{"id":954307,"date":"2026-05-12T07:13:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954307\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T07:13:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:13:30","slug":"sebastian-stan-on-fjord-cannes-fatherhood-batman-part-ii-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954307\/","title":{"rendered":"Sebastian Stan On ‘Fjord’, Cannes, Fatherhood & ‘Batman: Part II’: Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn Cristian Mungiu<\/a>\u2019s Fjord<\/a>, Sebastian Stan<\/a> returns to his Romanian roots with a story that forces us to examine our prejudices, our assumptions, and the treatment of immigrants. Starring opposite Renate Reinsve<\/a>, Stan once again plunges into a risky, thorny role with a look that belies his MCU star status. As he prepares for both fatherhood and playing a supervillain in The Batman: Part II<\/a>, he\u2019s focused on being one of the good guys.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tSebastian Stan has been thinking about men. He\u2019s been reading a lot on the subject; studying it, if you will. What makes a good man? How can we support children and young people? What should we do about social media? All this prep is for a role of sorts, but not an acting one. Soon, he and his partner, actor Annabelle Wallis<\/a>, will welcome their first child.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI want to be a good dad,\u201d he says simply.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sebastian<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Zaeh for Deadline<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019re discussing his latest film Fjord, which will premiere in Competition at Cannes<\/a>. Stan plays a man forced to contemplate his own value as a father and as a man \u2014 an experience that must now seem serendipitous, given the timing of his personal life.<\/p>\n

\n\tWritten and directed by Cristian Mungiu, whose 2007 film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the Palme d\u2019Or<\/a>, Fjord stars Stan and Renate Reinsve as Mihai and Lisbet Gheorghiu \u2014 immigrant parents of five children who move from Romania to Lisbet\u2019s small Norwegian hometown.<\/p>\n

\n\tInspired by the real-life story of Marius and Ruth Bodnariu, the deeply religious family have ways of raising their children that bump up hard against local government policy, landing Mihai and Lisbet in court.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is Stan\u2019s first role in his native Romanian; he grew up under Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu\u2019s communist rule until his mother brought him to Vienna, Austria when he was 8 years old. Then, when Stan was 12, he moved to New York with his mother and American stepfather.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Fjord, once again, as with The Apprentice<\/a> <\/a>and A Different Man<\/a>, Stan conceals his movie star looks. This time he not only wears wonky fake teeth, but he shaved his head \u2014 and not a hot buzzcut, we\u2019re talking shiny bald pate above a ring of fuzz. The wardrobe is lumpy and practical. The look is giving middle-aged uncool dad.<\/p>\n

\n

As the film proves, he doesn\u2019t need to be handsome to keep you glued to the screen. I can\u2019t thank him enough for this, and I believe I should thank his girlfriend as well.<\/p>\n

Cristian Mungiu, writer-director of Fjord<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\tMungiu decided that Stan was \u201ctoo good-looking, somehow. Sebastian was very generous and he followed my idea about how he should be looking for Fjord. As the film proves, he doesn\u2019t need to be handsome to keep you glued to the screen. I can\u2019t thank him enough for this, and I believe I should thank his girlfriend as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the teeth, Stan went to special makeup effects designer Jason Collins, with whom he\u2019d worked on his Tommy Lee look for the television series Pam & Tommy (for which Stan was Emmy-nominated). \u201cI showed him some pictures of my old teeth before I got Invisalign, and then he remade those,\u201d says Stan.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sebastian<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve and their on-screen family in \u2018Fjord\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNeon<\/p>\n

\n\tThe great head shave was \u201can experiment. I was all about it once we nailed it. She kept cutting it and cutting it and I was like, \u2018Let\u2019s keep going.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRight now, the hair has grown out into a crew cut, but how did he feel living day-to-day with the transformation on set?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t think twice about it,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it\u2019s all about serving the story and these people, however they are. And at that point, you\u2019ve got to just put yourself in the backseat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut surely, for some men, Stan\u2019s new \u2018do is the stuff of nightmares, which brings us back to men in general \u2014 not just fatherhood, but the male loneliness and misogyny epidemic, and in particular, emerging toxic ideas on what it means to be a \u201creal man.\u201d I mention his Golden Globes acceptance speech<\/a> last year for A Different Man, in which he spoke of his stepfather \u201cwho took on a single mom and a grown-up kid,\u201d and thanked him \u201cfor being a real man.\u201d I tell him that, to me, being a good man means integrity, consistency and quiet strength, among other things.<\/p>\n

