Sebastian Stan called out a reporter for commenting on his co-star Adam Pearson’s facial disfigurement.
While the actors were promoting “A Different Man” at the Berlin Film Festival in February, a journalist asked, “What do you think happens after the transformation from this so-called beast, as they call him, to this perfect man?”
Stan, 42, quickly decided to call out the journo “a bit” for his “choice of words” during the panel in a video that resurfaced this week as he and Pearson, 39, promote the movie’s US release.
“I think part of why the film is important is because we often don’t have maybe even the right vocabulary,” the Golden Globe nominee explained. “I think it’s a little more complex than that.
“And obviously there [are] language barriers and so on, but you know, ‘beast’ isn’t the word, I think.”
In the movie, Stan’s character, Edward, becomes fixated on Pearson’s character, Oswald, who plays Edward in a stage production of his former life.
Pearson has neurofibromatosis, which is characterized by benign tumors growing in the nervous system, both in the psychological thriller and real life.
During his clapback, Stan slammed the public’s “preconceived ideas” about the condition.
“We’re not really educated on how to really understand this experience,” he said. “So I can’t really speak to that. One of the things I love about the movie is that he’s offering you a way to kind of look at it.”
The Emmy nominee noted, “Hopefully, if you can have the same objective point of view while you’re experiencing the film, then maybe you can pick apart the initial instincts that you have. And maybe those aren’t always the right ones.”
As for Pearson, he chimed in to acknowledge that Stan does not know “what it’s like to have a disfigurement.”
However, he said, “[Stan does] know what it’s like to not have privacy and to have your life constantly invaded. You become public property.”
Many YouTube users praised Stan for sticking up for his co-star in a “very gracious” and “sensible” manner.
Meanwhile, others defended the journalist, pointing out that he was “not a native English speaker.”
Another wrote, “So one noticed the journalist [said], ‘This so called beast, AS THEY CALL HIM?’ The journalist was using the words used in the movie. He didn’t really need to be called out. Sebastian Stan misunderstood.”
“A Different Man” premiered in January.
Stan will next star in “The Apprentice,” in which he portrays Donald Trump.
The “Gossip Girl” alum has a history of playing real people on screen, most recently acting as Tommy Lee in Hulu’s “Pam & Tommy.”
