Note: Jen from Sebastian Stan Fan on Instagram credits another fan for giving her the full interview in the caption and I’ve embeded it to give proper credit . Her original post on the Sebastian Stan Fan Instagram is here if you wish to view it directly.
For the past two years we’ve been waiting for small details about Sebastian’s upcoming film The Last Full Measure that was filmed in 2017 and where portrays the role of Scott Huffman. The film was written and directed by Todd Robinson and also stars Christopher Plummer, William Hurt, Ed Harris, Samuel L. Jackson.
There was a lot of silence on the “when will it release” front for the better half of a year now but it seems everything has been figured out. We now have an official trailer, production stills and a release date which you will find in this post.
If you don’t know what the film is about, don’t worry! Here is the official synopsis below:
The true story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger, a USAF Pararescue medic who saved over sixty men in the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division before making the ultimate sacrifice in one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Thirty-two years later, Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman investigates a decades-long Congressional Medal of Honor request for Pitsenbarger and uncovers a high-level conspiracy prompting him to put his career on the line to seek justice for the fallen airman.
On September 9th, Sebastian made his long awaited appearance on the red carpet of one of his latest films, Endings, Beginnings alongside his co-stars Shailene Woodley and Jamie Dornan at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada.
While in attendance Sebastian greeted fans with warm smiles, posed for photos for both fans and the press in addition to discussing the film in some new interviews. You will find all over 50+ high quality photos from the event and their gallery links displayed below, along with a YouTube Playlist of all the interviews from the event posted so far.
Refinery29.com — In a world full of rom-coms, when was the last time you cried over an onscreen breakup that actually stuck? No grand gestures to save the day, just pure, raw, lust and heartbreak. If you want to get so deep in your feels you forget if you’re actually heartbroken or just bleary-eyed over someone else’s love story, then you may need to subscribe to the church of Drake Doremus.
The director is known for his mostly improvised, chill-inducing romantic dramas (Like Crazy, Newness, Equals) and his latest is a tender-to-the-touch look at a modern love triangle in Endings, Beginnings, which premieres Sunday at Toronto Film Festival. Much like his previous work, Endings, Beginnings is clever and cutting, but also soft and quiet. Shailene Woodley is at the heart of the film playing Daphne, a thirty-something artist (her specialty is hand-painted tea pots, which she sells on Etsy) who recently and abruptly quit her job and ended her long-term relationship with her boyfriend (Matthew Gray Gubler, in his third Doremus film).
Looking for a hard reset on life, Daphne moves into the pool house of her much more together older half-sister. She also stops drinking, focuses on looking for a new job, and cuts men out of her life. Until, of course, she meets two men at a New Year’s Party. One’s brooding, asking her for a light of a cigarette in the most drunken and charming of ways. He’s wearing a shearling jacket, worn-in with adventures. The other’s in LA’s version of a suit — he’s put together, and looks at her with the steady intentness. Daphne should be avoiding both, but she quickly becomes enamored with bad boy Frank (Sebastian Stan), a nomad who drinks absinthe, and good boy Jack (Jamie Dornan), an academic who has a dog and dreams of moving to Europe. What starts as innocent text-flirting evolves into two full-blown relationships. Oh, and the guys are best friends.
When Stan first read for the film, he read for both Frank and Jack’s role, but what really attracted him to the heady rom-dram was Dormeus himself, of whom he’s been a huge fan. “I met him and I said, ‘I gotta tell you, I don’t know which one of these people you are seeing me as, but I really relate to both of them. I love both,’” he says over the phone to Refinery29. Stan’s in London where he’s filming the spy-thriller 355, a movie he says is “stylistically and tonally very different,” than Endings, Beginnings, but with “a couple of similarities here and there.”
“And we just got very deep. We got into relationships and being in our 30s and the world we are in right now, and all our experiences.” The vulnerability seen on-screen between Woodley, Stan, and Dornan is something special, and almost entirely improvised, based on just 80 pages of notes. Endings, Beginnings is a far cry from the big budget Marvel movies you’re used to seeing Stan in (he plays Captain America’s pal Bucky Barnes in seven Marvel movies and one upcoming spin-off series.)
It’s those real adult experiences and emotions that come through in the film, along with the clever text message visualizations that pop up between the three romantic leads, that make this film both timely and nostalgic. Ahead, Stan talks about the vulnerability of improv, being type-cast as a “bad boy,” and the weird, but totally plausible, idea of him appearing in the Gossip Girl reboot.
This interview contains mild spoilers for Endings, Beginnings.
