Acting Up: Sebastian Stan
Note: Minor plot spoilers below.
The Snapshot:
Sebastian Stan plays a charismatic plastic surgeon with an unusual appetite for women in Hulu’s highly entertaining horror rom-com, Fresh. (The film premiered on March 4th.)
The Performance:
For all the modern dating horror stories that do the rounds, few are quite like what gets cooked up for Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) in Fresh, a film virtual audiences swallowed whole at Sundance 2022. It’s actually one the best rom-coms I’ve seen this year — for about 28 minutes. But, as the film’s trailer and “R” rating portend, there’s a secret somewhere in Fresh that may have you wishing the film played out more like When Harry Met Sally versus When Harry Ate Sally.
Things go surprisingly well at first for Steve (Sebastian Stan) and Noa after a seemingly chance encounter at a supermarket, when Steve approaches Noa with a pick-up line in the produce aisle.
Steve: Do you live around here? Because I live on aisle six. I just come to the fruit section to talk to random, very good-looking people that stand near it.
Then, days later, the two are perfectly in sync over a drink at a local bar.
Noa: You don’t have Instagram. Wow. What about Twitter?
Steve: Definitely not. Does anyone say anything smart on Twitter ever? The worst.
Noa: How am I supposed to stalk you now?
Steve: You’re just going to have to do it in person. Show up at my house. The old-fashioned way. Send me a letter. That would be nice.
And finally, in a telling exchange back at her place…
Noa: Can I get you something to drink, or eat?
Steve: No, just you.
Thanks to witty dialogue and a fresh script by Lauryn Kahn, Noa and Steve are a couple we’re rooting for from the opening tip. Mostly because the timing couldn’t be more perfect for Noa, who’s just admitted to being done with dating after a disastrous dinner with a classless d-bag in a scarf.
But sometimes things are too good to be true, and it looks like Noa has fallen victim to this when she accepts an impulse invitation to go away with Steve after just one date. Too soon? Yah.
I’ll spare you the gory details since Fresh is a fun and wildly entertaining ride through a modern romance that involves pleasures of the flesh. It’s also a great vehicle for Stan, who, in playing the light and dark sides of Steve quite well, puts his disarming charm and humor on display in this film. We’ve seen the actor in several high-profile roles of late (à la Tommy Lee in Pam & Tommy) — but there’s something about Fresh that shows us what a softer Stan can do in a role that’ll keep him atop casting wish lists — and might even introduce him to some new ones.
The Career:
As a kid, Stan moved around a lot. The 39-year-old actor was originally born in Constanta, Romania, but moved to Austria when he was 8 and eventually to New York and New Jersey, where he attended Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts before spending a year at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.
Although many people’s first exposure to Stan was as James “Bucky” Barnes (aka the Winter Soldier) in Marvel Cinematic Universe films like Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), his most recent appearance in the MCU was Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). But like so many who pay their dues, Stan originally cut his teeth on smaller roles in films like Tony & Tina’s Wedding (2004) and The Covenant (2006) building his résumé over the years — before he got a break in TV with a recurring role in the popular CW series Gossip Girl (2007-2010).
What few remember about Stan is that he’s done some of his best work as villainous characters — outside of the MCU. One of my personal favorites was in the perpetually underappreciated comedy Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), where Stan nailed it as Blaine, an ’80s ski instructor obsessed with Red Dawn and being the kind of ’ 80s douchebag even Billy Zabka would appreciate. Then there was Stan’s turn as Jeff Gillooly in I, Tonya (2018), playing Tonya Harding’s real-life ex-husband who infamously orchestrated ice skater Nancy Kerrigan’s hobbling in 1994.
Other than playing loathsome characters, another interesting twist to Stan’s career is that the actor has “portrayed a troubled, closeted gay son of a powerful parent in three different productions” according to IMDB: The Architect (2006), Kings (2009) and Political Animals (2012). Suffice to say, there’s a diverse blend of roles to be found in Stan’s wake — and now, along with Fresh, he can also be currently seen doing solid work in the aforementioned Hulu series Pam & Tommy, where he embodies every inch of Mötley Crüe drummer in the role.
Thanks to a nine-picture deal with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stan will be in more superhero stuff to come. He just can’t talk about any of it yet. For now, he’ll just keep trending up by landing juicy roles in projects like the upcoming Apple/A24 con-artist flick, Sharper.
Looking to get your big break? Sign up or login to Casting Networks and land your next acting role today!
Related articles:
Acting Up: Lily James
Acting Up: Pedro Pascal
Acting Up: Will Poulter
Gregg Rosenzweig has been a writer, creative director and managing editor for various entertainment clients, ad agencies and digital media companies over the past 20 years. He is also a partner in the talent management/production company, The Rosenzweig Group.