\n

You really see how young men right now are suffering from a lack of true male role models. We\u2019re having a lot of examples at the moment of very narcissistic, very aggressive, very entitled examples of being a man\u2026 It\u2019s incredibly upsetting. It\u2019s painful to see.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Stan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\t\u201cI think the question of masculinity is really under a magnifying glass at the moment,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are way smarter people than me that have been talking about this. Jonathan Haidt, for instance, who wrote that great book The Anxious Generation, has been talking not just about boys, but little girls also, and the lack of influences outside of the phone and the technology and what that\u2019s doing. There\u2019s also this other great book, I think it\u2019s called Of Boys and Men [by Richard V. Reeves]. And you really see how young men right now are suffering from a lack of true male role models. We\u2019re having a lot of examples at the moment of very narcissistic, very aggressive, very entitled examples of being a man\u2026 It\u2019s incredibly upsetting. It\u2019s painful to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sebastian<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSebastian Stan accepting his Golden Globe award for \u2018A Different Man\u2019 in 2025<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRich Polk\/Penske Media\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also mentions the book Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway. \u201cI\u2019m feeling the responsibility of being a good father,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd not to mention a good man. I\u2019m 43 and I feel, in a lot of ways, I\u2019m just starting to learn now. It\u2019s just crazy to me. So, I love when I see I\u2019m discovering different people\u2019s point of view. I try to read as much as I can, no matter what the point of view is, just to understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, what does being a man feel like to\u00a0him now?<\/p>\n

\n\tHe pauses. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, in the last couple years, I\u2019ve started to identify sometimes being a man with just holding a plank for a very long, long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI laugh. Does he mean the physical exercise?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYes. Because I think it is about tolerance. And I think that\u2019s something that we\u2019re not teaching young men. We\u2019re not teaching them how to tolerate discomfort, how to understand their own emotions, their own anger, their own frustrations. Nobody\u2019s educating them on how to embrace depression, or being sad, feeling things, being weak, crying. I reconnected with my own [biological] father much later in life, but I was able to draw this inspiration of, \u2018It\u2019s OK for you to feel whatever you\u2019re feeling.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a young man, Stan\u2019s father risked his life to help dissidents escape Ceau\u0219escu\u2019s regime, smuggling them out on cargo ships, before being forced to flee the country himself. Father and son largely lost touch but were reunited when Stan was 18. Then, in 2021, his father died.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen he thinks of the stepfather he called \u201ca real man\u201d in that Globes speech, he says the example he set for Stan was \u201cThis quiet integrity that you spoke about, this quiet strength, this way of providing, this way of being there. Listening and understanding and protection as well. You\u2019ve got to provide and protect. That\u2019s kind of what I thought about in terms of what it means to be a man. And sometimes that means putting your own ego aside and looking at how you can support your family, or your loved ones, and be an example.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sebastian<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Zaeh for Deadline<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s back to thinking about the welfare of children and young people. \u201cLet me just state it for the record, how much I celebrated that verdict against the social media companies,\u201d he says, referring to the recent landmark case in California against Meta and Google<\/a>, citing them for negligent design and their effect on young people\u2019s mental health. \u201cActually, finally holding them accountable for years and years, and stacks upon stacks of data [showing] that they have known of the neurological and emotional and mental impact that they\u2019re having on these young people. That\u2019s one of the reasons why you\u2019ve got boys right now who are being totally subdued and seduced by these phones, and to some extent, I think brainwashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tStan had wanted to work with Mungiu for years. \u201cGrowing up, I knew very well that he was an incredible filmmaker,\u201d he says. They first met at a Lincoln Center screening of Mungiu\u2019s 2016 film Graduation and then, Stan says, began figuring out how to work together. \u201cWe came close on his last film [R.M.N.], but it just wasn\u2019t really a good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Working with Sebastian again was a joy. He\u2019s an incredibly generous actor and human being \u2014 deeply committed to his work, endlessly curious, and brave in his choices.<\/p>\n

