie, or television or anything - is just the character. Is this a guy whose shoes I want to walk in for the next 12 days or six months?" Glenn said. "I get to dip into that kind of space and play a character who, deep down inside, really loves this kid, but will never show it. ... And (who) also kind of lives in the space of what would it be like to have a true Spartan sensibility in the 21st century."

Glenn noted, too, that when he walked into the role, he was not an expert on Marvel Comics or its adaptations, but said that he's grown to appreciate the fan base.

"Originally, I really didn't think about that at all," Glenn said. "I now realize what a big deal and how important this comic universe is to so many people."