Collider – Sebastian Stan Found “Strange Parallels” Between ‘A Different Man’ and ‘The Apprentice’
A Different Man, the latest from writer-director Aaron Schimberg, is a darkly comedic A24 thriller that reunites him with actor Adam Pearson, who led his previous feature, the acclaimed Chained for Life. The collaboration was such a positive experience that Schimberg immediately offered to work together again, and once the script came through, Pearson quips to Collider’s Steve Weintraub, “It’s the most Schimberg thing I’ve ever read.” Finally, co-stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve came aboard, and the stage was set.
The stage, of course, being for the stage play written by Edward’s (Stan) neighbor and writer, Ingrid (Reinsve). A Different Man is the story of timid Edward, an aspiring actor with neurofibromatosis (NF1) who undergoes radical facial reconstruction surgery in hopes of a miraculous new life. Post-surgery, Edward feels more confident and earns the starring role in Ingrid’s play, only to be upstaged by Oswald (Pearson), a man with the same condition but whose disfigurement doesn’t seem to affect his personality. Once again, Edward’s sense of self is thrown into a spiral, but how do you reconfigure an identity crisis?
During this interview, Weintraub speaks with Pearson and Stan on the film’s reception across the festival circuit. They discuss getting involved with the project, surprise on-set cameos, working with Schimberg on a 22-day shoot, and how difficult it is to get movies like this one made. They also talk about how A Different Man isn’t looking to change the way anyone thinks, its lack of narrative hand-holding, and how to start conversations without the fear of not being “politically correct” enough.
COLLIDER: Sebastian, I’ve got to start with an individual question for you. What is it like having two movies coming out around the same time that both feature wildly different yet fantastic performances?
SEBASTIAN STAN: Thank you for putting it like that. It’s very strange. It feels like it never ever happens. I don’t know. The timing suddenly is wild. They were both really very, very hard to do and make, but I’m also just so proud to talk about them. I’m happy talking about them. I’m proud of both of them. But I’ve also weirdly found, in talking about them, some strange parallels that I never really had thought about. When you’re thinking of identity, self-abandonment, denial of reality, there are some concepts there that kind of cross, for me, at least.
For sure. Adam, you did a TED talk a number of years ago. What’s it like preparing to do a TED talk?
ADAM PEARSON: TED talks are great fun, and you’re always super well-prepared for it because you get there the day before, you rehearse, you see the space, you meet the other people who you’re gonna be talking with. But then, by the same token, that walk to the red dot is incredibly nerve-wracking and lonely, and then you’re left with no choice. Once the eyes of the audience are upon you, you gotta plant your feet, stand there, and then just give it to them.
I could never do that, and I’ve done a lot of stuff, but that would be very intimidating for me.
STAN: Me too. [Laughs] I can’t think of anything more terrifying.
Adam, you’ve made three documentaries. There are gonna be people out there who have not seen any, so what’s the one that you want them to start with and why?
PEARSON: Start with Horizon: My Amazing Twin. That’s the one that’s most personal, I believe, and that’s the one that deals with all the medical stuff to the high end. But also, it lets you see a lot more of Adam Pearson. I think it’s the most intimate one out of the ones that I’ve done in a considerable way.
For the both of you, what has this journey been like with this movie? I believe you shot it in 2022, and then this year, you’re at Sundance, Berlin, Calvary, you’re gonna be a Fantastic Fest — all these different film festivals. What has been like to be in so many film festivals and to have such great reviews for the work?
PEARSON: It’s been wild. When we got to Sundance, I spent most of Sundance like a dog who’d just seen a magic trick, being like, “Oh my god, wow!” And then, by the time I calmed down, it was time to go home. [Laughs] But no, it’s been great. Again, I’m really happy with how it’s all been received, and it’s starting a lot of really good and really important conversations. And to get to go on this journey with Aaron [Schimberg], Sebastian, and Renate [Reinsve] has been nothing but joyous.
