- I was walking in New York City
and 2011 was a very difficult year.
I was getting really close
to a lot of roles I really, really wanted and I just,
just wasn't closing it.
And then I got a call on a really cold day
from my business manager saying,
I was just about to call you to tell you
that you had one month left of resources
before you need a job, but you just receive the residual
for your "Hot Tub Time Machine" movie.
So you're okay for a little bit more.
[calm music]
Hi, my name is Sebastian Stan
and this is the timeline of my career.
It was in that Michael Haneke movie called "71 Fragments."
In Vienna, Austria I played a Romanian orphan kid
and I guess I was selected to have this one scene
where my character interacts
with another character in this subway.
That was my very first, I guess, on camera experience,
and I remember hating it.
We had to be there all night and I told my mom that I just,
I never wanna act again.
And she sort of allowed me
to sort of find my way back to it.
And it wasn't really until 14, 15
when I auditioned for the school play,
I'd mainly done it because
my best friend at the time was in it
and I think once I saw him do that
I had enough courage to try it again.
And then that's how everything sort of started.
- Ooh!
Witchy!
Oops, wait.
Did I, did I just say witch?
- I'd gotten out of college at Rutgers,
moved into the city on 42nd Street actually
across from Port Authority.
I had a roommate and we each paid $800 a month,
which was a great deal at the time.
And it was sort of this wild magical time,
being in New York and running to auditions.
And fortunately I booked my first movie role,
which was this movie called "The Architect."
And then shortly after at, through an audition tape,
where I decided to smoke cigarettes because I guess,
I don't know what I was doing.
But it had worked because for some reason
it was for the villain character
and I got a call right away.
And then I had an audition with Randy Harlan
for this very peculiar movie called "The Covenant"
starring four warlocks.
I just remember getting that phone call
and it happened like right before my birthday.
It was like the greatest birthday present ever.
It was just a really, really beautiful moment
that kind of, you know,
maybe I don't have to go back to being a waiter,
I can kind of ride this for a little while.
- Look, I don't think it's such a good idea.
- If you're ever gonna take a risk, start now.
What's the point of anything less?
- I did my first Broadway show with Liev Schreiber
called "Talk Radio" and that allowed me to be in New York
for five, six months opposite this incredible actor.
I remember I was so depressed when the show ended
'cause I didn't have a job and I was just worried again.
How are you gonna pay the bills and all that,
and then fortunately one of my really good friends
from "The Covenant," Chase Crawford,
was coming to New York to start a new called "Gossip Girl."
There was a guest star episode
with this character named Carter Baizen and I remember
I was going to Silver Cup Studios to audition for this
and on my way there, I run into a friend
that I was sharing an apartment with him
and his girlfriend at the time and I realized
we're both going out for the same part.
And it's like, oh God, now we're both looking at each other
like, who's gonna get it?
Maybe I can call Chase and I don't know,
he can help me get this part or he can just tell them,
but I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna go,
and if I have a call back and if for some reason
there's any interest whatsoever in this,
then maybe I'll let him know
and then maybe something will happen.
And fortunately I did get a call back
and I think my other friend told me, to this day is like,
you got that role 'cause of Chase.
And who knows, I probably did, maybe, but I got it.
Again, it was all relatively new at the time.
And I remember being on the set
and Ed Westwick's agent at the time came up to me,
pulled me aside and he said, you're doing too much.
Tone it down.
And then they just kept bringing me back fortunately
for a couple years.
It was interesting because "Gossip Girl" at the time
was just unbelievably explosive.
To be on the sidelines and kind of just see, you know,
everybody navigate that level
of attention and fame like that.
It was a very informative sort of time in a way
'cause just growing up in New York
and having a job in New York City
and being able to stay home was just so exciting
and I think, yeah, it was a big growing up experience.
- Ah, ballerinas, no wonder you two look alike.
- So you know, Tom and Jerry here are gay lovers.
- [Tom] Very funny.
- I've never been to the ballet.
- "Black Swan" was cast
by this unbelievable casting director, Mary Vernieu,
who cast "T, Tonya" later and "Pam & Tommy."
