The Playlist – Sebastian Stan Transformed Himself Like Never Before For ‘Pam & Tommy’

Sebastian Stan will tell you that in order to play the Winter Soldier he spent years trying to put on “weight” to match the physique of Chris Hemsworth‘s of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’ll also tell you, in his own opinion, he never truly pulled it off. He went in a significantly different direction to play legendary drummer Tommy Lee in “Pam & Tommy.” For that series, Stan spent months learning how to play the drums and used intermittent fasting and exercise to try and duplicate Lee’s skinny and lanky frame. And yes, that physical transformation was just as difficult as trying to gain all that muscle for previous projects.

“It was tough because it required such drastic changes and it was learning new things,” Stan says. “But then once we got there, once I got to April and we had that camera test, it was delayed gratification. Finally, on that day of the camera test, all the work that I’d done and all the ideas I had had about how it was going to look and what was going to happen and the physical stuff, it all clicked and made me feel like it was part of helping me to get the courage to go there. And a lot of that had to do with the tattoos and the physical was a big part of it. But once we were in costume, once we had the hair and makeup and everything else, then it was, O.K. This is more real now. Up until that point, it was 100% anxiety every day.”

The Hulu limited series also saw his co-star Lily James become unrecognizable as Lee’s one-time wife (and, arguably, love of his life), Pamela Anderson. Over the course of our interview, Stan discusses reuniting with his “I, Tonya” director Craig Gillespie, the infamous and outrageous scenes in the program’s second episode, how he researched Lee’s life story, and much, much more.

_____ Continue reading