Renate Reinsve<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\tMungiu zeroed in on Stan after seeing his performance in I, Tonya as Jeff Gillooly, the deeply unlikable ex-husband to Margot Robbie\u2019s Tonya Harding. \u201cI programmed that film in this American Independent Film Festival that I founded in Bucharest. Sebastian came over and then we had the time to talk more about acting, cinema, life, his films. What is maybe funny is that the last performance that I\u2019d watched by Sebastian was him in Captain America. When my younger son learned that I might work together with Sebastian, he insisted that I should see that film as well. I took his advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLike Mungiu\u2019s son, many know Stan for his Marvel Cinematic Universe trajectory, starring as Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier, in several films, the most recent being Thunderbolts*. It\u2019s fair to say that Stan could easily have rested on his superhero movie laurels and polished an action hero career. Instead, he faced the wrath of President Trump by playing him in The Apprentice \u2014 a role that many advised Stan not to touch but which earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination<\/a>. That same year he played Edward, a facially disfigured struggling actor, in A Different Man and won at the Golden Globes<\/a>, where, in addition to thanking his mother and stepfather, he called for more inclusive stories.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sebastian<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSebastian Stan in \u2018Captain America: The Winter Soldier\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZade Rosenthal\/\u00a9Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures\/courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tBeing paired with Reinsve in Fjord was a no-brainer for Stan \u2014 he\u2019d already worked closely with her on A Different Man. \u201cIt was an easy decision,\u201d he says. \u201cRenate is such a gifted actor and she\u2019s so generous, not only as a person, but as an artist, and in terms of how she works, it\u2019s very collaborative and she gives everything to every moment. Obviously, we\u2019d had A Different Man and that was great. This was going to be a very different relationship and a different way of working from that. But I\u2019m such a fan of hers, obviously from [her film] The Worst Person in the World. I remember Cristian asking me what I thought about working with her, and I just said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to hurry up and get her. It\u2019s going to be great.\u2019 So that also just felt very natural the way everything was coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReinsve says of being reunited with Stan, \u201cWorking with Sebastian again was a joy. He\u2019s an incredibly generous actor and human being \u2014 deeply committed to his work, endlessly curious, and brave in his choices. This project was very different from our previous collaboration, and the dynamic between us required a reset. But we also had a shared foundation of trust, which allowed us to move quickly and take risks together, grounded in friendship and mutual respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Reinsve says, Stan is indeed brave in his choices. As with The Apprentice, his Fjord character is far from a safe or easy option. Mihai may have integrity and solidity, he may love his family and believe he is doing the best for them, but many will find some of his values deeply problematic. And that, surely, is the point: What do we do when we don\u2019t agree with people\u2019s principles? Where is the line for intervention or control? In the film, the actions of the government against Mihai and Lisbet are extreme and partly in response to their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

