Variety – Sebastian Stan Pushes Back After Reporter Uses the Word ‘Beast’ to Describe ‘A Different Man’ Character With Facial Disfigurement: ‘I Have to Call You Out’

Sebastian Stan corrected a journalist at the Berlin Film Festival press conference for his new film, the psychological thriller “A Different Man,” when they used insensitive language to describe a character with facial disfigurement.

The film follows Edward (Stan), who, after undergoing facial surgery, becomes fixated on another man playing him in a stage production based on his former life. In the first act of the movie, Stan wears heavy makeup to portray a character with a facial disfigurement, and after the surgery, his face returns to its typical look.

At Friday’s press conference, a journalist asked, “What do you think happens after the transformation from this so-called beast, as they call him, to this perfect man?”

“I have to call you out a little bit on the choice of words there, because I think part of why the film is important is because we often don’t have the right vocabulary,” Stan responded. “I think it’s a little bit more complex than that, and obviously there are language barriers, but you know, ‘beast’ isn’t the word. And I think, ultimately, it’s just interesting to hear this word because I think that’s one of the things the film is saying — we have these preconceived ideas and we’re not really educated on how to understand this experience in particular.”

“That’s one of the things I love about the movie,” he continued. “He’s offering you a way to look at it, and hopefully, if you can have the same objective point of view while you’re experiencing the film, maybe you can kind of pick apart the initial instincts that you have, and maybe those aren’t always the right ones.”

Following its Sundance premiere, “A Different Man” is set to debut in competition at Berlin Film Festival on Friday night. Directed by Aaron Schimberg, the film also stars Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson.

The film was well-received at Sundance, where the audience was left laughing and gasping at the film’s twists and turns. Variety‘s Peter Debruge wrote in his review that the film “asks what it means to be ‘normal,’ and whether, if we could wave a magic wand and ‘correct’ those same aberrant qualities which set us apart, that’s really something we’d want.”

Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis, spoke at the Sundance premiere about how he was able to find common ground with Stan while discussing their characters.

“This was the hook that we gave to Sebastian,” he said. “‘You don’t know what it’s like to have a disfigurement, but you do know what it’s like to not have privacy and to have your life constantly invaded. You become public property.’”

Entertainment Weekly – “The only people that really were the most honest were kids,” he said of the “limited” interactions.

Sebastian Stan had an enlightening experience walking around the streets of New York in facial prosthetics for A Different Man.

In director Aaron Schimberg’s upcoming psychological thriller about identity and obsession, Stan plays Edward, an actor who undergoes major facial reconstructive surgery to transform his disfigured appearance. When another actor who has the same features as his former self (Adam Pearson) is cast as him in a stage production based on his life, Edward becomes fixated on him.

Following the film’s premiere at Sundance over the weekend, Stan took the stage with costars Pearson, Renate Reinsve, and director Schimberg to share the “limited” reactions he experienced while wearing his prosthetics around town, noting that the “only people that really were the most honest were kids.”
Adam Pearson and Sebastian Stan attend the “A Different Man” Premiere during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theatre on January 21, 2024 in Park City, Utah.
Adam Pearson and Sebastian Stan at the Sundance premiere of ‘A Different Man’.

“It was really interesting and sort of scary to see how limited the interaction is,” Stan observed. “It just really is limited between two extremes, which is either [people] won’t address it, or overcompensation. The only people that really were the most honest were kids.”

Recounting one interaction with a little girl, “Her mom was just being a parent and trying to do the right thing, but in doing the right thing, she was actually preventing the little girl from just simply having an experience,” Stan said. “She was just being inquisitive, and she was brave and courageous and that’s kids, right? It’s like they just want to know. They don’t have judgment. It was a learning lesson for me, really.”

Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis, inspired the film after having worked with Schimberg in 2018’s Chained for Life. The actor said of finding common ground with Stan, “This was the hook that we gave to Sebastian: you don’t know what it’s like to have a disfigurement, but you do know what it’s like to not have privacy and to have your life constantly invaded,” Pearson said. “You become public property.’”

In conversation with Variety at the festival, Stan said he spent between 1.5 and 2 hours in the makeup chair with Mike Marino, the prosthetic artist behind his transformation, calling him a “great” collaborator. Of that time spent on the chair, “Any time you have a bit of time to reflect on the day is good,” Stan said, noting that they filmed for just 22 days.

THR – The Marvel star toplines Aaron Schimberg’s “psychological thriller” as an aspiring actor who undergoes a radical procedure to drastically transform his appearance.

The Sundance Film Festival on Sunday night hosted the world premiere of Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man starring Sebastian Stan, Adam Pearson and The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve in her first American film.

