Category: Interviews
Jan
14
You definitely know Sebastian Stan. The 29-year-old rising star turned in memorable TV performances on Once Upon a Time, Gossip Girl and Political Animals, and he’s graced the movie screen in hits like Black Swan and Captain America. On top of that, Stan is an accomplished theater actor, having appeared on Broadway in 2007 in the Tony-nominated revival of Talk Radio. Nowadays he’s heating up the stage as a handsome, troubled drifter in Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of Picnic. Broadway.com chatted with Stan about learning lessons from Ellen Burstyn, growing up in theater and finding what it takes to make it on Broadway.
You play a classic “bad boy” in Picnic. What drew you to the role of Hal?
When I was studying acting at Rutgers, I was obsessed with actors from the ‘50s. I wanted to emulate them, the Montgomery Clifts and James Deans of the world. Everything they did seemed so iconic and so romantic in some broken, terrible way. And this play is, at first glance, an opportunity to explore that world. The challenge was to make that real.You and Maggie Grace just ooze chemistry. Did that come naturally?
I would say so. Maggie’s incredibly sweet, very generous and there’s a very open communicative relationship between the two of us about what it is that we need to do every night. I can say the same about the rest of the group. I feel very lucky that it’s a welcoming, warm, friendly group. You don’t always get that.Do you see yourself as the sexy, shirtless type?
[Laughs.] Don’t we all try and think of ourselves like that at some point in time?You grew up doing theater, and you went to [the famous summer camp] Stagedoor Manor. Would you describe yourself as a “theater kid”?
Oh, for sure! I went to a tiny, tiny high school where kids weren’t competing with each other for a part in the musical because there weren’t enough people. It was Stagedoor Manor that advanced what I thought doing theater was—the process, the rehearsal, the costumes and what goes on backstage and everybody’s part in it.What is it about theater that you fell in love with?
There’s something very arousing about having an immediate response from people, right then and there. Theater really is much more of an actor’s medium because you’re in control of the editing of what the audience is going to see. You’re the one making those choices. There isn’t somebody else up there cutting the moment together for you.You’re also gearing up to play the amped-up role of Bucky Barnes in Captain America: Winter Soldier. Excited?
I’m completely excited to venture down that path. This is why January 1, 2013, was a glorious day to wake up to [laughs]. I’m very grateful and very lucky for what’s going on right now. I think you have to allow yourself to be excited about the magnitude of something like [Captain America].
Check out Sebastian’s entire interview over at BROADWAY.COM
Entering stage left: The best abs on Broadway.
The well-tended washboard belongs to Sebastian Stan, who plays Hal Carter in William Inge’s 1953 drama, “Picnic.”
Hal is the horndog drifter who wears his ripe, ever-ready sexuality on his sleeve.
When he’s got sleeves, that is.
Hal spends much of the first act without a shirt.
“It’s so important to the story,” says Stan, when asked about all the beefcake. “It’s about a small town in the ’50s and the repression.”
The role of Hal required the 29-year-old actor, who got hooked on theater growing up in Rockland County, to get in the shape of his life.
“The job presented a nice opportunity to push myself in a big way,” says Stan. “I’ve always been fit, but have never been to this point.”
He credits help from trainers Don Saladino and Ryan Johnson at Drive495 in SoHo for whipping him into shape.
The workout regimen included a mix of high-intensity cardio, weight training, plenty of shuteye and an eating plan that centers mostly on lean protein. Picnic fare, like potato salad swimming in mayo, wasn’t on the menu.
“I eat eight times a day,” says Stan. “Between the time the play ends and I take a bow, I down a protein drink.”
Saladino, who specializes in getting actors ready for a role, applauds Stan’s “unbelievable” dedication.“When Sebastian took his shirt off,” he says, “he wanted people’s mouths to drop open.”
Or their eyes to pop out. And that includes the elderly woman played by Ellen Burstyn. She and other characters stare at the half-naked Hal like a starving lioness eyeing a hobbled antelope.
Whispers of approval have been heard in the audience too.
The actor takes it in stride. “It’s fun,” he says. “I’m lucky that this is part of my work.”
Stan’s role as Hal wraps on Feb. 24, when the show ends its run at the American Airlines Theatre. He starts filming the sequel to “Captain America” in April. And he says his workouts will go on. “I told my trainers that they’re stuck with me for life.”