Vanity Fair The actor is headed into the most exciting stretch of his career, between A Different Man and The Apprentice.
This article is also a podcast embedded below, you can read or listen (click more to read)
Category: Press
It started with the most famous voice on the planet, the one that just won’t shut up.
Sebastian Stan, in real life, sounds very little like Donald Trump, whom he’s playing in the new film “The Apprentice.” Sure, they share a tristate accent — Stan has lived in the city for years and attended Rutgers University before launching his career — but he speaks with none of Trump’s emphasis on his own greatness. Trump dwells, Stan skitters. Trump attempts to draw topics together over lengthy stem-winders (what he recently called “the weave”), while Stan has a certain unwillingness to be pinned down, a desire to keep moving. It takes some coaxing to bring Stan, a man with the upright bearing and square jaw of a matinee idol, to speak about his own process — how hard he worked to conjure a sense Trump, and how he sought to bring out new insights about America’s most scrutinized politician.
“I think he’s a lot smarter than people want to say about him,” Stan says, “because he repeats things consistently, and he’s given you a brand.” Stan would know: He watched videos of Trump on a loop while preparing for “The Apprentice.” In the film, out on Oct. 11, Stan plays Trump as he moves from insecure, aspiring real estate developer to still insecure but established member of the New York celebrity firmament.
The Daily Beast The actor gives the performance of his career in “A Different Man.” He talks to us about the juicy new movie and the loud discourse surrounding his Trump movie “The Apprentice.”
Sebastian Stan is more than just a Marvel standout, and he proves that in phenomenal fashion with A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg’s noir-ish tale of transformation, mania, and murder.
Initially encased in facial prosthetics, Stan is extraordinary as Edward, who finds a miracle cure for his neurofibromatosis (a condition that results in disfiguring tumors), only to wind up starring in an off-Broadway play about his former life that’s written by the neighbor (Renate Reinsve) for whom he pines and which ultimately features a stranger (Adam Pearson) who looks exactly like he once did.
Charting Edward’s constantly shifting feelings about his past and present selves with agility and intensity, the actor crafts a complex portrait of desire, discomfort, confusion, and self-destruction. Like a one-man funhouse mirror, he’s a lost soul trying to lucidly see and accept himself, and Stan conveys his upheaval with equal parts poignancy, creepiness, and absurdity.
Premiering in theaters on Sept. 20, A Different Man is one of the year’s best, and further confirmation that Stan is an artist of impressive versatility. While best known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s metal-armed Winter Soldier, he’s spent his downtime from superheroics tackling a wide variety of projects, be they Craig Gillespie’s ripped-from-the-headlines I, Tonya and Pam & Tommy, Mimi Cave’s horrific thriller Fresh, or the upcoming The Apprentice, Ali Abbasi’s controversial biographical drama in which he plays a young Donald Trump.
Without much fanfare, Stan has become a bold Hollywood risk-taker, moving between blockbusters and independent productions—not to mention genres—with confidence and skill. His latest, however, is his crowning achievement to date, demonstrating not only his gift for intricate characterizations but also for comedy, which helps augment the film’s head-spinning surrealism and darkness. A performance that mutates and surprises with every whiplash plot twist, it’s a bona fide tour-de-force.
Stan isn’t done with comic-book spectaculars quite yet; Thunderbolts*, his newest Marvel assignment, arrives next summer. Nonetheless, his work in A Different Man is so tremendous that, in a just world, it would herald a future of even more daring roles. For now, however, he’s concentrating on Schimberg’s masterful feature, which he discussed with us—along with a bit about his upcoming turn as Trump—in advance of the film’s debut.
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Sure, you likely know him for his many Marvel film appearances as Bucky Barnes, but actor Sebastian Stan has often taken “the road less traveled” when it comes to his career, having built quite the unique repertoire of memorable performances in far less conventional films.
