His answers come slow, measured. He seems to go look for them with his eyes first, so incredibly blue, fixed on a far away spot of the colorful moquette.
“I was in college when I first watched these movies from the 70s”. One above all: Easy Rider starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. “A movie that captured the beats of a generation, that energy that was flowing through America at that time. When a story establishes such a deep, visceral connection people don’t forget it easily. We have seen works just as powerful in recent years, I’m thinking about Get Out or Black Panther”.
His idol though stays Jack Nicholson: “He never hid behind his characters, even the most bizarre ones. His acting is a declaration of honesty: “I’m not perfect, but here I am. And I want to have fun.” And that’s it, we should never stop to have fun. Even in this difficult business”.
And it was difficult indeed for Stan, especially at the beginning with unsuccessful auditions. “Difficult years, very painful” the actor recalls. “But if I look back, I can still find something fantastic in them: unbridled auditions, freedom to experiment. The attitude was: “Get a job, any job!”. And when you got it, that gratitude you felt!”.
Only in 2007 the public noticed this smooth and fresh-faced, short haired boy thanks to the teen-drama Gossip Girl. One year later connoisseurs too were dazzled by his Broadway debut in Talk Radio.
The real turning point comes with 2011 blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger where, walking off from the role of supporting actor, he becomes a star: Bucky Barnes, friend of the patriotic Marvel superhero.
“And to think that as a child I didn’t even know what comic books were“ he says. “I first discovered them when I came to America, as a 12 years old, but at that point it was a bit late to really get into them. I started reading them only when I got the part“.
You’re not going to be snobbish about it now, are you? “No, not at all. People think about it as just pure entertainment, but these movies have many deeper messages. The myth of the superhero is deeply-rooted inside all of us. Revisiting it makes us feel better, it reminds us what life true purpose is.”. Not to mention that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the most profitable franchise ever, with a new Avengers installment coming in 2019. Among the characters there will also be the Winter Soldier, the ruthless assassin reborn from Bucky Barnes’ ashes: for Stan it will be the fifth episode of the saga.
Sebastian Stan for Style Magazine Italia part 2
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