Sebastian recorded an appearance on Variety’s Award Circuit Podcast – for the article and audio click Variety – Awards Circut Podcast – Article/Audio.
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Note: You can find the screencaps of the video version of the podcast (on spotify) here: Variety – Awards Circut Podcast [Screen Captures]
When Sebastian Stan greets you, there’s an earnest warmth in his voice that makes you forget, even for a moment, the intensity of the roles he’s embodied this past year. The 41-year-old actor is riding high on a wave of critical acclaim for his two vastly different but equally daring performances in “The Apprentice” and “A Different Man,” which earned him double Golden Globe nominations — a feat last achieved by Ryan Gosling in 2016.
This past year, Stan has proven, yet again, why he’s one of the most transformative actors working today. From donning prosthetics and exploring themes of self-acceptance in “A Different Man” to stepping into the psyche of one of the most polarizing figures in modern history for “The Apprentice,” Stan’s ability to disappear into a role is matched only by his determination to tell complicated stories, no matter the fallout.
If “A Different Man” was a personal exploration, “The Apprentice” was a social experiment. Directed by Ali Abbasi, the film is a biographical character study of a young Donald Trump, focusing on his formative years and the traits that would eventually define his presidency. For Stan, stepping into Trump’s skin was not just an artistic challenge but a minefield of public and industry scrutiny.
“This film has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Stan tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast. “Not just because of the complexities of playing Trump, but because of the reaction it provokes.”
From the controversy surrounding its financier to the polarized reception tied to its release during an election year, “The Apprentice’s” journey to the screen was riddled with obstacles.
Stan is refreshingly candid about the hesitance he faced within Hollywood, both during the film’s production and in its aftermath. “I had people telling me not to do it,” he recalls. “They said it might alienate people, that I didn’t look like him, that it was too dangerous. But for me, acting is about going toward the uncomfortable… about trying to understand humanity, even in the darkest places.”
He carefully clarifies that “The Apprentice” isn’t about sympathizing with Trump but understanding him. “I think people interpret understanding as an attempt to sympathize, and that’s not the goal here. The film asks: would you trust this man? Would you put your life in his hands?”
Stan’s deep dive into Trump’s psyche revealed something even darker than he anticipated. “He’s given people permission to lose their humanity — to behave in ways they wouldn’t have before. And that’s what scares me the most,” Stan says. “The opposite of love isn’t hate — it’s indifference. And I worry about the indifference we’re seeing now.”
The backlash surrounding “The Apprentice” extended even to Stan’s professional relationships. When invited to participate in Variety’s Actors on Actors series, organizers struggled to find actors willing to pair with him due to his portrayal of Trump. Stan calls it a disappointing but unsurprising moment, emblematic of the discomfort many in Hollywood feel about engaging with the film publicly.
“It’s been revealing to see how hesitant people are,” Stan says. “I’ve had people come up to me at parties, saying it’s their favorite film of the year, but when it comes to supporting it publicly, there’s silence. That part of it has been tough.”
Still, there have been bright spots. People like Paul Walter Hauser, Stan’s “I, Tonya” co-star and friend, posted publicly on social media offering to partner with him for the Actors on Actors segment. That support did not go unnoticed by Stan. “That was awesome,” Stan says with a laugh. “Paul’s someone I’ve always admired, and moments like that remind me of the camaraderie that still exists in this industry.”
With “A Different Man” and “The Apprentice” firmly establishing Stan as a fearless actor, he’s looking ahead to new challenges. He’s currently developing a film adaptation of Ed Brubaker’s graphic novel “Reckless” and working on a project with celebrated filmmaker Cristian Mungiu.
And then there’s Marvel, of course. Stan is set to reprise his role as Bucky Barnes in the upcoming “Thunderbolts.” Describing the film as a misfit-driven story in the vein of “The Breakfast Club,” Stan hints at the humor and camaraderie fans can expect. “It’s a weird group thrown together, and I think people are going to love it,” he teases.