\n\tMungiu\u2019s journalistic roots initially led him to the real-life Bodnariu case behind the story, but Fjord is a fictional amalgam of various people\u2019s experiences. Says the director, \u201cI talked to as many people as possible involved in such cases, not only in Norway, but also in the other Nordic countries. Not just with the families but all the parts: judges, lawyers, child protection, press, social activists. At the end I came up with a story that is fictional and doesn\u2019t follow just one real story but a kind of pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStan read everything he could for background, learning about the Barnevernet, Norway\u2019s child welfare service. \u201cI found that there were actually quite a few other cases that were ambiguous in terms of the practices surrounding those cases, and some cases where they were really impactful in a positive way. And in other cases where they had come under question \u2014 are they helping truly protect children or are they tearing families apart?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sebastian<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve in \u2018A Different Man\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA24 \/ Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Stan there\u2019s a stark correlation between the themes in the film and the treatment of immigrants in the U.S. \u201cI\u2019m certainly hoping that people will be able to look at this movie and make the clear parallel to what\u2019s happening in the U.S., when families are being torn apart by institutions that are government-funded with taxpaying dollars. Because, in my point of view, it\u2019s really no different. This is just one experience in this particular case, where you really see a very different way of being and living, whether it\u2019s in Norway or Romania, and the clashing of that difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSays Mungiu, \u201cToday, our societies have become polarized in the extreme, inciting a kind of radicalization that splits people into opposite rival groups that disregard, despise and often detest one another. We are certain that we are right while the others are always manipulated, radicalized, simple-minded, brainwashed. We have very few to no doubts. And this is what leads to this wave of extremisms of all sorts\u2026 It would be a great flaw for me if Fjord just confirms to you the ideas that you already had before watching it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReinsve agrees with this view of a broader problem. \u201cThis story could take place anywhere,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are living in a time of increasing polarization across the world, and it often leads only to conflict. What would it look like for progressive and traditional perspectives to coexist without fear or judgment? How do we remain flexible in our beliefs without losing our values? And how do we stay open to the possibility that we might be wrong \u2014 without letting that idea destabilize us completely?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

There\u2019s obviously a lot of judgment towards immigrants from that point of view, because it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, you\u2019re coming here. You should either be like us or go back home.\u2019 All of that is being explored in the movie, but I had a way into it and understanding it.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Stan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\tIn the film, when Mihai is questioned by authorities about his parenting, he is willing to admit he was wrong, and Stan muses on this. \u201cFlexibility is the key word,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate because what we\u2019re seeing right now is this example of this real rigidness and this loud barking by these political figures that are just\u2026 The bark is so loud. It reminds me of somebody, when they drive their car, they\u2019re blasting the motor down the street and you go, \u2018Sorry, but how small is your penis? You\u2019re saying that you have to alert the entire street?\u2019 Whereas, if you ask me, it\u2019s the guy in the corner that seems quiet and seems unbothered that I look to save the day, not the loud guy advertising every emotional upheaval and self-absorbed victimhood that he\u2019s projecting on us. I don\u2019t have to name any names anymore. I mean, if it isn\u2019t obvious enough, for god\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFjord was an opportunity for Stan to rediscover his Romanian roots. Ordinarily, he speaks Romanian to his mother, and \u201cevery chance I can get. We just went to this Romanian restaurant in Queens called Romanian Garden for Easter on Sunday. It was really funny, I was switching back and forth between English and Romanian.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis Fjord character, like Stan himself, is also an immigrant \u2014 did Stan feel a personal duty to both tell an immigrant story here and to portray Trump in The Apprentice?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s always this fine line as an actor of, what is my responsibility and is there a duty to uphold this mirror to the world as we see it? And I do believe there is. We\u2019re not on the front lines like many others. We\u2019re not in the hospitals, and we\u2019re not like the journalists that are out there with the incoming fire. All we can do is through storytelling, do our part to represent in any way we can, as truthfully as we can, the complexities that we are all dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis own experience arriving in New York, speaking no English, was clearly no picnic.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was very similar to the Gheorghius in the movie,\u201d he says. \u201cThey find themselves out of place and it\u2019s awkward. I think there\u2019s a real self-consciousness, in a way, that can be very debilitating. When you\u2019re an adult, it\u2019s different. You\u2019re more formed and you can own things, but as a kid, you really, really don\u2019t want to be different. You want to fit in.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn the one hand, I think it really helped me, because that fear and that self-consciousness of being different propelled me to really obsessively learn English quickly, and I did, and I managed to adapt. But on the other hand, it generated years of shame and embarrassment, and this part of myself that I didn\u2019t quite really know would be helpful to my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut when Stan got a bit older, he realized that differences and complexities can be a superpower. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until I was 17 or something where I could start to go, \u2018Oh, wait, actually this is good. This is important. This is probably going to help me.\u2019 It\u2019s like you\u2019re living in a house and never opening the door to the basement or to a room upstairs. You just never know what you have there if you don\u2019t go. At least, that was my experience as a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Cristian<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWriter-director Cristian Mungiu on the set of \u2018Fjord\u2019 in Norway<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNeon<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Fjord, he says, \u201cObviously I understood what it felt like to go into a different country with different customs, different values, belief systems, and not know necessarily how my own way of life, or what I have learned growing up would translate to a different culture. There\u2019s obviously a lot of judgment towards immigrants from that point of view, because it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, you\u2019re coming here. You should either be like us or go back home.\u2019 All of that is being explored in the movie, but I had a way into it and understanding it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen he arrived on the set in Norway, Stan found himself embraced by the Romanian crew. \u201cIt was very touching. I\u2019d left when I left, and it\u2019s not necessarily like I had a choice, it was the choice that my mom had made \u2014 I benefited from it and there\u2019s nothing there to cry about \u2014 I just mean there was never a reunion that I experienced. And this film very much felt like that, when these crew members came around me and said, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re one of us. We\u2019re so happy you\u2019re doing this movie. It means the world to us. Thank you for acknowledging the country you\u2019re from.\u2019 It only motivated me to want to do more justice to this family and these characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

