A clip of Sebastian Stan speaking out against a reporter who used the term "beast" to describe his co-star with facial disfigurement went viral on the internet this week as the film gears up for its theatrical release on September 20.
In February, a journalist at the Berlin Film Festival asked the cast of A Different Man during a press conference,
"What do you think happens after the transformation from this so-called beast, as they call him, to this perfect man?"
The movie, A Perfect Man navigates the story of an aspiring actor, Edward, played by Stan, who opts for a medical procedure to transform his appearance. However, his new transformation becomes a nightmare, and he becomes fixated on Oswald, Pearson's character, who plays him in the stage production of his former life.
The movie features Adam Pearson, Sebastian Stan's co-star, who has neurofibromatosis in real life as well as in the film.
Sebastian interrupted the journalist for his choice of words, saying,
"I have t ocall you out a little bit on the choice of words there. I think part of why the film is important is because we often don't have maybe even the right vocabulary. I mean, I think it's a little more complex than that. And obviously there's language barriers and so on and so forth. But you know, beast isn't the word, I think."
Sebastian Stan opens up about playing a character with facial disfigurement
Sebastian Stan, in an interview with Variety which was published on September 19, talked about his experience of filming the movie, A Perfect Man, when he would have to wear prosthetics for his character.
Oscar-nominated prosthetics artist Mike Marino helped Sebastian prepare for his character, who undergoes a medical procedure to transform his face.
"Even though I wasn't shooting until 11 a.m., I would go at like 5 in the morning to his studio, or his apartment. I wanted to walk around the city and see what happened. On Broadway, one of the busiest streets in New York, no one's looking at me. It's as if I'm not even there. Somebody would immediately stop and very blatantly hit their friend, point, take a picture."
After Sebastian Stan clapped back at the journalist at the Berlin Musical Festival for using the term "Beast," Pearson noted that although Stan does not know "what it's like to have a disfigurement," he knows "what it's like not to have privacy and to have your life constantly invaded."