After over a decade as the Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan showed a new side of his acting talent this year. His first Oscar nomination was justly deserved for The Apprentice, in his transformative role portraying a young Donald Trump. Against all odds, Stan was able to make the former and current President someone that was once an empathetic figure that was warped beyond return on his quest for power. That said, he may be even more impressive in another Oscar-nominated film from last year. Nominated for Best Make-Up and Hairstyling, the A24 film A Different Man challenges Sebastian Stan to go to strange places as a performer, and proves he is more than up to the task with his remarkable work that already won him a Golden Globe.
Sebastian Stan Holds the Tone of ‘A Different Man’ Together
Right away, A Different Man shows Sebastian Stan as he’s never been seen before. Edward (Stan) is an actor living with neurofibromatosis, a condition resulting in benign growths encompassing his entire face. Despite getting work as an actor and forming a friendship with his new neighbor Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), he is unable to get past his condition and live with self-assurance, feeling his life would be better if he could just… be a different man. That opportunity presents itself in the movie’s first moment of a magical reality when an experimental medical treatment melts the growths from his face and leaves him looking like… well, Sebastian Stan. With that, Edward adopts a new identity, Guy Moratz, claims Edward died by suicide, and begins living a new life.
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The transition from Edward to Guy is a lot to ask of both the audience and an actor. In order for the audience to suspend their disbelief that this miracle medical procedure worked and Sebastian Stan is an entirely new person, it requires the actor to make the character a singular and real person. Despite the shift in outward appearance and characters like Ingrid not being able to recognize him, Stan takes the audience along with him and behind his facade and faux charms, making it clear that Guy is just a performance Edward is putting on. Like Hit Man and A Complete Unknown, A Different Man questions whether someone can change their persona and who they are on the inside or out. Sebastian Stan maintains Edward’s interiority despite living as Guy on the outside. His interiority becomes even more impressive as it comes into conflict later in the film.
Sebastian Stan’s Work is Largely Internal, but Triumphant
Later in the film, Guy, despite giving up on acting, notices a play written by Ingrid about his former life and decides to audition. He lands the part, but things go awry when Oswald (Adam Pearson), a man also living with neurofibromatosis, enters the picture. While Oswald has Guy/Edward’s former condition, he does not let it get him down as Edward did. In fact, Pearson plays Oswald with a level of charisma to match that of Jonathan Bailey in Wicked (a karaoke scene later on suggests he could have played Fiyero) in a performance that is just as award-worthy as Sebastian Stan’s. Oswald is charming and confident, but also incredibly kind and beloved by everyone he interacts with, and worse: he’s everything Guy wishes Edward could have been. Oswald is offered to replace Guy in the play (despite attempting to turn it down), successful in reality (Guy’s new chosen field), and a low-key ladies’ man, but too humble to admit it. Guy can’t say it, but everything Stan shows the audience, one can’t help but feel his contempt.
The remarkable thing about Stan’s performance is how far inward he retreats as Guy in the latter half of the film. Frustrated by Oswald’s acceptance and embrace of the condition they once shared, not to mention how it is accepted by the wider world and specifically Ingrid, Guy bottles himself up. Feeling he can’t speak to the truth, Stan plays Guy with a quiet anger that only occasionally bursts out, but not verbally — physically. Through his actions and expressions, Stan takes the audience down the road of Guy’s increasing discontent and carries the film along with him. At this point, the film shifts into more of a black comedy, and the shift is handled well by Stan maintaining the inner conflict between Edward and Guy throughout. The narrative takes some fantastical turns, but it is always kept believable by Stan’s grounded performance, which doesn’t even require him to say a word.
2024 proved Sebastian Stan was an underappreciated talent. His Oscar-nominated work portraying Donald Trump was uncomfortably human and never veered into the well-trodden field of impersonation. It is an impressive piece of acting, and yet might be his second-best performance of the year. Perhaps another actor could have brought the level of depth Stan brought to The Apprentice, but A Different Man would not work without the right kind of actor in the lead (and the roles are not entirely unrelated)! Sebastian Stan’s performance in A Different Man is a reminder that when it comes to film acting, sometimes it’s about what you don’t say that makes all the impact.
A Different Man is available to stream on Max.
A Different Man
- Release Date
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October 3, 2024
- Runtime
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112 Minutes
- Director
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Aaron Schimberg
- Writers
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Aaron Schimberg