That observation has arguably never been more visible than with his involvement in the new A24 film, A Different Man. Written & directed by Aaron Schimberg and co-starring Adam Pearson and Renate Reinsve, it tells the story of Edward (Stan), an aspiring actor who undergoes a breakthrough medical procedure to transform his facial appearance, but soon regrets his decision when he becomes obsessed with reclaiming what he has lost.
I sat down with Stan, Pearson and Schimberg to uncover the origin and the creative thought process that went into this new project, which is now playing in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles – nationwide come October 4. For filmmaker Schimberg, this purposefully uncomfortable narrative and the overall project hits rather close to home.
Schimberg said, “I mean, for me, it’s sort of a personal story. I have cleft palate and it’s just sort of me thinking about how it’s affected me in my life and others’ perception of me and my perception about myself. My previous film [Chained for Life] also dealt with the subject in some ways, so that’s sort of what I am always thinking about when I am starting to write a film. I was also thinking about Adam because I had worked with him previously and he played a shy character in Chained for Life, my last film, and he’s not shy at all – and yet, people I think sort of thought that he was playing himself in my movie because they sort of assumed that he must be shy. So, I was inspired to write something that was closer to who he is – taken to a comical extreme, maybe, and I wanted him to show off his range, but I also just wanted to work with him again, so these were some of the starting points.”
Pearson, a British actor with neurofibromatosis, which is a rare genetic disorder that typically causes benign tumors of the nerves and growths in other parts of the body, went on to share what it was about A Different Man and his Oswald character that most intrigued him to want to make this his next film.
“Well, I enjoyed working with Aaron the first time, so when he said, ‘Would you consider working with me again?’ Straight away, I was like, Ding Ding! Round two – let’s rock and roll. Then the script – all the words have weight. There’s very little wasted motion in the script. The end result of the film is quite challenging and holds up a mirror to an audience. I’ve never been a fan of hand-holding or sugar-coating. I think audiences can be a lot smarter than we often give them credit for. A good film will change what you think for a couple of days, but a great film will change how you think for the rest of your life. We’re certainly trying, at least, to be in the great film business.”
With Stan not only acting in A Different Man but also an executive producer, I wondered how he has perhaps noticed his interests and priorities towards the stories that matter most to him as a professional and human being evolving as time goes on.
Stan said, “Well, you get a little older and the questions get a little scarier. A few years ago, I just decided to kind of just be a little bit more aggressive about finding specific work that was interesting and different and kind of challenging for me than what I was getting to do. Eventually, you find yourself in conversations that are in the development of certain things and that might lead to a producing kind of aspect. I think in this [A Different Man] situation, I was involved before A24 came on, which never really happens for me. Not only because of obviously how I felt about the story and so on, I felt really brought in by Aaron and [producer] Vanessa [McDonnell] into their journey with this film and like what they were wanting to do. So, I felt a much bigger attachment than I usually do as an actor in a way.”
When it came time to film A Different Man, Stan recalls the production not having much time, which he actually found to be helpful within his producer role “because when you’re involved in some capacity beyond acting, sometimes you can kind of go, Hey, let’s continue shooting or something. You can help add more to the making of it in some capacity and that was big for us, given our time – that we didn’t have a lot of time.”
In fact, during one particular scene in the film, Stan remembers while everybody else was wrapping up the production trucks for the night, he decided to head out on the streets of New York City with his A Different Man director of photography Wyatt Garfield and Schimberg to grab additional footage. “I just kind of took one of his other little cameras and then we started going up and down Columbus Avenue. It was Friday night and we just got all these shots. Maybe you don’t always get to do that, so that was helpful.”
As I began to conclude my conversation with these three gentlemen, I wondered what Pearson and Stan would say to their A Different Man characters, Oswald and Edward, after seeing their stories play out on-screen and understanding their wants out of life.
Pearson said, “I’d be like to Oswald, Maybe turn it down a little bit. Be nicer to [Stan’s character Edward] because he might not say it, but he loves you and he needs you right now.”
As for the message Stan would tell Edward, he said, “Listen to me! I’m here – I’m telling you. I don’t know how I feel about this. Just hear me out.”
