{"id":800399,"date":"2026-10-12T17:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800399\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T17:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:48:17","slug":"sebastian-stan-interview-on-fjord-politics-batman-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800399\/","title":{"rendered":"Sebastian Stan Interview on ‘Fjord’ Politics, ‘Batman: Part II’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sebastian Stan<\/a> disappears into his roles, from his Oscar-nominated performance as Donald Trump in \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d<\/a> to the disfigured actor in \u201cA Different Man,\u201d<\/a> which won him Berlin\u2019s Silver Bear and the Comedy Golden Globe. Stan was also unrecognizable as metal rocker Tommy Lee in Emmy-nominated \u201cPam & Tommy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Stan also altered his look dramatically, shaving his head in his latest incarnation in Cristian Mungiu\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or-winning \u201cFjord<\/a>,\u201d in which he plays the Romanian patriarch of a family of five children, with his \u201cA Different Man\u201d costar Renate Reinsve as his Norwegian wife. After they move to a small town in Norway, they run into dramatic cultural differences as the local child protection services take their children away in order to investigate suspected physical abuse.<\/p>\n

\"TORONTO,<\/a> \"Director<\/a> <\/p>\n

Of course, Stan is most famous for his nine Marvel features and TV spinoffs as Bucky Barnes the Winter Soldier. That supporting character returns to theaters on December 18 in \u201cAvengers: Doomsday.\u201d But we\u2019ll have to wait until February, 2028 to see Stan again as Harvey Dent\/Two-Face in DC\u2019s long-delayed \u201cThe Batman: Part II.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the moment, on a warm fall day, Stan talks about \u201cFjord\u201d at Neon\u2019s lower Manhattan offices.<\/p>\n

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.<\/p>\n

Anne Thompson: I don\u2019t know any other actor who disappears the way you do. It isn\u2019t like we think of you as Sebastian Stan. We think of you as whoever you\u2019re playing. Is that OK? Is that what you want?<\/p>\n

Sebastian Stan: I\u2019m accepting that route because a lot of people lately, like Chloe Zhao, have said to me, \u201cThis is what you do now. You\u2019re not going to look like yourself.\u201d And the timing of these movies back to back has been serendipitous. I didn\u2019t set out consciously to transform physically. I was in this Marvel thing for many years, and I looked one way, and I saw somehow my life get smaller on the streets here, walking around and felt to some extent I was getting pigeonholed in this thing.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sebastian Stan in \u2018The Falcon and the Winter Soldier\u2019Courtesy of Disney+<\/p>\n

So people do recognize you as Bucky Barnes. <\/p>\n

Yeah, and it still happens for that character, and it\u2019s heartwarming, and it\u2019s amazing, and it helped inspire me to want to seek out things that would allow for something else. Because, as Cristian Mungiu recently put it, this movie will liberate me and the audience to do something without this judgment of, \u201coh there\u2019s that actor doing that thing you know.\u201d When I was a kid, nobody judged you for putting on wigs and things, you would get up there and it\u2019d be free and you\u2019d walk different. That\u2019s part of my relationship to trying to remain in love with [making movies]. It\u2019s hard, because a lot of things go wrong and things fall apart, you get rejected, or the movie sucks, or you suck. There\u2019s a lot of things about this business that will constantly want to derail you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Apprentice\u201d had a strange route through differing European and American reactions.<\/p>\n

It had a bad reaction. It reminded me that this is not always about being liked, and it\u2019s not always about being safe, and you\u2019re going to have to go and talk about these things for months, right, and promote it, and you\u2019re hoping there\u2019s something there. There\u2019s going to have to be something more that you\u2019re going to say than \u201cI love movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"THE\u2018The Apprentice\u2019Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

How did you and Mungiu put your distinctive look together? <\/p>\n

He was adamant that he didn\u2019t want Renate and I to be recognized in a way that would distract from this family or the story. I said, \u201cWhatever you want to do.\u201d I did not think he wanted this bald head or whatever. We\u2019d gone over [to Romania] because she and I had rehearsals in January, February before we started shooting in March, and we started going to these services of this religious sect, doing some research, integrating her into the Romanian culture. We had camera tests, and tried on clothes and glasses, and then he said he wanted to shave my head.<\/p>\n

