Sebastian Stan has slammed a journalist for describing his co-star Adam Pearson as a “beast”.
Stan, 42, and Pearson, 39, were promoting their upcoming film, A Different Man, earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival.
The film follows Edward (Stan), who undergoes facial reconstructive surgery but then becomes fascinated by Oswald (Pearson), an actor who plays him in a play.
In real life, Pearson has neurofibromatosis, a disease that causes benign tumors to grow in nervous tissue.
During a Q&A session, Stan responded to a reporter who called his character Edward a “beast” before undergoing surgery.
Sebastian Stan, 42, has slammed a journalist for describing his A Different Man co-star Adam Pearson, 39, as a “beast” at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.
Pearson (pictured) has neurofibromatosis, a disease that causes benign tumors to grow in nerve tissue.
“What do you think happens after the transformation of this so-called beast, as they call him, into this perfect man?” the journalist asked.
“I’m going to criticize you a little bit for the choice of words, because I think part of the importance of the movie is because often we don’t even have the proper vocabulary,” Stan responded.
“I think it’s a little bit more complex than that, and obviously there are language barriers and so on, but I think ‘beast’ is not the word.”
“I think it’s ultimately interesting to hear that point, because I feel like, to some extent, that’s one of the things that the movie is saying, you know, that we have these preconceived notions,” the actor added.
“We’re not very well informed about how to really understand this experience, so I can’t speak to that. One of the things I love about the film is that it gives you a way to look at it.”
‘Hopefully, if you can have the same objective point of view as you experience the film, then maybe you can analyze the initial instincts that you have, and maybe they’re not always the right ones.’
Pearson added: “This was the bait we gave Sebastian: you don’t know what it’s like to have a disfigurement, but you do know what it’s like to have no privacy and to have your life constantly invaded.”
“You become public property.”
The film follows Edward (Stan), who undergoes facial reconstructive surgery but then becomes fascinated by Oswald (Pearson), an actor who plays him in a play.
During a Q&A, Stan responded to a reporter who called his character Edward a “beast” before undergoing his surgery.
“I’m going to criticize you a little bit for the choice of words there… I think it’s a little bit more complex than that, and obviously there are language barriers and everything, but you know, ‘beast’ isn’t the word, I think,” Stan responded.
At Sundance, Pearson revealed that he encouraged Stan to go out in public with his prosthetics to get a sense of what it’s like for a person to live with a disfigurement; they’re seen in January.
“It was really interesting and a little scary to see how limited the interaction is… The only people who were really more honest were the kids,” Stan said of the experience.
Several fans on the YouTube video of the conference praised Stan for how he handled the question.
“Sebastian handled the second question in the best possible way, I’m very proud of him,” wrote one.
“It seems like all the reporters were focused on his face changing, regardless of the mental effects in terms of growth, insecurities and/or stages of depression the character would have gone through… So Sebastian was definitely right to slam that guy for his choice of words, great job Sebastian, way to stand up for and defend a fellow actor,” another added.
In the film, Stan’s character transforms his appearance, but is then devastated when he loses the chance to play himself in a play based on his life to another actor with a facial disfigurement.
And he becomes obsessed with what he has lost.
The film premiered in January to great acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.
The Marvel star had to sit for between an hour and a half and two hours a day while makeup artist Mike Marino applied prosthetics to his face.
At Sundance, Pearson revealed that he encouraged Stan to go out in public with his prosthetics to get a sense of what it’s like for a person to live with a disfigurement.
During a panel discussion in January, Stan talked about the reaction he received when he stepped out in New York City wearing his prosthetics.
“It was really interesting and a little scary to see how limited the interaction is,” he said according to Entertainment Weekly.
“In reality, the situation is somewhere between two extremes: either people don’t care about it or the compensation is excessive. The only ones who were really honest were the children.”
Edward’s rival in A Different Man is played by Pearson.
A Different Man is due out in theaters on September 20; Stan and Pearson appear with Renate Reinsve in a still from the film
Pearson is a British actor and presenter who has a real-life facial disfigurement due to a condition called neurofibromatosis.
Pearson has worked as an advocate to help prevent bullying against people with facial and other deformities.
The film has been well received by critics and fans, and Stan was named Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival. Writer-director Aaron Schimberg was named Director to Watch at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
A Different Man is scheduled to hit theaters on September 20.