He then added: “It’s very interesting because we all have these moments in life, big or small, where you make a decision or you even say something because you’re with other people or you’re supposed to say something the right way, but you know your reaction in the moment or the decision you’re making is not what your gut is like really telling you. Then, you feel kind of like you’ve abandoned yourself, but then you just quickly deny that – that can kind of like spiral down. We’ve all kind of not owned certain things in the moment and that’s sort of what happens. He kind of drowns out that voice.”
At the tender age of 5, Mike Marino saw “The Elephant Man” for the first time and his life was forever changed. When David Lynch’s haunting and heartbreaking story of the disfigured John Merrick would air on HBO in the early 1980s, Marino found himself horrified but unable to look away, sparking a fascination with prosthetics that would eventually lead him to becoming one of Hollywood’s top makeup artists.
“I was so afraid of it, but little did I know how beautiful that story was and how much of an imprint it would leave on my brain and soul,” says Marino, 47, who earned consecutive Oscar nominations in 2022 and 2023 for his makeup work on “Coming 2 America” and “The Batman,” the latter starring a totally transformed Colin Farrell. “If it wasn’t for that film, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.”
But for actor, TV presenter and disability rights advocate Adam Pearson, Lynch’s film took on a more painful role in his life. Growing up in England with neurofibromatosis type 1, a rare genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on his face, Pearson was often taunted by classmates who cruelly called him “Elephant Man” and other names. As he got older, he saw how movies routinely depicted people with disfigurements as freaks, villains or victims, stripping away their humanity. “There’s an element of laziness to it,” says Pearson, 39. “How do we show this character is evil? Let’s slap a scar on them.”
Now, through a twist of fate, the lives of Marino and Pearson have intersected on a very different project: the darkly funny, mind-bending psychological thriller “A Different Man.” Directed by Aaron Schimberg, the A24 film stars Sebastian Stan as Edward, a shy, disfigured actor working in New York City who undergoes an experimental procedure to transform his appearance, only to find himself losing the role he was born to play — himself — to a cheerful, outgoing man named Oswald with his same facial deformity, played by Pearson. Renate Reinsve (“The Worst Person in the World”) co-stars as a playwright whose latest work brings Edward’s identity crisis to a head.
“A Different Man,” which The Times called “a self-deconstructing meta-pretzel of a dark comedy” following its debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, tackles complex themes of identity, beauty and disability with a blend of Charlie Kaufman-esque surrealism and David Cronenbergian body horror. Along with Stan’s performance, Marino’s meticulously crafted prosthetics are key to bringing Edward and his inner agonies to life, reflecting the deeper emotional anguish of a man trying to escape his own skin.
“The movie portrays how the shell of who we are should not dictate our spirit and our personality,” Marino says. “I think it’s a very important film, much like ‘The Elephant Man’ was.”
When Schimberg first wrote the script, inspired by his own struggles with a cleft palate and his experience working with Pearson on his 2019 satire “Chained for Life,” he initially had no idea how he would actually pull off the film’s demanding prosthetics work. “I was sort of blissfully ignorant,” says Schimberg. “After Sebastian came aboard, we started cobbling the film together very quickly. It was only about a month before shooting that I realized this film was going to completely fall apart if we didn’t get this right. It was very down to the wire.”
Signing on as an executive producer for the film, Stan asked around about makeup artists in the New York area who could handle such a difficult job under that kind of time pressure. One answer consistently came back: “Literally everyone, hands down, was like, ‘You’ve got to get Marino,’ ” the actor recalls.
Though he was already busy with a job on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Marino, who has done his share of more fantastical creatures, leapt at the challenge of re-creating a real-life disfigurement like Pearson’s. “I’m fascinated with people that have something going on with their skin because it’s just the most interesting, artistic, natural thing,” Marino says. “For me, there’s an amazing beauty to how Adam looks. This was not about a scary face or a monstrous person. I don’t like to do things like that with no soul or purpose.”