Regarding if he’ll appear in the upcoming “Captain America” sequel: “[Filming] ‘Thunderbolts*’, let me tell you, it was a much quieter year for me because I didn’t see Anthony Mackie. So, I’ll say that. Although I miss Anthony Mackie like daily, and it’s something I don’t like to admit.”
But for now, Stan is embracing the quieter moments. Speaking before the holidays, he was focused on trying to carve out time for family and last-minute gift shopping. “I’m usually pretty good with presents,” he says with a grin. “But this year, it’s been a little out of mind. I’ll put a day aside and figure it out on the fly.”
Little did he know during this conversation that a surprise win at the Golden Globes for “A Different Man” would be in his future. And it was well deserved.
Also on this episode, the Roundtable talks about this year’s Golden Globe Awards winners and what it means for the upcoming Oscar race.
Even if he tried, Sebastian Stan couldn’t have avoided thinking about getting not one but two Golden Globe nominations. The actor, who received bids for A Different Man and The Apprentice, was at a screening for the former the night before the announcement.
“People were just like, ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow,’” he recalls on this week’s episode of Awards Magnet. “It was a very surreal experience, but I was I was very grateful to obviously even be there once. And particularly with The Apprentice, it was even maybe more surprising because I just never know what to expect with that one.”
Stan is nominated for Best Comedy/Musical Actor for his turn as an aspiring actor with neurofibromatosis in A Different Man — for which he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival — and for Best Drama Actor for playing a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice. He’s the first actor to score nominations in these categories since Ryan Gosling achieved it in 2012 with Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Ides of March.
While Aaron Schimberg‘s A Different Man, which Stan filmed in 2022, was delayed because of the Hollywood strikes, The Apprentice, which also netted a supporting actor bid for Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, faced an even steeper uphill battle from the beginning. The project had been in development for years before finally going into production a year ago. Detractors felt it’s too soon for a Trump film, especially in an election year. Despite getting good reviews at the Cannes Film Festival, the film, directed by Ali Abbasi, struggled to find a distributor as Trump’s team threatened legal action before Briarcliff Entertainment stepped up.
“I feel like Ali Abbasi — kind of the way he shot it and the way he’s made the film – it’s really kind of maybe the best version of what that film could have been, given all of the circumstances and the subject matter and everything,” Stan says. “So, even like both of us [nominated] was a big gratifying moment, obviously, because I feel so connected with him.”
Last month, Stan went viral after he revealed during a Q&A that he was unable to participate in our sister site Variety’s Actors on Actors because publicists did not want their clients to discuss Trump. Stan says he brought up “the Variety thing” in the Q&A to make a larger point about fear, adding that multiple distributors loved The Apprentice but were reluctant to pick it up.
“I guess there’s always been fear around movies … but this time it sort of feels obviously more raw because it’s all happening in real time. This movie is not a film that waited 10 years when we all got good and comfortable to look at [and question] choices we’ve made,” he says. “We’re being challenged to not be indifferent in a time where, for survival — mental and emotional — we’re leaning towards being indifferent. I think that’s the difficulty around it. And what we’ve been trying to talk about was that regardless of your point of view of the subject or him or whatever, or how you grew up or where you’re from, there is still the benefit of having an experience with a movie, which is what a movie is supposed to do. … You can go and have your own experience with this person for two hours, and there is an instinct there that you may have as a human being that will override whatever else.”
Earlier this month, the actor shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that Steven Spielberg told him at the Governors Awards that he loved his performances in both films. “Other people, other actors” have expressed love and admiration for The Apprentice specifically in private to Stan, and he hopes nominations from the Golden Globes and the Independent Spirit Awards will give people “permission to just acknowledge the movie publicly.”
