Lili Taylor Reveals Role as NY Governor In Marvel’s “Daredevil” While Discussing New Book on Birdwatching
Taylor says watching the behavior of birds has made her a better listener and actor.
During an interview with Rural Intelligence about her recently released book Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing, actress Lili Taylor revealed for the first time that she will be playing the governor of New York in the upcoming second season of Marvel Studio’s “Daredevil: Born Again” on Disney+. While it was previously known she was playing a political foil to the series’s villain, the Kingpin, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, her exact role was not known until Taylor shared the news on May 12.
“I’m the governor, which is great.” Taylor says, adding that she enjoyed working with the production team and D'Onofrio, who has earned praise for his complex portrayal of the series's massive crimeboss, who will run for Mayor in the show’s next season, set to premiere March 2026.
Taylor also confirms that scenes for the show will take place in Albany next season, though filming did not take place there.
“I know Albany, and I know the politics there,” says Taylor who’s lived in the Tivoli, New York, area for decades. “We’ve got a set for inside, and then we did the outside at this really nice place in Tarrytown—that was the governor’s house.”
Despite stepping into the epic Marvel Cinematic Universe, Taylor says (in her distinctly gentle voice) that the production doesn’t feel overwhelming. “It’s a TV show in New York. The locations are very familiar to me,” she explains. “More importantly, the people I’m working with—Dario [Scardapane] the creator, the producer Sana [Amanat], and Vince D'Onofrio—really care about what they’re making. So it doesn’t feel like this big corporate thing. It feels like we’re telling a story that matters.”
Taylor, long praised for her subtle, intense performances in both indie films and stage productions, said that working with D'Onofrio was a highlight. “They’re creating something meaningful,” she says. “And the show’s dealing with a lot of topical stuff—power, authoritarianism.”
From Supervillains to Songbirds: A Life of Listening
To celebrate the release of Turning to Birds, Taylor will be presenting her new work at an event hosted by Oblong Books May 29, at the Morton Memorial Library in Rhinecliff. The evening will feature Taylor in conversation with author Susan Fox Rogers.
Long before Marvel came calling, Taylor had taken a deliberate break from acting. What she thought would be a period of rest and silence on her farm turned into something unexpected. “The Eastern bluebirds nesting in my backyard had other plans,” she writes in the book, which hit bookstore shelves on April 29.
In the nest Taylor watched parents protecting newborn chicks from sparrows, and tracked the bluebirds more mundane routines. It drew her into an entirely new practice of paying attention. “They were no longer generic tweets or chirps,” she writes. “There were things going on out in the yard: stories, drama, mating, fighting, death. During that time of personal quiet, I entered a world of sound outside myself—and I’ve never left.”
Taylor speaks of birdwatching not as a hobby, but as a transformative practice. “It was a way for me to get outside myself, to focus on something else, and to listen—but in a deeper way than just hearing,” she says. “Listening is a skill. The difference between hearing and listening is paying attention.”
What started with a single season of watching has become a new way of understanding the world—and even a transferable tool for Taylor’s acting as well. “Some of the same challenges I go through when I’m observing a bird—to try to be open and neutral, to stop naming and assuming—apply to characters, too,” she says. “Birds have taught me how to listen in a new way. And that’s something I can carry onstage.”
Turning to Birds is structured as a series of essays, each exploring a moment of connection—with a Gambel’s quail in New Mexico, a disoriented woodcock in Ohio, a massive migration viewed from the top of the Empire State Building. Through these vignettes, Taylor maps out what she calls a “parallel world”—a world of motion, instinct, and resilience.
Neither guidebook or a memoir, the book is an invitation to mindfulness and a call to see what’s often overlooked. “Birds are a gateway,” she says. “Even if you don’t stay with them forever, they’ll probably bring you somewhere else—if you stay just an extra minute.”
Tickets are required for the Rhinecliff event. General admission is priced at $10, while a $32 ticket includes both admission and a hardcover copy of Turning to Birds. For more information and to purchase tickets visit Oblong Books' event page.
