Sebastian Stan is calling out a journalist who described his latest film character, who has a facial disfigurement, as a "beast." Stan was on deck at the Berlin Film Festival to do press for his latest film 'A Different Man,' which stars himself and actor Adam Pearson who has Neurofibromatosis Type 1. During the press conference for the film in Berlin, the journalist, who was not a native English speaker, asked Stan, "What do you think happens after the transformation from this so-called beast, as they call him, to this perfect man?" (Stan wears a facial prosthetic for the first half of the film.) Stan piped back saying, "I have to call you out a little bit on the choice of words there. Part of why the film is important is because we often don't have the right vocabulary."
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00 Sebastian Stan is calling out a journalist who described his latest film character, who has a facial disfigurement, as a beast.
00:07 Stan was on deck at the Berlin Film Festival to do press for his latest film, A Different Man, which stars himself and actor Adam Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis.
00:17 The film follows Edward, played by Stan, an aspiring actor with facial disfigurement, who after undergoing reconstructive surgery, starts a new life,
00:25 only to become obsessed with an actor with a facial disfigurement, played by Pearson, who is playing him in a play based on his former life.
00:32 During the press conference for the film in Berlin, the journalist, who was not a native English speaker, asked Stan,
00:38 "What do you think happens after the transformation from this so-called beast, as they call him, to this perfect man?"
00:44 "I have to call you out a little bit on the choice of words there, because I think part of why the film is important is because we often don't have maybe even the right vocabulary."
00:57 Stan continued, "It's a little more complex than that, and obviously there is language barriers and so on, but 'beast' isn't the word."
01:04 When asked about the importance of on-screen representation of characters with disfigurements,
01:09 Pearson spoke about his two months of filming A Different Man on location in Manhattan, saying,
01:14 "I found my coffee spot, I found my breakfast spot, and I found my bar.
01:18 Initially, you have got to do a lot of heavy lifting and the legwork in the conversation, but the more you do it, the easier it gets."
01:24 The actor, who also starred in director Aaron Schoenberg's Chain for Life, added,
01:28 "The only way to challenge people's perception on something, truly challenge it, is to gently and kindly expose them to it."
01:35 For more on this story, head to THR.com.
01:38 For the latest entertainment news and updates, keep watching The Hollywood Reporter News.
01:43 (upbeat music)
01:45 (upbeat music)