I called the prosthetics guy who did help me with the Trump chin, and he did the \u201cPam & Tommy\u201d stuff, and he did some teeth for me, and that was it. My favorite part was going to set the first day, and there\u2019s no hair and makeup. There\u2019s nothing: \u201cgreat!\u201d We were right in it. It was so nuts and bolts. There\u2019s nothing glamorous about the movie. Nobody had some special room or trailer. We were all living in this weird hotel that Henrik Ibsen used to go to. We\u2019d walk to set into this home every day, surrounded by these mountains. So the isolation helped us stay in it. I was surrounded by Romanian people, and so I was speaking Romanian all the time and I was doing the accent. I think all of that contributed.<\/p>\n

This movie gave you a chance to return to your roots. <\/p>\n

One way I had into this movie was, when I first read it, I understood the kids, because I left Romania when I was eight, and I went to Vienna with my mom. She was a single mom, a pianist at the time, then became a piano teacher, remarried an American in Vienna. We were there for four years, and then when I was 12, I moved to the States. I never wanted to speak Romanian. I did not want to have an accent. I did not want to be different. I even begged her, funny enough, to let me be named Christopher because I thought my name was weird. She named me after Sebastian Bach. I understood the kids being different and the shame of that self-awareness, and feeling like you need to make allies rather than enemies. That made sense to me, even with my character, this idea that you want to be left in peace and not stick out. And when you\u2019re a kid, it\u2019s brutal. You\u2019re either part of the playground rules or you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

Where were you exactly in the States?<\/p>\n

Outside of New York City in Rockland County. I grew up in Suffern and Nyack. I went to this camp, Stagedoor Manor in the Catskills, and that\u2019s where I met my manager, who I\u2019m still with. <\/p>\n

Did you feel comfortable with your reunion with your Romanian side?<\/p>\n

First of all, 80 percent of the crew was Romanian, and I\u2019m already aware of my own bullshit. They were going to smell me, with the accent and everything. I\u2019ve always spoken fluently the language. I had this accent because I was not from there. Cristian Mungiu is like the Martin Scorsese, the Steven Spielberg. He can pick anybody to play this role, and he goes and picks the kid that left and became Americanized. I didn\u2019t know if they were going to judge me for that.<\/p>\n

It was totally the opposite: I was welcomed and embraced. They were throwing a flag over me. I was worried when the movie would come out in Romania, which it hasn\u2019t yet. I never thought I would be going back in some way. My mom hasn\u2019t seen the movie; she\u2019s going to see it on Sunday for the first time, and the way I met Cristian was at his movie, \u201cThe Graduation,\u201d in 2016 at the New York Film<\/a> Festival with my mom. So on Sunday it\u2019ll be this funny moment where we\u2019re all back together.<\/p>\n

The Romanian father is reserved and contained. You\u2019re not trying to make us like you.<\/p>\n

People have strong feelings about the movie. I love a good knee-jerk reaction because I always feel like it means it\u2019s getting to some truth that\u2019s not explored. We\u2019ve been talking about the movie, and I keep referencing Cristian\u2019s movies, this idea of the cinema to express rather than impress, right? And I feel the same way with actors. <\/p>\n

Our job is not to use any melodrama or sentimentality to manipulate or rope the audience into the situation. He also doesn\u2019t do a lot of close-ups, and he does these long one-shot, multiple takes, just one shot, no cuts scenes. I had never worked that way before. I\u2019d also come off of playing these larger than life characters, and I wanted to find something more nuanced and restrained. The character reacts very differently than you or I would if your kids are being taken away. <\/p>\n

Both Renate and I instinctively were wanting to \u201clet us go there.\u201d But there\u2019s a belief system to these people. And there\u2019s a magnifying glass to them, so everything they do is being watched, and there\u2019s allegations against them. There\u2019s a reason that they\u2019re behaving the way that they are. One of them is this belief system that no matter what happens, you know that there\u2019s a higher power, a higher spirit that will figure itself out. You got to trust, and you got to keep your emotions in check, and you can\u2019t try to manipulate the situation. Just be as Zen about it as you can.<\/p>\n

And did you also understand culturally what the parental rules of the game were with this family and with this man?<\/p>\n

It feels now the timing has to be right for these roles and certain movies. I have a kid now. I was in my mid-40s already when we shot this, I had been with a partner. We had discussed kids. I had lost my dad a few years before. I had gotten to a place where I was looking forward, and I could see as far back as I could see forward. And I was asking myself, \u201cWhat are the things that I\u2019ve inherited from my parents? What are the things that I want to pass on to my kid? What works? What doesn\u2019t work?\u201d And so I was in a headspace where I could understand what was happening here. Because to me, the movie is about kids. How do we raise kids today? That\u2019s how I saw it.<\/p>\n