It's just interesting how sometimes things come back around,
but Darren Aronofsky was one of the,
continues to be, in my opinion, one of my favorite directors
and his movies were absolutely insane.
It really didn't matter what the part was gonna be,
it was just more the idea of working with him.
And then I remember he looked at me and he said,
do you have any friends? [laughs]
And I was like, I think so.
And he was like, well, I don't know,
is there a friend that could play the other part?
Because what I want is these two guys
on a date with Mila Kunis and Ntalie Portman.
And it's just one scene,
but I want there to be a real chemistry.
So with a friend of yours that maybe is an actor.
And I thought about it and I remember I called, again,
somebody from "The Covenant," Toby Hemingway,
and he was in Los Angeles, I said,
you gotta go right now to Mary Vernieu and audition for this
'cause you and I could play friends and we are friends.
And it was really interesting 'cause he and I were nervous
to obviously to be opposite Natalie Portman Mila Kunis
and then the fact that we had to make out with them,
the whole thing was nerve-wracking.
I just sort of thought, you know what,
maybe this guy's nervous himself to be on this date.
So if that's what's going on for me right now
I guess that's what's gonna have to happen. [chuckles]
But he, Darren, came in and he had a full on backstory
for every character and he just gave us this whole backstory
he had created from nothing and he was like, okay, go.
- Come on.
It's my last night, I gotta get you cleaned up.
- Why, where we going?
- The future?
[dramatic music]
- I certainly did not know
that I would be playing the role for 10 years.
I remember going in for the Steve Rogers role,
not getting that, and then getting a call about this role
and being told about it and where it could go,
but it didn't seem that there was any commitment really.
And the MCU was still very young at the time.
There was always a humble sort of kind of attitude
from Kevin and everybody there, which was like,
look, we have plans and we want to make these movies
and we want to keep building this universe
but we don't know, it could work, it might not work.
But I knew at the end of the story
I was gonna fall off this train
and that then I was gonna be given this green sleeve
which would indicate that I'm would be losing this arm
and then I could go into the Winter Soldier storyline.
And so that was the only sort of indication I had
that potentially I could be coming back,
but no one had said anything to me and then
basically on the day when we were shooting that scene,
they were like, yeah, we're not gonna do the green sleeve.
And I just thought, oh, like, that's it,
like, I'm just gonna die on that train.
There's no coming back.
But they just didn't know
what arm they were gonna use or something and,
kept going from there.
[shield clangs]
It was always such an interesting character
and I felt really lucky
once we got it into the Winter Soldier storyline,
because it was essentially a very relatable character
in the sense that it was a guy struggling with his past
and he was at the center of all these crimes
without really having been aware of it.
I thought that was a really interesting
kind of complex idea for a character.
The journey with him and Steve Rogers is really interesting
about these two guys who are both out of time
and out of place and trying to find their way again
in a different world they don't understand,
that whole thing was relatable.
- What the hell is that?
- Everyone's got a gimmick now.
- I was the first person to fight Spider-Man in the MCU?
Tom Holland?
I mean that's, figures, right?
Guess we helped him out.
It was so weird and wild because it was such a funny moment
with sort of him catching the arm
and the punch and everything,
and Anthony and I sort of having to come together over,
basically Anthony and I got a show
because of Tom Holland I guess,
that's like what I'm realizing now as I'm talking
which is something I really hate for him to know.
Tom, that is, not Anthony.
I just think Kevin Feige
doesn't get as much credit as he deserves
for being the genius mastermind
of putting this entire thing together.
And every single movie to me feels intricately
kind of tied to something else and to another storyline
and it just, there's a lot to those movies I think
that sometimes they don't get the credit that they deserve.
- I've been carefully monitoring my glucose levels,
so I'm really in a sweet spot right now
for sustained energy.
- You're the To the Max driver, you've gotta drink.
- Steven Soderbergh I felt was one of the calmest,
easiest director I've ever worked with.
It felt that once he had cast you in the movie
then it was for a reason and it was up to you
to sort of take the moment and and run with it.
Playing back on that "Black Swan" ideology,
I just wanted to be around good directors
and people I admired and I didn't really care like
the size of the part or whatever.