I was reading your Instagram post earlier gushing about working on this film with Drake. When did you become a fan of his, and why did you two think Frank was the role for you?
“I was aware of [Drake] for awhile. Like everyone else, I loved Like, Crazy, and then I also like his recent movie with Nicholas Hoult, Equals. I was also just really interested in doing a movie and improvising — because the entire movie is practically improvised. I never worked in that medium before. I got a call saying, Hey do you want to meet with Drake and talk about this movie [and] read the draft?, which was basically like 80 pages. There were two guy [parts] at the time. I met him and I said, ‘I gotta tell you, I don’t know which one of these people you are seeing me as, but I really relate to both of them. I love both.’ And we just got very deep. We got into relationships and being in our 30s and the world we are in right now, and all our experiences. Again, I didn’t really know that is where we were gonna go, but he was very honest with me and I was honest with him. We parted ways, and the next thing I knew he called me to have a session with somebody at the time that he was thinking of for the role as Daphne, and I went in and had a 3-hour improv session with him, then he called me and told me that he wants me to do the Frank role and I was fine with that.”
Only 80 pages. Everything else is improv? All the film’s dialogue?
“Yes, that is all literally on the day, in the moment, happening real-time. Basically, the script that he had was just the outline: Daphne comes out a recent relationship and moves in with her best friends. They’re having a New Years Party, and she runs into Frank who asks her for a cigarette. It was all outlines, but in terms of the dialogue and how we would get there, that was all improvised. That was an interesting experience because I had never worked that way and no take is ever the same. I walked away from that experience feeling very vulnerable. You’re not hiding behind any lines.”
The improvisation really added to the film. I left it feeling more emotional than I expected.
“We’ve all had relationships, and we know how tricky they are. They’re complex and there’s many layers. I don’t know — I have always loved romantic comedies. I grew up on When Harry Met Sally and all that, but I sometimes feel that relationships aren’t entirely depicted as messy and as raw and as painful as they are. That’s why I loved working with him because I feel like he gets to the core of situations. I’m happy to hear you related to it because that is what he wants. He wants you to go, ‘I’ve had that conversation…been in that situation.’”
There’s been a resurgence in romantic comedies, but not so much romantic dramas like this. Do you think there’s a reason why?
“I love romantic comedies and there is a space for them, but [rom coms] are hopeful. Sometimes when I go to the movies, I don’t want to necessarily see what my life is. I want to be like, Hey! It’s nice to think that maybe that could be that way. If you want to be inspired, or laugh a little bit — there’s that element of it. And sometimes you want to see a movie that makes you feel less alone in your experience. A lot of European films are much closer to this, and I think Drake loves a lot of European films and is influenced by them and the personal quality. Structurally in romantic comedies, you have bigger things happening, right? Whereas [in this movie], there are big things happening, but there’s a much more subtle transition through everything.”
Frank is the “player” of the film, while Jack is the “good guy,” for lack of a better phrase. You’ve said before that you didn’t really know why you were often cast as the “bad boy.” Do you still not know why?
“I don’t know! [Groans] I don’t know. The truth is, the reason I was saying [I could play] Jack was that I talk a lot in my life. I philosophize a lot. I try to read things. Then I think about it, and then I wanna talk about it. I relate to that [aspect of Jack]. And actually, there was a lot to Frank and Daphne that we shot that was funny. They had a lot of their own back and forth, but what ended up being in the movie — I think Drake never forgot the vision that he had for Frank — [was him] being much darker than we shot. I am happy it ended up that way because there needed to be a contrast.
But I don’t know! I am glad they think I can do this. I am one of the most over-thinking, neurotic people I know. So I don’t know how it happens, but it keeps happening.”
I thought a big part of Frank also was his big shearling jacket. Since most of the movie was improvised, did you have anything to do with his outfits?
“Oh yeah, I kept that jacket, first of all. It’s a great jacket. What’s great about Drake is that he was like, ‘Hey, listen, people wear the same stuff all the time. If something works, let’s just it.’ I was like yeah, the guy probably kind of flies by the seat of his pants anyways so he just has a few things. I think I wore some of my own jeans. The boots I wore were mine. Drake definitely wanted us to wear our own stuff so we could feel comfortable in it.”
This was originally called No, No, No, Yes and ended as Endings, Beginnings. How did the title change shape the movie?
“It was always a working title. I saw that it was paired up with her experience — every no and every yes was paired to one of the relationships that she was going through. Endings, Beginnings is a little more specific. I know for awhile he was even contemplating a title that was even just made up of emojis which I thought would have been really fun.”
