Actor Sebastian Stan’s ‘curiosity and discomfort’ transforming into A Different Man

AUSTIN, Texas – Think life would be different if you had the face of your dreams?

If so, the acclaimed psychological thriller A Different Man, which opens in Singapore theatres on Oct 10, is a cautionary tale.

It follows an aspiring actor, Edward (Sebastian Stan), who has a rare genetic condition that causes disfiguring facial tumours and, in his case, a great deal of anxiety and self-loathing.

After undergoing an experimental medical procedure, he finally looks the way he always wanted.

But instead of this solving all his problems, his life begins to unravel after he loses a role in a play to a man named Oswald (Adam Pearson), who has the same condition but does not let it hold him back.

Stan – who wears extensive facial prosthetics to play Edward before the procedure, and appears as himself after the transformation – approached the role and its challenges with an open mind.

As an actor, “there’s a degree of having a natural sense of curiosity, not only about yourself but also about other people, and also a degree of having a relationship to discomfort”, says the 42-year-old Romanian-American star at a recent film festival in Austin, Texas.

“There is a very narcissistic, self-indulgent piece to it as well, and many people go down that route, but at the core, it’s about understanding human behaviour,” adds Stan, who is best known for playing super soldier Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Captain America (2011 to 2016) and Avengers (2018 and 2019) superhero movies, as well as the Marvel series The Falcon And The Winter Soldier (2021).

There are no easy answers in American writer-director Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man, which is also a dark comedy.

“There’s a lot of humour that comes from suffering,” says Stan, who was Emmy-nominated for playing rock star Tommy Lee in the biographical drama Pam & Tommy (2022).

“And when it’s done as well as it is in this film, because of the script and all the different colours to it, then people really get to feel it on different levels.”

But it was a delicate balance finding just the right tone.

“Step one way and it becomes tragic, and if you go the other way, it just becomes nasty.

“So you’ve got to walk this really fine line to stick the landing, and I think Aaron does that remarkably well,” Stan says.

“It’s really clever the way he has woven this line between the play and reality, and the journey of this man’s suffering at the hands of his own self-abandonment.”

Co-star Pearson has the same disfiguring condition as Edward and Oswald, neurofibromatosis type 1, which causes tumours to grow on nerves and other tissues.

A British actor and television presenter, he has received positive feedback for A Different Man from others with the condition, as well as Face Equality International, a global network of charities and organisations working to help those with facial differences.

“The biggest compliment I get (from them) is: ‘Thank you. For the first time, I feel seen, I feel represented,’” says the 39-year-old, who also played a disfigured actor in Chained For Life, a 2019 film written and directed by Schimberg.

Pearson’s acting debut was in the critically acclaimed science-fiction drama Under The Skin (2013), in which he portrayed a disfigured man seduced by an alien, played by American actress Scarlett Johansson.

Pearson believes A Different Man avoided the three tropes that normally occur in stories about disabled or disfigured people, namely “victimhood, villainy and false heroism”.

“To me, that’s the big thing. And if someone can come to this film and feel represented or less alone, and feel that they can also get into acting, then I’ve done my job,” he adds.

“I’m just one very fortunate actor with a disability, but I know that there are hundreds of others out there who are just as good, if not better, and who just aren’t getting that opportunity.”

A Different Man opens in Singapore cinemas on Oct 10.