And that's a relationship that I still have
with both of those men.
I think this is a director's medium
and I think ultimately I don't believe
a performance can save a movie
as much as a director can save a performance.
Even with the writing it's always sort of about the director
because it's his vision or her vision.
You're gonna have to figure out a way
to kind of fit into that, but you're looking for trust,
you're looking for guidance, you're looking for freedom,
and they have to sort of know when to leave you alone
but then also to kind of encourage you
to go in a certain way.
- I ever tell you what I was most afraid of growing up?
- No.
- Oh mys.
- Oh mys?
- Yeah, you know, like in the "Wizard of Oz" when they say,
lions and tigers and bears, oh my.
- Oh my.
- My brother convinced me that
oh mys were gonna come in the middle of the night
and eat me alive.
- You're so dumb.
- It was such a well written script.
It was so unbelievable.
It was funny and yet brutal and it was insane story
that I didn't even know about.
And obviously getting to meet Margot
and having a few chemistry reads with her,
it just felt like this is a really great company
of people telling this important story
and finding a way to do it in a very unique different way
than we've seen before.
So at the time I'd never played a real person before,
so I was mortified and I certainly didn't live his life.
And I didn't remember that
when I was growing up as a kid in the 90s,
but Steven Rogers, who was, and that's his name,
is an amazing writer and he'd gone
and he had interviewed Jeff and he'd interviewed Tanya
and so I had this great audio
and I just went back to looking at all the footage I could
and I went to Portland, Oregon and I just,
I wanted to go to where they met,
where they went on their first date.
All these things were in the script.
A lot of "I, Tonya" is actually very much the telling
of the story from Jeff's point of view as well.
When I was there, I thought,
I should try to at least see if he'd be willing to meet,
and he was, and that was helpful.
It was a big moment for me to sort of end up in that film.
It was such an experience that I grew from
that a lot of things kind of shifted from there for me.
- Pamela.
- Yes, Tommy?
[crowd gasps]
- Would you do me the insane honor of being my wife?
- "Pam & Tommy" is Craig Gillespie.
He's the one that reached out to me
in October of 2020 and said, I'm working on this
and I think you should play Tommy Lee.
I had been trying really hard to work with him again
since "I, Tonya" and finally he called me with this role.
I knew Lily James was gonna be involved,
I thought she was great in what I'd seen her prior to that.
The only issue was that it was a role that I'm not sure
what told him that I should be playing Tommy Lee, right?
'Cause I have no tattoos on my body,
I've never played the drums.
I mean, I knew of Motley crew and the story,
but there was a lot about it that I didn't know.
And then reading the eight episodes
really kind of made me very worried.
I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna be this guy,
but I have to be a part of this.
The writing was so good.
I mean, each of the episodes reveal the story
in a fresh, new way.
Even looking at the research that I was able to find
about what happened online, hadn't really been told before
and certainly not as considerate
in terms of her experience being pre pregnant
and trying to start a family.
And I just sort of thought,
I have to kind of just follow the writing
because it was all in there.
And then it was a lot of conversation with Lily
about trying to capture what appeared to have been
a really intense passionate connection
between these two people,
all while the media was just breathing down their neck.
I think the intention was always to focus on them
and them as people and the invasion of privacy that occurred
rather than necessarily than the scandal in itself.
But I don't think anybody knew how that tape was stolen.
They had nothing to do with this.
And that's something that's wildly misinterpreted,
to this day.
And again, this is a dramatized version of something.
The writers did a good job researching it,
but we will never truly know
'cause we're never gonna be them
and we have to just find ways to tell stories
so that that we can continue to kind of reexamine things
and sometimes ask ourselves questions
and humor and tone sometimes is a very good way
to process difficult things.
So, we can play with certain projections
that we might have had of them, but at the end of the day
you gotta see what the truth
and what the authentic experience
might have been for these people.
It's always about the choices you make
and I think as you get older
you feel so much more goes into it
and it's a long period of time outta your life
to commit to something, so it has to really pull you
and engage you in a certain way,
but I've always loved being able to kind of be challenged
in ways that I haven't before
so I'll just keep looking for those opportunities.