Category: Articles

Mar

Press: Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan | Because Nothing Tastes as Good as a Great Date on the Town

Flaunt — Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan | Because Nothing Tastes as Good as a Great Date on the Town.

Ever had a bad dinner date? It’s not the law of attraction—rather the law of averages—that ensures anyone putting themselves out there on the love-seeking scene today will encounter their fair share of whackjobs, weirdos, and ghosts. But no dating disaster you’ve been through could be worse than what befalls the characters in gripping new Rom-Com/ Horror film, Fresh (Hulu). Starring young British actor Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) and seasoned leading man Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I, Tonya, The Martian), Fresh begins by exploring the dynamics of the contemporary dating world… before crossing the boundaries of… taste…

Stan plays Steve, a handsome, single doctor who accidentally (but we realize later, of course, on purpose) strikes up a conversation with Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Noa in the produce aisle. It’s all so natural. They exchange numbers. He texts her. They go on a date. It’s a good date. Since they met IRL and not through an impersonal app interface, they skip a few steps and quickly get intimate. Noa’s best friend, Mollie, (played with verve by Jojo T. Gibbs) finds Steve’s lack of digital presence disturbing, but enjoying the love-buzz, Noa throws herself into her exciting new romance.

But Noa’s soon to find out—the very hard way—that behind this charming facade, ‘Steve’—a pseudonym—is really quite something else. Instead of the sophisticated getaway he promises her, she’s face to face with primal fears, and her sweet, sensitive lover is revealed to be a mix of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and American Psycho, prone to Patrick Bateman-style musical interludes as he … well, that would be giving it all away. Suffice to say, in classic horror movie style, trapped in a mysterious house in the woods, Noa has to find a way to get out… And Fresh—directed by Mimi Cave, written by Lauryn Kahn, and produced by Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up, The Big Short, Vice)—is the clever, knowing, and full of suspense result.

Flaunt caught up with Daisy and Sebastian in London about Fresh, cuisine, and how they found a friendship in the midst of horror.

So how is London treating you?

SS: I think it’s been good, it’s only been 24 hours now since we’ve been here. But it’s been good—the rain is here, of course. A nice, cloudy, rainy day.

DEJ: I love it when it’s rainy in London— it’s my favorite! It’s so, you know, romantic and lovely when it rains.

Daisy, you are of course a born and bred London girl. It must be nice to be home. But you’ve lived in London before, haven’t you, Sebastian?

SS: Yeah! I was in London In 2003, when I did a year at the Globe Theatre; my college, Rutgers University, had a program at the Globe, so that was the first time I was here. In 2010, I basically lived here for a year do- ing Captain America: The First Avenger, and then I was in and out of London. And then in 2019, then the pandemic, and I lived here for another six months doing another project. So, I really do like it here.

Oh, so you’re basically a local with all of that experience.

SS: Almost.

DEJ: Practically a Londoner. He still hasn’t had a Sunday roast, though. That, to me, is shocking.

In all those years?

SS: I didn’t even know what that was—because usually Sundays, I keep to myself.

Right.

SS: And I was always in the hotel room crying.

Well, hopefully, you’ll have more than 24 hours on this trip, and it will include a Sunday. And a roast… So, sticking with the food theme, the subject at hand is your fantastic new film, Fresh, which I keep reading as “Flesh.” Is that just me?

DEJ: No, it’s not just you, actually, we’ve had a couple of people go, ‘I’m really excited to see Flesh!’ Well, you will see flesh in Fresh… perhaps not in the best way.

So, to Fresh. I watched it yesterday, and to be honest, I’m still kind of a bit traumatized. What was it like to work together on what is, let’s say, a very strange, post-modern ‘romance’?