Looking back at the male Romanian male father figures, my father and I also grew up with my grandfather. They were strict, stern, no emotions, restrained. No expression of affection. It wasn\u2019t considered manly. That\u2019s not how I am. I\u2019m not doing that with my kid. But also I\u2019ve had therapy. I\u2019m in this creative space. I was never spanked or whatever. I was lucky because, for a large part, I grew up with women. I was not in an environment where I experienced that level of strictness.<\/p>\n

\"Cristian\u2018Fjord\u2019Neon<\/p>\n

The reaction to this movie fascinates me, starting in Cannes. On the one hand, you get the Palme d\u2019Or, which was a surprise?<\/p>\n

One hundred percent. On the day, all that was communicated was Cristian was asked to stay, and I thought that meant he won director or screenplay. And Renate said, \u201cWell, let\u2019s go anyway,\u201d and I said, \u201cOK.\u201d I was finding out in real time what was happening.<\/p>\n

But the other reactions were all over the place as to how people interpreted the movie. It\u2019s not trying to make points, it\u2019s trying to open up questions.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s two things. One is we have to look at our level of tolerance now, and what availability do we have for further questions? Because it seems with what\u2019s going on in the world, perhaps what people want at times, you can argue, is escapism, or they want positivity, or they want nostalgia. They want to look back at the \u201cgood old days,\u201d but with only selective thinking. I hear all these things about the \u201990s, but people are forgetting how in the \u201990s we could actually still have a conversation and disagree, and we could still find nuance in point of view and in different topics. And the fact that has eroded is scary. <\/p>\n

The movie is going to age well. At the core the movie does require a certain self-analysis perhaps, which I don\u2019t know if people are willing to do. What I am reacting to is the absolutism as it applies to whatever it is, whether it\u2019s a belief system, whether it\u2019s a certain difference that we\u2019re seeing in somebody else that\u2019s not falling in line with the rest of us. The movie does make its case. I suspect it\u2019s for one reason: that we all, on a primal level, understand that removing children from their family is not right.<\/p>\n

Right. <\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s in Norway and their breastfeeding baby, whether it\u2019s in Norway from a \u201creligious family,\u201d or whether it\u2019s on the border of Mexico, or in Gaza, or anywhere, it\u2019s easy to go, \u201coh, they\u2019re conservative. I\u2019m done, I\u2019m out.\u201d The movie\u2019s showing me that we are so programmed now to immediately label it black or white, red or blue, not seeing the thread that it\u2019s for the kids. But I do feel like the family needs to also evolve.<\/p>\n

\"Sebastien\u2018Fjord\u2019 Neon<\/p>\n

Well, to recognize how to adapt to cultural differences. But the movie is a little hazy about what the father may have actually done.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s on purpose. I mean, it\u2019s such an interpretive thing for a viewer, depending on their situation, it\u2019s better to leave it at that. <\/p>\n

Are you going back to Marvel? Is there more to come?<\/p>\n

I know there\u2019s this other film that\u2019s meant to shoot next year, but I haven\u2019t heard anything about it. There\u2019s a lot of people waiting to see when it\u2019s going to happen. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s on the schedule yet. <\/p>\n

And you\u2019re fine if it is going to happen.<\/p>\n

I value loyalty a lot. Maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m a Leo. I\u2019m grateful for what that world has done for me. It gave me consistency, and it gave me sustainability for many years. I never made it to the real starting five. I\u2019ve been always off the bench. I think it gave me a longer lifespan over there. And then it also allowed me to go and play for other teams. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening with the delayed DC \u201cThe Batman\u201d sequel?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in a very deep, deep winter on the Batman movie.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s for 2028, right?<\/p>\n

Right. On the weekends, I\u2019ve been doing Spanish classes because next year I\u2019m going to do this movie with this Chilean director that I love, Felipe Galvez, who did this movie, \u201cThe Settlers.\u201d His new film is about Pinochet and his arrest in London when he was trying to be extradited by the Spanish and the Chileans at the same time, and to be held accountable for all these crimes. Spanish is a little bit closer to Romanian because it comes from Latin. And so I play a character not of Spanish descent, a European that speaks Spanish fluently and English in the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cFjord\u201d is currently playing in theaters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sebastian Stan disappears into his roles, from his Oscar-nominated performance as Donald Trump in \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[20267,96,10923,2332,198149,2580,2839,33357,137088,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-800399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-awards","tag-entertainment","tag-festivals","tag-film","tag-fjord","tag-interviews","tag-movies","tag-oscars","tag-sebastian-stan","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}