STAN: I feel like we got lucky in a weird way at the time. I mean, the strike just ended up basically stopping everything, for the most part, and so the movie ended up kind of becoming more of a real thing for Sundance, and I feel it was great. I remember being there in the screening for the first time with people, and people really embraced the movie. It felt like the right place, and Berlin, as well. And then here we are. So, sometimes better late than never.
Sebastian, you’ve read a lot more scripts than Adam, so I’ll ask you this, what was it like reading this for the first time? Scripts like this do not exist.
STAN: I completely agree with you. They don’t. I was really blown away just thinking, “Oh my god, I have to figure out a way to get in this film,” and, “Who else are they meeting? What is he thinking?” And so I was very, very on it once I read it. But it’s true, it’s so well-written. It reminds me of a play, the same feeling you would get from reading Arthur Miller or something. When you read something, and you go, “Wow, this is challenging, this is scary, this is exciting.” I didn’t see anything that was gonna come. Everything felt original, and so it’s what you want. But it’s harder and harder to make films like this, as you know. It’s not easy, and fortunately, we got A24, who decided to give this a shot and take it on. That was a big piece.
I want to talk about working with Aaron. Adam, you’ve worked with him previously, but this is his third film, I believe, and it’s just so good. He has such a unique voice, and he’s dealing with important issues. Can you talk about the collaboration with Aaron and what’s unique about him and how he takes on this kind of material?
PEARSON: I have a lot of time for Mr. Aaron Schimberg. We collaborated on his previous film, Chained for Life, and I got to know him and respect him, and grew a lot of love for him. I’m good friends with him and his family now. After we did the whole Chained for Life tour, for want of better terminology, he was just like, “Would you work with me again?” And I was like, “Yeah!” I like how he writes, I like how he thinks, I like how he directs. So, I had no problem saying yes, pulling the trigger, and going, “Ding, ding — round two!”
Then COVID happened, and we were still talking a bit about it. Then I got sent this script, and I read it — it’s the most Schimberg thing I’ve ever read. And I was like, “Let’s bring this on.” And so yeah, I was on board from the word go, and then it was a case of, “Who else can we get on board?” Eventually, we were very lucky to get Sebastian and Renate on. Now, I really struggle to think who else could have done this. Who else would they have gotten on board that would have worked right?
STAN: Sometimes certain things just find a way, and this one, really, once it came together it came together really quickly and then we had a very little bit of time to get going. But once we did, Aaron was so prepared. He knew what he wanted, he was very focused, he really didn’t leave any room for error, and he couldn’t because it was only a 22-day shoot. Everything was location and it was still COVID — there were masks, people were getting tested, people were getting COVID. People are still getting COVID. But again, at the time, it was really scary because if one of us had gotten it, we would have probably had to lose days and the movie would have to be pushed and then we would be losing Renate, who had a hard out.
Renate Reinsve, Adam Pearson, and Sebastian Stan posing in an apartment in a scene from A Different Man.
There was a lot of tension around getting it made. There were many times when we didn’t make our day, and then I would be able to turn to Aaron and go, “Hey, let’s quickly get out there on the street and get a couple more shots before they send us home.” It was a really collaborative process. When you shoot on film, and the way he’s shooting where you have these long takes, everybody is involved, from the sound to the camera crew. Any cues that have to go off, there are these intricate sequences, and so then when you get them, it really does feel like you’re one with the crew, and everyone contributed to that. You feel that, especially when you’re under the gun.
When you saw the shooting schedule in front of you, what day did you have circled in terms of, “I can’t wait to film this,” and did you have any day circled in terms of, “How the F are we gonna film this?”
PEARSON: That fight scene. Oh, I lost sleep! [Laughs]
STAN: Oh, the fight scene! Yeah. Well, that was hard. The stuff in the theater was tricky because we only had three days in there. We needed to get everything, and it just had so many pieces to it. Yeah, that one’s definitely tricky.