SS: I guess it was bittersweet in some ways, right, because we had such a good time shooting it. We weirdly shot it chronologically, in the sense that we started it from the beginning of the story, and then… We were having so much fun kind of doing the scenes and finding the banter and the spontaneity of it, that we were always dreading the second half of the film coming at us. But we managed to keep going. Continue reading

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Published by Samantha

Published on Mar 23, 2022

Articles Fresh I Tonya Interviews Pam & Tommy Photos Press

Mar

Press: Sebastian Stan Opens Up About ‘Pam & Tommy,’ ‘Fresh,’ and ’90s Rom-Coms

lofficielusa.com — Sebastian Stan Opens Up About ‘Pam & Tommy,’ ‘Fresh,’ and ’90s Rom-Coms. In conversation with his former costar Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan shines a light on how he gets into character both physically and mentally, from roles like rock legend Tommy Lee to a charming psychopath in Fresh.

Sebastian Stan has lived many lives. From his breakout role as disgraced prep-school bad-boy Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl to Marvel’s Bucky Barnes, Stan has largely managed to fly under the radar. That is, until now. Starring as Mötley Cru?e drummer Tommy Lee in the hit Hulu series Pam and Tommy has planted Stan squarely in the spotlight. The miniseries, which also stars Lily James as Pamela Anderson, follows the untold story of the infamous sex tape seen ‘round the world, which was stolen and leaked during the wild early days of the Internet.

His latest role sees Stan explore the horrors of modern dating in Hulu release Fresh, where he stars alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones as Steve, a seemingly nice guy who is not at all what he seems. “The movie explores the idea of this hero complex, which fucks up all our relationships with each other; the idea that there’s a knight in shining armor that’s gonna come and save the day,” Stan says. “I’ve certainly fallen into the trap of wanting to be that strong guy who isn’t going to be vulnerable.”

Exclusively for L’OFFICIEL, Stan speaks with friend and former costar Margot Robbie about transforming himself for a role, on-set chemistry, and his favorite rom-coms.

— Sabrina Abbas

MARGOT ROBBIE: I’m gonna start way back at the beginning, when you were conceived—no, I’m joking, not that far. We physically met during the chemistry read for I, Tonya, but I had seen your tape before. I don’t know if I’ve told you this, but I didn’t recognize you at all. I think you were wearing a turtleneck and you may have even grown the ‘stache. I remember being like, “Wow, this actor is so good, who is this guy? He’s going to be such a find.” And then I looked you up and I was like, “Holy shit, it’s the hot guy from Gossip Girl and those Marvel movies!” Since then, I feel like you just keep transforming. I wanted to ask you about the more physical transformation, particularly when it comes to Pam and Tommy and Fresh. Is that something you find helpful?

SEBASTIAN STAN: I feel like the physical stuff always helps us, right? Because I’m such a self-conscious person with regard to my “Sebastianisms.” Having to morph into something that’s not really you is scary, but it stops me from judging myself.

MR: Do you wanna know a Sebastianism that I’ve noticed? You cover half your face with your hand when you laugh. I love it.

SS: [Laughs.] Yeah, I do do that. That’s also my favorite emoji, by the way.

MR: But I totally get what you’re saying. I feel like the less I look like myself and the less I sound like myself, the more separate I am from the character. That being said, what drives you to make the choices that you make? Even if I hadn’t worked with you, and I didn’t know you, I know I would be a fan of yours because of the risky characters you play and the projects you sign onto with so many first or second-time directors.

SS: This line of work takes a lot out of you, so I think it’s about finding something that you can really sink your teeth into so that you can justify the sacrifices you make. It’s funny, but a lot of the answers to these questions go back to I, Tonya. That experience honestly raised the bar for me. Between you and [the director] Craig Gillespie and the great script and amazing team—it was the first experience I had where I witnessed filmmaking as a machine. Working with you was a lightning bolt moment for me, because I realized I was at my best opposite strong women. I’ve gotten to work with Jessica Chastain and Julianne Moore and Lily James, and I feel like that’s my lane.

MR: It sounds like just a nice thing to say, but I’m only as good as the actors that I work with. When we did the I, Tonya chemistry reads, I tried not to get my hopes up about anyone in particular, but with you, one minute in and I was like, This is it! Did you get to do chemistry reads for Pam and Tommy or for Fresh? Or did you just get lucky and happen to have great chemistry with both costars?