Oh yeah. I loved the texting aspect in this movie.
“There is an element of texting in the time period we are in, and there is this new language to it. They got it in the sense that both Jack and Frank have their very specific ways of texting. Jack probably uses punctuation, and Frank does not. [Laughs]”
You’ve worked with a few of the Big Little Lies women now. Do you have plans to work with the others like Zoe Kravitz, Reese Witherspoon, or Laura Dern?
“That has not hit me — that’s kinda funny. I don’t think I have ever met Reese Witherspoon and I’ve met Laura Dern. If the opportunity presents itself then great. I certainly wouldn’t have had a problem if there had been a role in the second season. I would have done it in a second. I loved the first season.”
I have one more that I have to ask about — obviously Gossip Girl is getting rebooted, and Chace [Crawford] said it made him feel “old,” but he’d be down. Have you thought about it at all?
“[Laughs] I don’t even… it’s so weird. Somehow a lot of people talk to me about Gossip Girl, and I always thought I was just a guest star. It was a very special show. It certainly defined those years, and we all got our start there in a way. It would be hilarious and weird and crazy. He’s right — we are old! I don’t know what business they’d have with me, but, Jesus. If there was some funny little witty thing and they called and we’re like, ‘We’re doing this thing and we have everybody….’ I’m not gonna be the asshole that says no. Maybe I’ll be in the background scooping some ice cream.”
HollywoodReporter.com — Jamie Dornan also stars in the romantic drama about a 30-something woman navigating love and heartbreak over the course of a year.
Shailene Woodley and Sebastian Stan get cozy in this first-look still from Drake Doremus’ Endings/Beginnings, premiering at TIFF on Sept. 8.
The drama — also starring Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy) — is set in present day L.A. and sees Woodley, most recently appearing in Big Little Lies, play Daphne, a 30-something woman navigating through love and heartbreak over the course of one year. During that time, she will unlock the secrets to her life in a sudden turn of events and in the most surprising of places.
Written by Doremus and Jardine Libaire (White Fur), the film has been developed, produced and financed by CJ Entertainment. Tae-sung Jeong, Francis Chung, Doremus and Robert George produce, Jerry Ko executive produces and Fred Lee and Jihyun Ok co-produce.
Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales outside of Asia, which is being repped by CJ Entertainment. UTA is repping domestic.
Deadline.com — Universal has set a January 15, 2021 release date for 355, the ensemble spy thriller that came together during last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The pic directed and co-written by Simon Kinberg stars Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger and Fan Bingbing.
The hope is to launch a franchise based on an idea by Chastain of a Bourne Identity-like thriller revolving around female spies from agencies around the world. The women must bond together, overcoming their suspicions and conflicts, to use all their considerable talents and training to stop an event from occurring that could thrust our teetering world into total chaos. Along the way, these strangers and enemies become comrades and friends, and a new faction is formed and code-named “355” (a name they adopt from the first female spy in the American Revolution).
Sebastian Stan and Edgar Ramirez are also in the cast and the pic began production in early July with shoots in Paris, London and Morocco.
Kinberg co-wrote the script with Theresa Rebeck, and Chastain and Kelly Carmichael are producing via Chastain’s Freckle Films with Kinberg via his Genre Films. Richard Hewitt is executive producer.
In a unique arrangement, the actresses and filmmakers are understood to have equity stakes in the movie, which was a magnet for distributors worldwide in Cannes. Its strong components, novel approach and female empowerment messaging combined to make it the right package at the right time.
Universal had previously set aside the January 2021 date for an event film. So far, the release schedule is thin at that time, with only a Universal-Blumhouse movie and Paramount’s Rugrats staking out dates that month.
My apologies if some of this seems disjointed. I cut and pieced many of this together from a handful of ComicBook.com’s articles to make one master post for easy reading. Much of what they reference is from the videos posted via YouTube.
Avengers star Sebastian Stan wants to turn director, but the actor admits he’s still “very far, far off” from heading behind the camera.
“It’s only in the last couple years that I’ve become so in awe of directors and the moviemaking aspect. As an actor, I used to only see myself and the scenes and my contribution, but then I realized, ‘Wait a minute, you’re part of this big thing,’”
“And there’s always a sense of vision and just the way that you can tell stories visually, with sound, the whole editing [aspect], the way you can influence [a film] — it just fascinates me. Yeah, it would be nice to kind of find something that could make sense at some point, but I’m still very far, far off from that.”
