In A Different Man, MCU star Sebastian Stan plays Edward, an aspiring actor with neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition in which tumors grow in the nervous system. Edward is jumpy and nervous, constantly on high alert in public. He lives alone in a leaky, rundown New York apartment with only new neighbor Ingrid (The Worst Person in the World's Renate Reinsve), a playwright, for company. When he's offered to take part in an experimental drug trial, then, he takes his doctor up on the opportunity. What the treatment gives him is a whole new face without tumors, and Edward uses his new look as a chance to start a new life. He realizes it's not so easy to leave your past behind, though, when he discovers Ingrid has written a play about his life – and cast someone else to play him.
The actor in question, Oswald (played by Under the Skin's Adam Pearson), is everything Edward never was: charismatic, charming, and at ease in the world. He can seemingly do everything, from yodeling to playing the saxophone, and Edward becomes increasingly obsessed with him, to disastrous effect. "The idea of somebody just investing all of these hopes and dreams into this cure, only to come out the other side and feel more empty than he was before, I think that's a very real thing," Stan tells 12DOVE when we sit down with him and Pearson in London. "That's what I think people will relate to. We're all there, I think, at the threshold of figuring out, who are we? What's different about me? What's my identity, or what am I being told constantly by other people on how I should be?"
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The film was written and directed by Aaron Schimberg, who Pearson had worked with before on his last feature, 2019's Chained for Life, and a reunion between the pair had been on the cards for a while. As for Stan, he says he liked "how unique [A Different Man] was, how authentic it felt to New York. Every single character in the movie felt real to me. The dialog seemed to be filled with so many different layers."
Like Edward and Oswald, Pearson also has neurofibromatosis, and he met with Stan on Zoom ahead of filming. The pair discussed "the film, the role, our own upbringings, and experiences that could best inform the performances," Pearson explains. "I think those were really foundational in laying the framework for when we got to set. We could very much hit the ground running because we didn't have much time – we shot this whole thing in 22 days, so the quicker you can like lay the foundations and get rolling, the better it is for everyone."
"I was tasked with having to really figure out what Edward's story was," Stan adds. "His backstory, how he grew up, what had happened with his parents, how did he have this apartment, when did he learn to be an actor, want to be an actor? So a lot of my research also included conversations with Adam about his own experience in childhood, and that was really helpful in just trying to come at it in the most realistic way possible."
In one scene, Edward's treatment starts to properly kick in and a visceral transformation follows in which he sheds his old skin – maybe not figuratively, but very literally. "It was sort of a short film in itself. We had one evening to get that and I think at one point Aaron just filmed maybe for 45 minutes straight," Stan says. "There's no CGI in this movie. Everything is practical, everything you see was made the old school way, and it's all very labor of love and I think it makes a difference."
Part dark comedy and part psychological thriller, viewers might be surprised by just how funny the movie is – even laugh-out-loud, at points. "I read it and got it straight away. I was like, 'Cool, we're doing Kaufman', and there's so much dark color and satire in there, and we Brits, we invented that shit," Pearson says.
"It's been really interesting to get different people's reactions to it because everybody has a very different reaction," Stan adds. "And I think your instinct is what I would say to anybody to listen to. Because it is funny and unpredictable and it's also tragic and scary, and that's why I think it's a really unique movie. That's why, when I hear somebody say, 'Wow, I've never seen a movie like that before', it's because it sort of brings out all these things in you. But I love the fact that the film is making people think a little bit differently and be more aware of their initial response to something."
A Different Man is out now. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.