SS: I didn’t. The script in Fresh had these ridiculous dance sequences, so I sent [the director] Mimi Cave this video of me in the kitchen—I took this huge steak knife and just started dancing to ‘80s music. So she saw that, and I guess that did it. Daisy Edgar-Jones had signed on to the project, and I knew, having seen her work, that she would be somebody that would anchor this thing and lead it in the right direction. I had never met Lily James before Pam and Tommy, not until Craig had Lily and me over to his house and he was like, “What’s up guys? Should we rehearse?”

MR: Fresh is so good. I’m actually a little bit glad that we’re doing this over Zoom because I’d be genuinely terrified to be in a room with you right now. I completely lost my head watching it, to be honest; it’s so brilliant and so fucked up.

SS: We were really lucky because everyone was very open to what Daisy and I wanted to do; we didn’t want to fall into anything gimmicky. It starts out like a romantic comedy, and you’re supposed to see that there’s a potential between the main characters, but the truth is this guy is sort of obsessed with her. That scene to me, where Daisy’s character wakes up strapped to his bed and is realizing what’s going on, everything shifts. You see her go from, Wait a minute, is this really happening? To, Oh, my God, it is happening. She grounds the movie from then on. We’ve been raised with this narrative that you’re going to meet someone who will instantly open up and understand you, and then you’ll be together for the rest of your lives. The movie’s a little bit of a commentary on that—how you fall for somebody because you’re starved for real connection, but is that person really who they say they are? Maybe we need to step back for a second and go, okay, I feel an intense thing here but let me just suss it out before—
Continue reading

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Published by Samantha

Published on Mar 22, 2022

Articles Interviews Pam & Tommy Photos Press

Jan

Press: ‘Pam & Tommy’ Stars Sebastian Stan, Lily James on Justice for Pamela Anderson, Internet Infamy and That Wild Talking Penis

Variety.com –Lily James and Sebastian Stan spent months working together on the set of Hulu’s “Pam & Tommy.” Yet when they recently reunited for a photo session it was a bit jarring to both actors.

“I barely met Sebastian out of Tommy Lee, and he barely met me out of my Pamela Anderson,” James says. “It was really surreal to do even the Variety shoot. We were like, ‘Oh, hey, so that’s what you look like!’”

That’s a testament to the amount of work James and Stan put into studying and emulating the real-life characteristics of Anderson and Lee — and just how well the production’s hair, makeup and wardrobe crews perfected their physical transformation. The look is so spot-on that when Hulu released the first photos of the “Pam & Tommy” stars in May, it quickly went viral on social media. “I was blown away,” Stan says. “The hair and makeup team deserve all the accolades that they can get.”

Of course, there’s a bit of irony to “Pam & Tommy” breaking the internet. In the series, which premieres Feb. 2, James and Stan play the “Baywatch” star and Mötley Crüe drummer as the couple meet, fall in love and then make a private recording that is ultimately stolen — becoming the first infamous viral video of a burgeoning online age.

The tape was shared and played at parties like it was contraband. Dubbed VHS copies spread across the world, as it was sold and traded on the then-brand-new World Wide Web. It later inspired a whole cottage industry of celebrity sex tapes, most of which were purposely leaked — unlike this one.

“I remember hearing about it as if it was like a Yeti,” says “Pam & Tommy” executive producer D.V. DeVincentis. “Like, you couldn’t necessarily assume it was true. It definitely had this sort of aura of a rumor, and something apocryphal. And then finally somebody put it in front of me and I saw it.”

And yet, there remain many misconceptions about what really happened, and who was really to blame. Over time, the actual story of the tape’s theft and how it victimized both Anderson and Lee — but at very different levels — has been lost to the memory of late-night punchlines and sophomoric snickering.

For the stars, producers and directors of “Pam & Tommy,” there was a sense that they were on a mission to correct that record — and in particular, perhaps find a little recompense for Anderson. “Pam & Tommy” is really three stories in one: a heist thriller retracing how the tape fell into the hands of a disgruntled construction worker; an unconventional love story about two celebrities whose relationship became more public than they ever could have imagined; and a societal critique on how the media, the justice system and the public all failed Pamela Anderson.