Stan toplines the A24 release as an aspiring actor, Edward, who undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. But a new face turns into a nightmare when it causes him to lose a dream role he was born to play when the playwright/object of his affections, Reinsve, replaces him with someone who looks nearly identical to his former self, Pearson, a man with a disfigured face.

As for Pearson, he lives with neurofibromatosis (type 1), a rare genetic condition that causes excess body tissue to grow predominantly on his face. The condition fuels the plot of A Different Man and the actor, Pearson, actually inspired the film after having worked with Schimberg on his most recent film, 2018’s Chained for Life. That indie explored similar themes as A Different Man as it centered on a beautiful actress who struggled to connect with a disfigured costar (Pearson) on the set of a European filmmaker’s English-language debut.

In Chained for Life, “he plays a shy, kind of quiet person more based on myself, and I felt that for that reason, his performance was a little underrated because people thought he was playing himself,” Schimberg explained during the post screening Q&A. “And if you know Adam, he’s quite gregarious so I wanted to show off his range and show something that was a little more inspired by him.”

Amusingly enough, Schimberg’s official Sundance bio states that “he made two commercial disastrous features, but the second one, Chained for Life, was well-received by critics.” It’s true and backed up by a 100 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Hollywood Reporter’s called it “bizarre and beautiful,” the New York Times’ Ben Kenigsberg wrote that the “film is odd, darkly funny and — when it means to be — a little frightening.” (A Different Man is sure to inspire some creative ink. The Hollywood Reporter’s Jordan Mintzer called it “provocative.”)

In the official Sundance literature, A Different Man is described as both “a surreal, singular tale” and “a unique psychological thriller.” Schimberg directed from his own script and Christine Vachon, Vanessa McDonnell and Gabriel Mayers produced.

Backing up a bit, Schimberg explained how he encountered the actor in the first place by seeing his feature film debut as “the deformed man” in Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin. The 2013 critically acclaimed film, which made the rounds at film festivals including Telluride, Venice and Toronto, stars Stan’s MCU colleague Scarlett Johansson.

“Aaron first got in touch with me regarding Chained for Life. Under the Skin had come out stateside and had done quite well by all accounts,” Pearson detailed. “Then he went to see Under the Skin and saw me and he said, your words not mine, ‘acting circles around Scarlett Johansson.’”

The quip got laughs from the Eccles Theater audience, and from costars Stan and Reinsve. When it came time for the pair to field questions, Stan also looked back on his career to explain why he took on the role in A Different Man.

“I, Tonya, for me, was a very big moment in my realization of things, in terms of what I thought I wanted the process of this experience to be,” he said of Craig Gillespie’s 2017 film starring Margot Robbie and Oscar winner Allison Janney. “Ever since then, I’ve really tried my best to make it a point to seek out filmmakers that I feel like have visions and are not afraid to ask difficult questions and are really specific. They know what they want, they’re after something specific, whatever it may be. And that’s how I felt about Aaron when I read this.”

Though Stan achieved global fame thanks to a Marvel run in the Avengers as Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier, he has regularly investigated more challenging arthouse fare in such films as I’m Not Here, Destroyer and Endings, Beginnings. He also played a cannibal killer in Fresh and earned raves as Tommy Lee in Pam & Tommy. He next stars as a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice as well as Thunderbolts.

Stan said when his “great agent,” CAA’s Shauna Perlman, sent him Schimberg’s script, he was immediately blown away. “You can all see how great the writing is. It’s unbelievable,” praised the actor. “Obviously, it was something that doesn’t usually come my way.” Stan said he reached out to the filmmaker and “kind of courted him and fortunately he said yes.”

He went a step further and suggested who should play the female lead. “I told [Aaron], did you watch Worst Person in the World? And he said, yes. And I was like, OK, we got to get her.” Reinsve in turn received the script and had questions. “I was, like, what is this? But it was so much heart and it was so weird and it was so fun and I’m still shocked from seeing it again, those scenes,” said the actress who also has another film at Sundance this year with Handling the Undead. “It is my first American or international movie. I’m very proud that it’s this one.”

Stan, who wears extensive prosthetics created by Renaissance Prosthetics throughout the first chunk of the film, also revealed that he wore his disguise while walking around New York where they filmed. “It was really interesting and sort of scary to see how limited the interaction is,” he said. “It just really is limited between two extremes, which is either [people] won’t address it, or overcompensation. The only people that really were the most honest were kids.”

He continued by offering an anecdote of an encounter with a little girl and a protective mother. “Her mom was just being a parent and trying to do the right thing, but in doing the right thing, she was actually preventing the little girl from just simply having an experience. She was just being inquisitive, and she was brave and courageous and that’s kids, right? It’s like they just want to know. They don’t have judgment. It was a learning lesson for me, really.”