Sebastian Stan says he's grateful for the movies that made him famous, but wants something else now
Sebastian Stan, pictured on January 6, 2025 with the Golden Globe he won for his performance in the film “A Different Man”, PHOTO: Jim Ruymen / UPI / Profimedia Images
The Romanian actor Sebastian Stan spoke openly about his time spent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, known for its superhero films, but that he wants to try other roles, as he demonstrated with his last two feature films, Variety magazine reports.
Stan who played Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier in no less than seven Marvel movies said in a recent podcast interview Stronger that the Disney-owned franchise “really helped” him develop as a person and as an actor. However, now, at 43, he says he's trying to expand his range of roles beyond comic book-inspired action.
“I have to try to offer something different from what I've done before,” Stan said.
“And I've never preferred one role over another. The Marvel stuff…always, until the end of time, [voi simți că] they really helped me grow as a person and helped me develop as an actor, taught me about relationships and [am lucrat cu] Robert Downey [Jr.]Scarlett [Johansson] and all those people I admired. It was a deal. It was a family and it gave me a sense of belonging, and it will always mean that to me, but for me it was just the first step,” he continued.
Stan said he also feels lucky
The actor also said in the interview for the podcast Stronger that he feels “lucky” that his more refined projects, such as his recent films The Apprenticein which he played Donald Trump at the beginning of his career as a real estate mogul, and A Different Manabout a man suffering from a debilitating genetic disease, came later in life. He also said that he looks at “young people like Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler” and sees how they accomplish things “that I couldn't have done at their age.”
Stan also talked about his Romanian origins, explaining that it took him a while to integrate into the American film industry.
“There was a significant portion of my youth that I had to spend Americanizing or integrating and really finding my way in a different way,” he explained. “But it's only now that I feel like I'm finally getting to do the things I've always wanted to do.”
The Romanian actor, in the foreground of world cinema
Last year was a turning point for Stan's career in terms of recognition at the film industry awards level as his lead role in A Different Man earned him the Silver Bear Award at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival.
“For a little boy from Romania, this means a lot, so thank you”, declared Sebastian Stan on the stage of the festival.
The same role earlier this year earned him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy or Musical Series, awarded until last year by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
“The award is for my mother who left Romania in search of a better life and gave me everything. And for my stepfather, Toni, who took a single mother with an already grown child. Thank you for being a real man! Golden Globes, I love you! Romania, I love you!”, he said on stage after receiving the award.
Interpretation from The Apprentice instead, this year also earned him his first Oscar nomination, but the statuette for best actor in a leading role was ultimately awarded to Adrien Brody, thanks to his performance in the film The Brutalist.