“It’s an important story, I think, from being able to understand what the impact of that media tornado really was,” says Stan. “For them as a couple but particularly for her as a woman. I can’t imagine what having a private home video stolen from you — how that wouldn’t impact a newlywed couple.”

“Pam & Tommy” is adapted from a 2014 Rolling Stone article by Amanda Chicago Lewis that finally told the true, although somewhat unbelievable, story of how the tape went public. Lewis managed to locate and extensively interview the man who pilfered the tape, Rand Gauthier — played in the series by Seth Rogen (who also executive produces) — and he revealed the implausible tale.

Gauthier, whose father memorably played Robin Hood in “When Things Were Rotten,” was an electrician working inside Lee’s Malibu estate until the rock star fired him and his team without pay. According to the article, when Gauthier returned to pick up his tools, Lee waved a shotgun in his face and refused to let him retrieve those items. That’s when the handyman, bent on revenge, hatched a preposterous scheme: He’d sneak onto the estate by wearing a fur rug over his back to make it look like the couple’s dog, then steal a safe hidden in their garage and drive it away in a rented U-Haul.

Somehow, the plan worked. Gauthier took the safe up into the mountains and found expensive watches, jewelry and guns — plus a mysterious Hi8 videocassette. After watching the tape, Gauthier, who had dabbled in adult films, figured he’d profit off his findings. He partnered with porn-producer pal Milton “Uncle Miltie” Ingley (played by Nick Offerman in “Pam & Tommy”) to find a buyer. Continue reading

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Published by Samantha

Published on Jan 19, 2022

Articles Fresh Press

Jan

News: Searchlight Pictures Picks Up Thriller ‘Fresh’ Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones & Sebastian Stan Ahead Of Sundance Premiere

Deadline.com — Searchlight Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to Legendary Entertainment’s thriller Fresh, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) and Sebastian Stan (Pam & Tommy), ahead of its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival slated for next week. The first feature from director Mimi Cave will stream exclusively across Disney’s platforms, debuting on Hulu in the U.S. on March 4, with a Latin American premiere on Star+ and a Disney+ unveiling in all other territories to take later this spring.

Fresh follows Noa (Edgar-Jones), who meets the alluring Steve (Stan) at a grocery store and—given her frustration with dating apps—takes a chance and gives him her number. After their first date, Noa is smitten and accepts Steve’s invitation to a romantic weekend getaway, only to find that her new paramour has been hiding some unusual appetites.

Read more about the pick up @ Deadline.com

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Published by Carol

Published on Jan 13, 2022

Articles Interviews Pam & Tommy Press

Jan

Press: Sebastian Stan Talks ‘Really Wild’ Process of Transforming Into Tommy Lee for ‘Pam & Tommy’

ETOnline.com — A lot of hard work goes into a true cinematic transformation. However, Sebastian Stan and Lily James managed to truly pull it off by becoming Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson.

Stan and James set the internet on fire when the first photos of them as the rocker and the actress — in the upcoming biopic drama Pam & Tommy — were released, and Stan is giving all the credit to where it’s due: the geniuses in the hair and make-up department.

“We had the very best hair and makeup team we could’ve asked for and they just killed it,” Stan recently told ET’s Nischelle Turner while sitting down for a press junket for his upcoming action thriller The 355. “They deserve whatever awards that are given. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

According to Stan, getting the look right to play the circa-1995 Mötley Crüe rocker was “a crazy process.”

“I think it took two hours for myself and then three hours for Lily almost every morning,” he recalled. “Then you pile that on to a 12-hour day and it just definitely gets interesting by the end.”

The first look at Stan and James in costume were released in May, and many fans couldn’t believe how much the two actors looked like and embodied their real-life counterparts.

In fact, Stan says the transformations were so flawless, he essentially didn’t really even know what Lily James actually looked like until the project was finished.