I can’t believe you shot everything in that theater in three days.
STAN: It was about three days. It was insane. And if you look at it, a lot of those sequences in the theater are actually one-shots. Some of them are just one takes. Basically, there’s a steadicam that’s just going around.
PEARSON: They’re all oners.
Michael Shannon Makes a Surprise Cameo in ‘A Different Man’
Was there was there a day that you were incredibly excited to film something?
PEARSON: I got excited about it right before we shot it, the scene where Sebastian’s in the body cast, and me and Renate are talking. There was no name on the script. It just said “famous actor.” And so we all sat down to shoot the scene and Aaron’s like, “Adam, Adam come here.” And he goes, “This is Michael Shannon.” And I’m like, “What?”
STAN: Yeah, that was really insane. He loved Chained for Life, and he wanted to be involved. That was a special day for sure. But I wanna say all of the stuff when I was in the cast was amazing because I was getting to sit there and watch Adam go through this whole sequence where his character is doing a billion things. It was great.
PEARSON: The day when you were doing the physical therapy scene and it’s a Christmas scene. We were all wearing really heavy clothing and it’s nearly, what, 90 degrees out. It’s really hot out, the hottest day in New York in an unairconditioned apartment, and we were running into craft where the only fan is. Oh, that was a day and a half.
I don’t think people understand what really goes on on a movie set and how unglamorous it can be.
STAN: It is unglamorous in a lot of ways, but it can also be extremely fulfilling when you’re doing something like this where there’s a lot of love for it, and everyone is coming to work excited for it because they feel like they’re part of it in a way. I think about the crew a lot because sometimes on bigger stuff you have more opportunity, but I don’t know if you get the same feeling.
I completely get it. Something else I wanted to touch on is every once in a while a film like this can both entertain and educate. I feel like this film does that.
PEARSON: I would agree. It could have been really easy to make it a bit less, I don’t know, confrontational or visceral, or whatever vernacular you choose, and almost sort of varnify it slightly and do a bit more hand-holding. I’m not a big fan of hand-holding in narrative cinema. Or it could have gone the other way and been really finger-pointy and preachy and sort over-egg the pudding, if you will. But again, I don’t like changing what people think. Good cinema will change what you think for a couple of days and great cinema changes how you think for the rest of your life, and we are very much in the great cinema game.
STAN: I think this movie can do that. I think great movies manage to get you to think about something that you didn’t anticipate and are entertaining, as well, and sometimes employ humor in a very clever way. I think humor is important for difficult topics. It’s just a different way of experiencing and getting it into your body. Oftentimes, as we’re realizing, people are looking for permission to feel things now. Maybe it’s always been like that, but I feel more and more now people are looking for permission for how to think of something or how to feel a certain way about something. It’s really interesting because I think this movie hopefully gives people permission to enjoy the film, but also to have a different mindset, hopefully, walking out.
Adam, a lot of people don’t know how to talk about NF1 the right way, so what do you want people to know?
PEARSON: I’m not a big fan of policing language. I think one of the reasons these conversations don’t happen as often as they should is that we’ve become really almost overly politically correct, and when you police the language to that degree, people just won’t go there. They’ll just sit in a vow of noble silence. Ultimately, you don’t know what you don’t know. So, I think we now need to cultivate a landscape where we can have these conversations and give people permission to have a go, get it wrong, and then be lovingly corrected with humility, grace, and kindness so that they can then get to where they either need to be or want to be. That’s how we’re gonna get there. There’s no point in getting there unless we’re all gonna get there together. Conversations and even things like comedies, they’re all like really communal things, so we all need to be having these conversations with a lot more tolerance, grace, and humility than we previously have been doing. But if people have questions and you see me kicking around, just come talk to me. If me answering the same questions and having the same conversations with different people ad nauseam is what’s gonna make things easier and better and make this world a better place, then absolutely. Bring it on.
A Different Man is now playing in select theaters.