Marino’s passion for makeup and prosthetics took root early in life, inspired by industry legends like Dick Smith (“The Exorcist”) and Rick Baker (“An American Werewolf in London”). Growing up in New York, Marino started honing his skills as a preteen by practicing on his friends with latex, foam and various chemicals, destroying his bedroom rug in the process, to the chagrin of his parents. While still in high school, he mailed his portfolio to Smith and received encouragement and advice by phone from the makeup legend, who won an Oscar in 1985 for “Amadeus” and earned an honorary Academy Award for his life’s work in 2012. “Once he acknowledged me, it was like, OK, this is serious. There was no stopping me.”
After cutting his teeth on “Saturday Night Live” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Marino broke into film with the 2007 psychological thriller “Anamorph” and quickly became known for his versatility, seamlessly switching between fantasy creatures and more subtle, realistic applications. His work on Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” amplified the film’s psychological horror, while on Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” he enhanced the film’s digital de-aging of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino with carefully crafted prosthetics.
Outside of film, Marino created the Weeknd’s plastic-surgery-gone-wrong look for the singer’s “Save Your Tears” video. “It’s all problems to solve,” Marino says. “There is no playbook.”
Diving into “A Different Man,” Marino used photographs and 3D scans of Pearson’s face, which has undergone some 40 surgeries over the years, as the basis for a multi-piece silicone prosthetic that would work with Stan’s features. “There was no way I could completely replicate Adam’s exact proportions,” he says. “I had to make some aesthetic choices.”
While the makeup work in “The Elephant Man” benefited from that film’s grainy black-and-white cinematography, the prosthetics in “A Different Man” had to withstand more unforgiving scrutiny. To put his Edward face to the test, Stan would walk from Marino’s makeup chair to the set through the streets of New York and crowds of strangers, giving him tremendous insight into how people treat those who look different.
“I went to my old coffee shop and the same barista who’d served me for years couldn’t identify me,” Stan recalls. “I got to really feel people’s reactions in real time. There were people who couldn’t even look at me, other people were staring and sometimes you’d get a bigger reaction, like, ‘Oh s—, it’s the Elephant Man!’ As Adam puts it, you feel like public property.”
Pearson, who shares his character’s sunny gregariousness, encouraged Stan to think about it like he does with his own experience as a movie star. “I was like, ‘You don’t know the level of invasion I get with people pointing, staring and taking photos, but you do understand a very similar thing from this angle, so lean into that heavily,’ ” he says. “ ‘And if it makes you uncomfortable, lean into it further.’ ”
While wearing the prosthetics, Stan could only see out of one eye and had limited hearing in one ear, challenges that helped further inform his performance as a man who has learned to shy away from potential threats and insults. “Edward is a character that has had to endure a lot of emotional abuse and probably some physical abuse, so he is probably always on his left foot a little bit in case something happens,” Stan says.
As Edward’s face changes following his radical treatment, Marino made additional prosthetics showing the transition, including an “extremely soft, mushy version” that, in a particularly Cronenbergian scene, Stan could pull off in chunks.
Marino’s talent for transforming stars is on full display in Farrell’s hulking, thuggish look as the Penguin in 2022’s “The Batman” and the new HBO spinoff series. “When Colin saw the sculpture I made, ideas started exploding,” Marino says. “Once we did a makeup test, it was magical — he knew how to speak, how to walk and he was already the guy.”
Marino, who is preparing to make his directorial debut based on a script he wrote set in the 1980s (“It’s deliberately not effects-heavy,” he hints), has lost none of his passion for the transformative power of latex and silicone since the days he was obsessively poring through issues of Cinefex magazine as a teenager. “If you think of Michelangelo showing beauty 500 years ago in painting and sculpture, I’m still showing that same beauty but in this new hyper-realistic way, in silicone,” says Marino, who named his makeup effects studio Prosthetic Renaissance. “It’s a very unique art. It’s like moving sculptures and paintings all at once.”
As for Pearson, if he were offered an experimental treatment to change his face, like in “A Different Man,” he says he wouldn’t take it. Despite the challenges it has brought him, Pearson believes his face has shaped the life he leads today.