“It’s really wild, with Lily, because the first time I saw her as herself was actually at the end of the shoot five months later,” he said, “and I was like, ‘Who are you?’ That’s when we actually formally met.”

Pam & Tommy premieres with the first three episodes on Wednesday, Feb. 2, with new episodes streaming weekly on Hulu.

However, fans will first see Stan on screen in The 355, starring alongside Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger and Fan Bingbing. The 355 hit theaters Jan. 7.

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Published by Carol

Published on Jan 09, 2022

Articles Interviews Press The 355

Jan

Press: Sebastian Stan on ‘The 355,’ His Next Appearance in the MCU, and Why He’ll Always Love the Three-Way Fight in ‘Captain America: Civil War’

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.

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Published by Carol

Published on Jan 09, 2022

Articles Interviews Press The 355 The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

Jan

News/Press: Sebastian Stan Talks ‘The 355’ with ScreenRant

This is a movie that I want to be a fly on the wall during the filming process. If you could relive any moment you have with the cast either onset or offset, what moment would that be?

Sebastian Stan: I would probably pick that whole month of July in Paris, filming. I think that was one of the most memorable experiences I ever had. It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world and also, it was a great summer and it was pre-pandemic. There was just a different energy. We were shooting in all these really exotic locations and not on a green screen and able to improvise and riff off of things, and everybody was supportive of that. So I’ll do July in Paris in 2019.

Diane said the exact same thing. She said there was a moment that you guys were eating at brunch or something and all the guys were eating salads and water because they had to take their shirts off the next day.

Sebastian Stan: That’s true, Edgar and I were very concerned about what that would eventually look like. But yeah, you don’t want to do any diet in Paris. That’s not the place for that. But yeah, I think this was one of those experiences where everybody really did get along, and we would somehow shoot what we needed to shoot and never really go over. And then we would sometimes go to a restaurant, and kind of sit outside, and it’s in Europe, and think about the day we had. So yeah, it’s pretty special in that regard.

I’m really hoping we get season two of Falcon and Winter Soldier. But just curious, like, what do you want next for Bucky? Because that was such a wonderful arc that we got with him.

Sebastian Stan: I agree. I mean, we did and I’m not the one to be able to tell you what the next best thing for him is. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I feel that it was nice to get him to a good place, and having kind of, sort of come back around to accepting himself and his past, and find his own place in the world now, and his own sense of family and values. So, we’ll see what’s gonna top that off. I don’t know.

We’re kicking off the year with The 355 and this is the time where we’re trying to kind of lock-in our New Year’s resolutions. Do you have one? Do you make New Year’s resolutions?

Sebastian Stan: I don’t you know. I feel like I don’t and maybe I should more than not. But I thought I would just be more present. That’s sort of what I’ve been fighting hard to do. I think we’re living in the world that we’re living in with technology and everything happening so quickly. I think it’s hard to do that. I think we all got to find our moments of stillness, whatever that may be for people.

Source: screenrant.com

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Published by Carol

Published on Jan 09, 2022

Articles Pam & Tommy Photos Press TV Videos

Jan

News: Lily James’ Pamela Anderson and Sebastian Stan’s Tommy Lee Face Scandal in ‘Pam & Tommy’ Trailer

people.com — PEOPLE exclusively premieres the official trailer for Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, which chronicles the fallout after Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape was leaked.

Hulu’s Pam & Tommy is almost here.

PEOPLE has the exclusive first look at the new official trailer for the upcoming eight-episode series, premiering on Feb. 2. The show will tell Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s love story, as well as that of their infamous leaked sex tape and the scandal that followed. Lily James and Sebastian Stan star as Anderson and Lee.

The trailer shows a disgruntled former employee of the famous couple, Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen), and his friend Uncle Miltie (Nick Offerman), stealing and watching the sex tape Anderson and Lee made on their honeymoon in 1995.

“This is so private, it’s like we’re seeing something we’re not supposed to be seeing,” Miltie says.

When they try to sell it though, Andrew Dice Clay’s Butchie tells the pair: “Nobody’s ever getting rich off a celebrity sex tape.”