Asked if he might make his directorial debut on streaming service Disney+, where Stan and Captain America co-star Anthony Mackie will lead The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Stan said with a laugh, “They’ll never, they’ll never let me. I don’t know about that. That’s a high bar.”
To say that the Winter Soldier has been some through some awful things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be something of an understatement. He went from being Steve Rogers’ best friend and an Army officer before being captured and experimented on by HYDRA and then, after falling to his presumed death, brainwashed into becoming the superpowered assassin Winter Soldier. It’s a complicated, bleak history, a history that fans might expect Bucky to want to undo if he had the chance. But, according to Sebastian Stan, there’s something else he’d do if Bucky got his hands on the Time Stone.
Stan was asked by a fan during his appearance at MCM London this weekend what Bucky would do if he had the opportunity to use the Time Stone — the Infinity Stone that has the ability to manipulate time — and it turns out, Bucky wouldn’t completely erase his history as Winter Soldier — just the assassinations.
“What would Bucky do if he got the Time Stone? Get the hell out of there!” Stan joked. “No, if he got the Time Stone of course he would go back to face himself in the ’70s and then it would have to be two Winter Soldiers, one against the other, then he would have to face himself and stop himself from creating about 864 assassinations.”
The idea that Bucky would use the stone to go back and prevent his other self from carrying out the multitudes of assassinations HYDRA and the KGB had him carry out over the years rather than stop himself from becoming the Winter Soldier in the first place is an interesting one. While it would in theory keep much of the character’s history intact, stopping some of the assassinations would likely have far-reaching impact on the MCU’s history on the whole. What’s certain is that a Winter Soldier on Winter Soldier fight would be pretty epic to see, much like watching Captain America fight himself in Avengers: Endgame was a pretty great scene itself.
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HollywoodReporter.com — Marion Cotillard, who was part of the film’s splashy market presentation last year, has since dropped out.
355 is back on track.
The film — which marked last year’s biggest sale at the Cannes market but hit a roadblock when one of its stars, Fan Bingbing, became embroiled in a tax evasion scandal in her native China — has filled out its cast with Sebastian Stan and Edgar Ramirez.
The duo join Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz and Fan in the action pic about a group of female spies who must bond together to stop an event from occurring that could thrust the world into total chaos. They form a faction code-named 355, a shout-out to the first female spy in the American Revolution.
Marion Cotillard, who was part of the Cannes presentation last year as one of the film’s stars, has since dropped out, citing personal reasons.
The film, which was acquired by Universal and will be directed by Simon Kinberg, is set to begin principal photography in Paris in July. Shooting also will take place in London and Morocco.
Chastain is producing through her Freckle Films banner alongside Kelly Carmichael and Kinberg. Theresa Rebeck, whose credits include NBC’s Smash, wrote the screenplay.
Stan is currently onscreen in Avengers: Endgame and recently appeared in I Tonya. He is repped by ICM and Brookside Artist Management.
Deadline.com — Sebastian Stan
will replace Chris Evans in The Devil All The Time, the Antonio Campos-directed drama. Evans has dropped out over a problem with scheduling. Who better to step in than Stan, as he and Evans have played running buddies Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier and Captain America in four Joe & Anthony Russo-directed Marvel Studios films that will culminate in the April 27 release Avengers: Endgame?
Randall Poster is producing with Nine Stories’ Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker, and Max Born. Stan will costar alongside Tom Holland, Jason Clarke, Mia Wasakowska, Robert Pattinson, Riley Keough and Bill Skarsgard.
Evans’ schedule just got really crowded. He committed this week to star for director Antoine Fuqua in Infinite, the tent pole Paramount sci-fi film, and he is about to start production on Defending Jacob, the Apple series he’s starring in and producing.
The Devil All The Time is an adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s 2011 mid-western gothic novel that Antonio and Paulo Campos co-scripted. In the forgotten backwoods of a place called Knockemstiff, Ohio, a storm of faith, violence and redemption brews. Out of desperation to save his dying wife, Willard Russell turns to prayer which succumbs to sacrifice. This sets our protagonist Arvin, Willard’s son, on his path from bullied kid to a man who knows when to take action. He interacts with a nefarious cast of characters: a serial killer couple, a faith-testing preacher, and a corrupt local sheriff in a story that is told across two decades.
Stan’s recent credits include Destroyer, I, Tonya and The Avengers franchise. He’s repped by ICM Partners, Brookside Artist Management and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
Annie Marter and Jacob Jaffke are the exec producers.
Sebastian stopped by AOL Build Series in New York on January 21st to talk about his film Destroyer. You can check out high quality photos, screen captures and video of the interview below in case you missed it.