His acting in Romanian was impeccable, consistent, believable, precise, nuanced. So, Hollywood, take care, the Romanian industry might steal him from you.<\/p>\n

Cristian Mungiu<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\tReinsve remembers a lovely atmosphere amid stunning scenery. \u201cWe lived and filmed surrounded by mountains. The beauty and the drama of hearing stones fall or roads being blocked because of stone avalanches and having to get to set on a small boat together early\u00a0in the morning\u2026 We were people from many different countries building this together in an incredible environment, and there was a lot of dancing, barbecues, karaoke under the Northern Lights. I love Romanian culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMungiu recalls Stan being a little worried that his Romanian language wasn\u2019t perfect anymore. \u201cBut his acting in Romanian was impeccable, consistent, believable, precise, nuanced,\u201d the director says. \u201cSo, Hollywood, take care, the Romanian industry might steal him from you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMungiu likes to shoot oner-style, with no coverage, and the trickiest scene, rather unsurprisingly, involved both children and animals. \u201cSebastian had to play with the three children but also with a flock of sheep. You\u2019ve seen R.M.N. \u2014 even the scenes with animals are in just one shot for us, even if they require choreography. There\u2019s no improvisation, everybody needs to do and say things precisely right and still make it look as if it\u2019s spontaneous and fresh. It was challenging to get it, but when you\u2019re watching the film, please note the way the sheep looks at Sebastian at the end of the chosen take. He couldn\u2019t possibly get a more honest compliment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStan hasn\u2019t seen Fjord yet, because Mungiu has asked that he and Reinsve wait until they can have the full big-screen experience at the Cannes premiere May 18.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have to trust him there,\u201d says Stan. \u201cLast time I was there with The Apprentice, Cate Blanchett was two rows ahead of me, and it was so bizarre and overwhelming to have her stand up and be clapping and looking at you. And so, it\u2019s a very special moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sebastian<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tL-R: Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn in \u2018The Apprentice\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPief Weyman\/ Briarcliff Entertainment\/ Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tI remind him of the time two years ago when I ran into him at The Apprentice premiere afterparty in Cannes. No one else had arrived yet, and it was just Stan, standing alone in a beach restaurant. He wasn\u2019t even looking at his phone, he was just standing there, looking shellshocked.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was in a dream,\u201d he explains now. He likens his experience of climbing the red-carpeted steps of Cannes\u2019 Grand Th\u00e9\u00e2tre Lumi\u00e8re to the scene in Titanic when Kate Winslet\u2019s character dreams she\u2019s back on the ship\u2019s staircase, surrounded by a cheering crowd. \u201cIt\u2019s so wild, and you go, \u2018It can\u2019t be. It just can\u2019t be that these people are all here for this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, will he take his mother with him to Cannes, to celebrate the first time he\u2019s playing a Romanian role?<\/p>\n