Later, Gauthier suggests, “What if we sold it someplace nobody could find us? A website!”

“A what site?” his partner in crime replies.

Gauthier and Miltie’s scheme begins working. Anderson discovers the leaked tape while on the Baywatch set, wearing her iconic red swimsuit, of course.

Amid her panic, Lee doesn’t grasp the gravity of the situation. “You don’t seem to understand what a big deal this is,” Anderson says.

“I’m on that tape just the same as you,” the Mötley Crüe drummer responds, to which she says: “But this is worse for me.”

Anderson, now 54, married Lee, now 59, on a beach in Mexico in 1995 after dating for just four days. They would go on to welcome sons, Brandon, 24, and Dylan, 23, before divorcing in 1998.

Sue Naegle, one of the producers, and DV DeVincentis, who co-wrote the show with Robert Siegel, tell PEOPLE about how Pam & Tommy felt particularly relevant today and why a limited series was the best way to execute their vision.

“Having lived through that time in our culture, it seemed like a good moment to reexamine what happened to Pam and Tommy in 1995 through a 2022 lens,” Naegle says. “There was so much happening with the birth of the internet and this tape really shaped celebrity culture and the invasive paparazzi we know today. The story has so many moving parts, it needed to be told in a series.”

DeVincentis adds, “For one thing, the story is certainly too complex and sprawling to be told in the timeframe of a feature film. This story is so meaningful and powerful to revisit 25 years later because of how Pamela Anderson was misrepresented, misunderstood and underestimated. And it sort of rhymes with what so many women still go through, if not publicly then privately. For me, the instinct to reexamine what happened to her, retell and reframe it, was similar to what pulled me toward Marcia Clark in the OJ Simpson story. Both Pam and Marcia were targeted unfairly, harassed as they defended themselves, then left adversely redefined when the news cycle moves on.”

Technology has changed so much since 1995, especially with social media and how information is spread online. Continue reading

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Published by Samantha

Published on Jan 05, 2022

Articles Interviews Photos Press The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

Mar

Press/Photos: Sebastian to British GQ “Race, identity, patriotism… This is Marvel’s most relevant show yet”

GQ-Magazine.co.uk — Even as our backsides became numb and our eyes mere bloodshot arrow slits, at the very end of Avengers: Endgame, Sebastian Stan (as Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier) stayed true to form, keeping stoic and, largely, shtum.

While Anthony Mackie, in the role of Sam Wilson/The Falcon, was handed Captain America’s famous vibranium frisbee by a very wrinkly but very happy Chris Evans – thus becoming, for now, the MCU’s next Cap’ – all the dewy-eyed audience got from our favourite, oft-scowling tough guy was a modest nod of approval. No air punch. Not so much as a celebratory grunt. Stan as The Winter Soldier is nothing if not the very strong, very silent type.

Today, reminiscing freely about that last scene he had to play in Marvel’s multibillion-dollar-shifting Infinity Saga – Thanos defeated, Hulk with a sore hand, Tony Stark (*sob*) deceased, multiverse opened and unhinged – Stan explains how the germ of an idea for their new spinoff, The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, now streaming on Disney+, began to take shape. “This wasn’t something long planned, not at all,” he says, laughing, when I suggest super-producer Kevin Feige – Marvel’s boardroom-based end-of-level boss – may well have had Mackie and Stan’s on-screen partnership in the pipeline for years.

“Maybe Kevin did, but he didn’t tell me about it. But once Anthony and I realised these changes were taking place to the storyline in Endgame, in particular to the story of Captain America, I think both of us sort of looked at one another and thought, ‘Well, we’re still here! We’re not dead! So, what happens to us now?’”

Naturally, almost unflinchingly, Marvel’s “not-so-random successful movie generator” had a decent answer: “This show is a revival, in spirit at least, of some of those buddy comedies that were so popular in the 1980s.” Think Lethal Weapon – just with more capes and a bigger pyro budget.

“Anthony and I both get a kick out of working together; we always have a lot of fun. Also, this show is six hour-long episodes, which gives us a lot more to play with than a two-hour film. ‘Buddy’ walked out of that last film with an identity crisis, so there’s a lot to dive into.”

