Collider.com — With director Simon Kinberg’s The 355 now playing in theaters, I recently got to speak with Sebastian Stan about making the original action thriller. Written by Kinberg and Theresa Rebeck, from a story by Rebeck, the spy movie is about a group of women that come together to save the world from a top-secret weapon that can hack into any computer. The all-star cast is made up of CIA agent Mason “Mace” Brown (Jessica Chastain), rival badass German agent Marie (Diane Kruger), former MI6 ally and cutting-edge computer specialist Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o), and skilled Colombian psychologist Graciela (Penelope Cruz). Along the way they run into a mysterious woman, Lin Mi Sheng (Fan Bingbing), who may or may not be on their side. The film also stars Edgar Ramirez and Stan plays Chastain’s partner at the CIA. The 355 was produced by Chastain, Kinberg, and Kelly Carmichael, with Richard Hewitt, Esmond Ren, and Wang Rui Huan executive producing.
During the interview, Sebastian Stan talked about why he wanted to be part of this project, what it’s really like filming a big action scene, how if you see the actor in a wide shot, they really know what they’re doing, why he loves what Keanu Reeves does in the John Wick movies, and more. In addition, we talked about his next appearance in the MCU, if he’s in the Doctor Strange sequel, and why he’ll always be proud of the three-way fight in Captain America: Civil War with Chris Evans and Iron Man.
Watch what he had to say in the player above or you can read the transcript below.
COLLIDER: Million questions for you, but I want to get my Marvel question just out front and just get it done.
SEBASTIAN STAN: Okay.
For fans of Marvel, when is the next time Bucky will be making an appearance in the MCU?
STAN: I don’t know. Per usual, I can’t answer that question. I have no clue, but look, I think it’s sort of about seeing what’s next for him, right? To some extent, the show, I felt, really graduated him to another level of experience and taking on his past a lot better and gave him another sense of place and sense of family that he’s found there with Sam. So he’s in a pretty good spot right now. I’d be curious to see what the next interesting thing that we could tell with him would be, and as you well know, that is above my pay grade. There are far wiser men and women who are making those decisions.
I’ve heard there’s a lot of cameos in the Dr. Strange sequel. I was wondering if you were one of them, but we can move on.
STAN: I am not in Dr. Strange 2. I promise.
First of all, congrats on being part of The 355. One of the things that I love is that it’s an all women kicking team, and it sort of reminds me of a Bond movie in that…but you are one of the few men in the film. So how did it feel being the “Bond Guy,” if you will.
STAN: I mean, it felt pretty great. I was okay taking my lead off of them. Again, for me, the experience was such an unbelievable company of actors and women to be a part. I knew that it was going to be a very collaborative experience. I felt very embraced. I felt very encouraged by Jessica as a producer as well, and Simon Kinberg who wrote and directed it to bring as much to the table as I could. It was an unique actor driven experience. And that was, I think, her goal with assembling this unbelievable company together. She really wanted this story to be told from the actor’s point of view, from the creative. You just don’t get to do that very often with this type of film, this type of genre. I think as a result, you get something that’s a little bit different and unique and more honest.
You have done now a lot of action. I’m just curious when you’re stepping into a movie, whatever it may be like, do you sort of dread the action? Do you look forward to doing it? Because I know how challenging filming action is and how time consuming.
STAN: I only dread it with Anthony (Mackie) because the problem is I have to wait for him for so long. Then it’s like, are we going to get the shot? I’ll tell you one thing, I didn’t have to wait on this film. Everybody was showing up with their A game. Jessica was not holding any punches and some of them literally did land. But I think action is sort of this weird dance that I don’t know if it still gets the credit that it deserves. Don’t forget about the stunt teams who put in the level of commitment and how they come in and what they do and how difficult that is. But you either look good doing it or you don’t. It’s not something that I feel like everybody kind of learns.
Then I think it’s so much about trust and it’s sort of tedious in a way, because you have to really rehearse it and then finally you have to forget about it and then you have to adjust it to whatever your partner’s giving you. There’s a lot that goes into it. And then it looks really cool and everything, and you’re like, “oh,” but it’s always challenging and fun. It never gets boring and the adrenaline is always high. It’s very addictive.
I think a lot of people really don’t realize though, that some of these action set pieces… it’s a minute on screen, but it took forever to get that minute filmed. It’s a complicated dance.
STAN: It is completely. Some of them literally can be a week to shoot. That fight, for example, with Jessica, for instance, I believe was at least three days and there’s always different pieces to it and you have to go back and re-watch everything. It’s always about angles because something can look really good from a close up or whatever, but then when you’re from here, it has to change. But if you ask the stunt department, they always tell you one thing, and that’s if you can fight in a wide, then you really know what you’re doing, because the closeup is… you don’t really see a lot of stuff.
I think that’s one of the reasons why everyone loves the John Wick movies because Keanu is always in the wide.
STAN: Unbelievable. Yeah. It’s just unbelievable. And one of the reasons why, I’ll tell you, I’m always going to be proud of that three-way fight in Captain America: Civil War with Chris Evans and Iron Man. Because we knew that was one shot and I was like, “We’re going to be in the wide so they’re going to see everything.” You really have to get it. You can’t cheat it.
I fucking love that movie.
STAN: I love that you love it. It’s so good. It was so insane.
Dude, it’s so good. Listen, I got a wrap, but just real quick, what are you getting ready to film? What’s coming out?
STAN: There’s nothing really right now that I can talk about. I was very lucky to work on some very interesting projects this past year. One of them I’m really excited about is that I’m going to Sundance for. Looks like Sundance is still going to be happening or hopefully. I can hold back for a second and recharge, because these things believe it or… as you, I’m sure you suspect the older you get, it’s like… especially the action. It takes a lot longer to come back from it. So let’s see.