“I joke with my friends that my disability does a lot of heavy lifting for my appalling personality,” he says with a laugh. “Everyone thinks it’s hard to go from non-disabled to disabled but I think the other way around would be even harder. The path we walk and the struggles we go through make us who we are and they’re inseparable from one another.”
Vogue France – From Gossip Girl to Marvel Studios, to more independent productions: Sebastian Stan’s career has been a roller coaster ride. During his visit to the Deauville American Film Festival, Vogue put the actor, who at 42 years old won a Revelation Award.
On October 9, Sebastian Stan be will Donald Trump in The Apprentice . Some know him for his role as Carter Baizen in Gossip Girl . Others, for that of the Winter Soldier in Marvel productions. But recently, the American actor, of Romanian origin, has ventured into more independent fiction, which sheds a new light on his career. At the Deauville American Film Festival , he came to present A Different Man by Aaron Schimberg , in which he plays Edward, a young disabled actor decides who to change his appearance to, he believes at the time, improve his life. On the contrary, this transformation marks the beginning of his fall. An antagonistic role such as he has long played on our screens, and which he continues in The Apprentice , presented in May 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival , and directed by filmmaker Ali Abbasi . So many elements that made us want to talk with the 42-year-old actor during his visit to Normandy , where he was awarded the Revelation Prize. As proof of the new direction taken in his career, today considered by the proponents of European cinema, possibly, let’s confess, more snobbish than their American compatriots.
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Continuing the photos from yesterday here are the photos from the France Premiere and Rising Star Award Ceremony there are 159 photos so far in both gallery albums. Thank you to Sandra for her assistance once again. There are 105 new photos today total. For the first two posts containing over 65+ photos from the photocall along with videos of the award ceremony and red carpet arrival click here: Post I, Post II
Public Appearances > 2024 > 09/09/24 – “A Different Man” Premiere – 50th Deauville American Film Festival(72 new)
Public Appearances > 2024 > 09/09/24 – Rising Star Award Ceremony – 50th Deauville American Film Festival (33 new)
Public Appearances > 2024 > 09/09/24 – Rising Star Award Ceremony – 50th Deauville American Film Festival (33 new)
Continuing the photos from today here are the photos from the France Premiere and Rising Star Award Ceremony there are 47 photos so far in both gallery albums. Thank you to Sandra for her assistance once again. More may be added later. For the first post containing over 65+ photos from the photocall along with videos of the award ceremony and red carpet arrival click here: Post I
Public Appearances > 2024 > 09/09/24 – “A Different Man” Premiere – 50th Deauville American Film Festival
Public Appearances > 2024 > 09/09/24 – Rising Star Award Ceremony – 50th Deauville American Film Festival
Public Appearances > 2024 > 09/09/24 – Rising Star Award Ceremony – 50th Deauville American Film Festival
Morning! Sebastian, Adam Pearson, and Aaron Schimberg are in France today for the 50th Deauville American Film Festival I’ve added 70 photos to the gallery from the ‘A Different Man’ photocall. Thank you to Sandra for her assistance once again. I’ve also added video of Sebastian on the Red Carpet doing an interview and recieving his award. You can check out the screencaps below as well.
For post II with premiere and ceremony photos click here: Post II
Public Appearances > 2024 > 09/09/24 – 50th Deauville American Film Festival – Photocall
Web Videos > 2024 > ‘A Different Man’ Press Tour > Festival du Cinéma Américain de Deauville – Red Carpet & Interview [Screen Captures]
Web Videos > 2024 > ‘A Different Man’ Press Tour > Festival du Cinéma Américain de Deauville – Rising Star Award Ceremony [Screen Captures]
Web Videos > 2024 > ‘A Different Man’ Press Tour > Festival du Cinéma Américain de Deauville – Red Carpet & Interview [Screen Captures]
Web Videos > 2024 > ‘A Different Man’ Press Tour > Festival du Cinéma Américain de Deauville – Rising Star Award Ceremony [Screen Captures]