“Not only do we feel like it turned out the best it could have happened with what we were dealing with circumstantially, but then it does get validated when you get text messages and emails that your agents are forwarding you from people you’ve grown up with admiring that are like, ‘Hey, I just want to tell you this is my favorite thing I’ve seen,’” he says. “I don’t know if this will, in 10 years’ time, as we’ve had a moment in a distance to kind of look at it again, maybe it will be considered, but I do feel it will be talked about.”
“Art is supposed to highlight the things that we can’t always communicate. It’s supposed to go deeper on an instinctive level. For us to understand the values that we’re upholding—the virtues, morality, grace, depth, empathy… we have to know what the opposites are. Part of what The Apprentice is about is that a lot of what we feel about people is our own projection of that. When we’re handed circumstances to view a person differently, you will see the thing that you’re supposed to see.”
-Sebastian Stan, episode 397 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Actor Sebastian Stan has built a career out of shapeshifting.
This week, he joins us to discuss the process of transforming into Donald J. Trump in The Apprentice (8:27), his personal relationship to the American dream (15:35), and the extensive research that went into recreating 1970s-1980s New York City in the film (17:27). Then, we unpack Sebastian’s Romanian upbringing (29:00), the gift of his unconventional, nomadic childhood (34:40), and what the film represents in this post-Election moment (38:30).
On the back-half, we talk about the impact of the late director Jonathan Demme (50:45), Stan’s radical and stunning work in A Different Man (55:08), what both of his new films reveal about reality (59:14), and what the silencing of The Apprentice—and his Actors on Actors shutout—reveals about the entertainment industry (1:00:00). To close, a reflection about control and how Sebastian embraces everyday life (1:17:55).
Show-notes:
Watch Sebastian’s latest performances in The Apprentice and A Different Man.
See selections of his previous work: Pam & Tommy, Fresh, I, Tonya, Logan Lucky, The Martian, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Rachel Getting Married.
Congrats to Sebastian on his double nominations for ‘A Different Man’ + ‘The Apprentice’. You can view the announcement below.
THR – In front of an audience at the Miami Film Festival’s GEMS event, the star of two of 2024’s most widely discussed and debated films reflected on his life and career.
Sebastian Stan, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, which was recorded in front of an audience at the Miami Film Festival GEMS event last week, is one of the top young actors in Hollywood. Though he’s only 42, he has been acting on screens big and small for more than 20 years. He has been a part of giant blockbusters (he plays Bucky Barnes in Marvel’s superhero movies) and prestige projects (I, Tonya on film and Pam & Tommy on TV). And he has received Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics Choice award noms. But he has never had a year as big as his 2024.
This year, Stan is in the running for a best actor Oscar nomination for not one but two performances: as Edward, an aspiring actor afflicted with the craniofacial condition neurofibromatosis who undergoes groundbreaking facial reconstructive surgery, in Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man, for which he was awarded the Berlin International Film Festival’s best actor prize; and as Donald Trump, a young businessman in the 1970s and 1980s learning the ropes from, and then abandoning, his mentor, Roy Cohn, in Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice.
Over the course of our conversation, Stan, who was born in Romania, reflects on coming to America with his mother at the age of 12 and discussing the American dream; breaking in to the business on TV’s Gossip Girl, in the 2007 Broadway production of Talk Radio and in Jonathan Demme’s 2008 film Rachel Getting Married; big auditions that didn’t pan out, including one for the part of Captain America, which led to him being cast as Bucky Barnes; what he learned acting opposite the likes of Margot Robbie, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep; how he came to and navigated the two tricky parts he played in 2024 films; what led him to the conclusion that Trump is a danger to America; plus more.
Sebastian was a guest on Off the Menu podcast click below to listen.
The MCU’s Winter Solider – and star of ‘A Different Man” and ‘The Apprentice’ – Sebastian Stan is this week’s dream diner. But we better watch out, he might prank us. Trigger warning: this episode contains some chat about dieting. Sebastian stars in ‘A Different Man’ which is in cinemas now. He also stars in ‘The Apprentice’ which is in cinemas now.
Follow Sebastian on Instagram @imsebastianstan