Stan pauses momentarily, chuckling to himself. He stares off camera to his left, something he does sporadically throughout our chat, like he needs a horizon in order to contemplate certain answers. We’re Zooming, natch, he in Vancouver shooting Fresh with Daisy Edgar-Jones – who was kind enough to take these photographs of Stan, exclusively for British GQ – and me in darkest North London nursing a Heineken 0.0.

Stan lifts a flat cap, scrapes back a full hand of jet-black hair. Although his accent rolls in deep and direct from New York City, the actor was in fact born in communist Romania, where he witnessed his parents struggle through the revolution. He spent time in Vienna too, before emigrating to the States with his mother aged 12.

“Actually, now we’ve got these longer scenes together, there’s a lot more dialogue between us.” You make it sound like that is a problem, I say. “Well, in a way it’s the bit that worried me the most. Not as an actor, per se, but as a fan of the character.” How come? “Well, Winter Soldier and Falcon have worked together best when they’ve had little to say to one another. We’re good at quips. So, now, what are they going to say to one another?”

This sounds somewhat trivial but Winter Soldier’s entire thing – as the man who has walked, run and generally caused mayhem in his boots since 2011 knows only too well – is a very nonchalant, 1950s sort of sullenness. “He’s been silent for, well, almost all the movies and that’s what made him cool. He was cool because he didn’t open his mouth, a sort of less-is-more, brainwashed assassin.

“For this show I had to find his voice, in all senses, and do it in a way that was timely to what is going on in 2021.” Timely, how so? Stan is emphatic: “Look, you can’t do a show that explores the title of Captain America without touching on some of the stuff we have seen on the news. In fact, I would argue this is Marvel’s most relevant show yet.” Continue reading

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Published by Carol

Published on Mar 20, 2021

Articles Interviews Press The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Videos

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Press/Photos: How ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ confronts the legacy of America’s hero

EW.com — It was March 2014 when the cast of Captain America: The Winter Soldier assembled in London for the U.K. leg of their international press tour. For some, namely Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson, this wasn’t their first rodeo with Marvel Studios. They knew their talking points and how to regale reporters at the press conference by swapping war stories and feeding off each other’s energy. Sebastian Stan, only on his second outing in the franchise, was more reserved. He offered warm smiles and laughed along with the group’s jokes, but kept his own responses somewhat brief. When asked about any on-set injuries that might have incurred, he said. “I honestly wouldn’t feel anything until I was in the car on the way home, when I couldn’t get out of the seat. But I’m sure we hurt each other.”

On his left, Anthony Mackie chimed in. “You didn’t hurt me,” he said in a soft, almost amorous tone as they locked eyes. This made the audience chuckle. Stan livened up, volleying back what Mackie served. “You?! This is the first time I’m seeing you,” he joked.

Mackie had inadvertently solved a small problem for the Disney publicists managing that tour. “They were worried that I didn’t talk a lot. I get very uncomfortable,” Stan admits to EW, Zooming in from Vancouver for a chat with his New Orleans-based costar this past January. “They’re like, ‘Just put him in with Anthony, okay? They’re going to talk.’ And I was talking!” he says. “By the end, I was very lively, and it really is thanks to him.”

Mackie agrees. “I’m the ketchup to Sebastian’s French fries.”

Stan can’t help but smile. “Way to put a button on it, and then some!”

Whatever the special sauce, it’s this playful dynamic between the actors that made Marvel want to center them in their own event series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Premiering this Friday on Disney+ following the successful debut of WandaVision, the show sees Captain America’s two best mates — wise-cracking pararescue Sam Wilson (Mackie) and genetically enhanced super-soldier from World War II Bucky Barnes (Stan) — stomach each other long enough to face a global crisis involving a masked militia group and one Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl), the big bad from 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. As it happens, head writer Malcolm Spellman points to a scene from that film as “the moment this show was born.” Fans know it well: a cramped Bucky in the back of an old Volkswagen Beetle asking Sam, “Can you move your seat up?” Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, also looks to the duo’s battle with Spider-Man later in Civil War, which offered an opportunity for more banter. “They’re so funny,” Feige says. “Those are the two moments that we [at Marvel Studios] would watch and go, ‘I want to watch that! I want to watch them together more!'”

As production ramped up on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in Atlanta in October 2019, Stan needed reminding of that rapport. Again, he credits Mackie. “I think he had a much better handle on the temperature of the show than I did, because there are times where I was so scared and really trying to find the truth of everything,” Stan says. “He had to pull me back and be like, ‘Yo, just remember we’re going to have some fun, too!'” And that’s the show in a nutshell: a buddy comedy thrown in the middle of a high-stakes international thriller.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was once meant to be Marvel’s first Disney+ series out the gate, a show of force in the TV space from the masterminds behind one of the most successful Hollywood franchises in history. Though a scheduling shuffle and a production delay due to COVID-19 now has this premiering after WandaVision, the course for the six-episode hourlong series — as well as the entire Phase 4 slate — remains the same. The show is meant to set up what the world of the MCU looks like after the events of Avengers: Endgame. More specifically, it establishes what it looks like without Captain America. Steve Rogers (Evans), aged from his time-traveling adventures, chose Sam as his successor at the end of Endgame, but the Falcon notably remarks that the shield feels “like it’s someone else’s.” For Spellman, as a Black man, this was the essence of what he wanted the show to become.

“The idea of creating a series that features an African American superhero, and how he responded to that [moment], sparked a million ideas,” he says. It’s the thought “of exploring a decidedly Black, decidedly American hero in the current climate.”

“The show is very honest and forthright and very unapologetic about dealing with the truth of what it means to be American, Captain America, Black Captain America — and if that’s even a thing,” Mackie elaborates. “I think picking up from where we left off at the end of Endgame, the show progresses extremely well by asking those questions and really explaining why Sam said the shield feels like it belongs to someone else.”

Mackie doesn’t believe there is “a defacto Captain America figure” here. At least, not in the beginning. “I think the more important thing is, how do we now define the Falcon and the Winter Soldier? When you’ve been defined so long as an Avenger or a superhero, when you’re not that anymore, what are you?”

Marvel executive producer Nate Moore and co-executive producer Zoie Nagelhout met with multiple writers in search of a lead for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Spellman, who wrote 2010’s Our Family Wedding and episodes of Fox’s Empire, rose to the top of the list. He had “one foot in what would be required for a fun action series,” Feige says, “but also, being a Black man working in this industry, [he had] very specific points of view that are required to tell the type of story we wanted to tell for, specifically, Sam Wilson.”

The mandate, Spellman recalls of pitching the show, was “this cannot be TV.” Instead, he decided with director Kari Skogland and the writers’ room to make each episode “feel like an event, not just as far as the spectacle on the screen, but the way you tell the story.” Skogland says, “Everybody went into this saying we’re making a six-hour feature. We’ll break it up so ultimately it will look like television, but it will feel like a six-hour feature.” Feige did note on the virtual Television Critics Association press tour in February that these “shows are not inexpensive. The per-episode cost is very high.”

Mackie had some reservations, let’s say, about this approach when he met separately with Marvel months after Endgame. “I was horrified,” he says of “being a guinea pig for the first [TV] spin-off of a Marvel movie.” He continues, “You’re in this amazing franchise and everything works. The last thing you want to do is be the lead of the first thing that does not work, ’cause that’s 100 percent you. I don’t want to be the guy that destroys an entire Marvel franchise.”

He felt a bit more at ease when Feige caught up with him before the start of filming. “I won’t let you suck,” he promised his star. But it was watching the finished episodes and what Marvel did with WandaVision that boosted Mackie’s confidence. Now, the actor feels like “Marvel has revolutionized the game of cinema” by bringing “the scope and magnitude” of the big screen to the small one. “If Kevin says it won’t be s—, I would bank on that,” he says. Continue reading

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Published by Carol

Published on Mar 16, 2021