\n\tUnexpectedly, he laughs. \u201cListen, let me tell you something, OK? My mom came to the Oscars, and it was amazing. I kept asking her, \u2018What are you going to wear?\u2019 And finally, she decided on this feather dress. And then I spent the entire night picking feathers off of Jeremy Strong or Monica Barbaro, who was sitting next to me, and her father. These feathers were everywhere. I was counting them all day long. And every time she stood up and sat back down, more feathers were flying. I was like, \u2018No more feathers.\u2019 So, I\u2019m like, \u2018What are you going to wear, mom?\u2019 But of course, I\u2019ll always include her in everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sebastian<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSebastian Stan with his mother Georgeta Orlovschi at the 2025 Academy Awards <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMike Coppola\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tSoon, Stan will begin work on The Batman: Part II in the role of supervillain Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face. The film will shoot in London, the city where Stan trod the boards in 2003 with a year\u2019s study at Shakespeare\u2019s Globe Theater. \u201cMark Rylance was the artistic director,\u201d he remembers. \u201cAnd my teacher was Mike Alfreds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a Brit myself, and knowing his partner Wallis is too, I ask if he\u2019s ready to enjoy more British humor, especially the television. \u201cOh my god!\u201d he says. \u201cWhat is the show that my girlfriend I watch all the time where you\u2019re watching other people watch TV? Gogglebox! It\u2019s hilarious. And it has a very weird, pleasing, soothing quality to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s also been loving the new UK version of Saturday Night Live, but the British clincher for him is a surprising choice: Hugh Grant in Nine Months. \u201cI\u2019m telling you, that movie is so underrated and is so funny. I met him when we were on The Graham Norton Show. It was like a life achievement to get on that show, because I\u2019d watched it so many times and I was so excited. The whole time I couldn\u2019t convince him that I really loved Nine Months. He kept thinking I was pulling his leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Batman: Part II,<\/a> will be, he says, \u201ca challenge, like everything else. I feel like it\u2019s a really ambitious movie and I think if we do it all right \u2014 and obviously I\u2019m so excited about Matt Reeves [directing] because he\u2019s been one of my favorites for a long, long time \u2014 I really think it\u2019s going to blow people away. It\u2019s going to surprise a lot of people, I think, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA few years ago, Stan commented in an interview that the real world has more in common with superhero movies than we realize. Having made several MCU films and now with DC Comics\u2019 Batman coming up, how does he feel about the relevance of these films now?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cObviously there\u2019s a reason why Batman\u2019s been re-occurring for so many years, and why so many kids love Spider-Man,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re thinking of, honestly, just anything positive for young men. If you\u2019re a teenager and you\u2019re growing up and you\u2019re watching that, it\u2019s about a kid being odd and figuring his way into things. And it works in very subtle ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHas he thought about writing and directing? What about telling the story of a real-life hero: his father, who saved all those people in Romania?<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead the digital edition of Deadline\u2019s\u00a0Disruptors<\/a>\/Cannes magazine\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think about it all the time,\u201d he says. \u201cOver the years, I\u2019ve gotten into writing a lot. And some of it is just for my own sanity \u2014 some of it maybe will see the light of day in some capacity or not. There are so many great talented directors and people out there that it\u2019s like, why go on the trip if you can get someone better to do it? But in terms of my dad, of course, when he was alive, I did say to him at one point, \u2018I think we just need to sit for a while, then I\u2019m going to just ask you some questions and record it so I can understand truly what you\u2019ve gone through.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think what fascinates me, again, to parlay it back to this idea of manhood, and it\u2019s so complicated, is that he was in his 20s when he was helping people escape the country, and he was, in his own way, still providing for me and my mom, which was not in a conventional way, but he was in his 20s. And I just think about that, because there was a degree of awareness and a degree of a drive, and a belief that I feel had nothing to do with approval. It had nothing to do with, \u2018I\u2019m going to do this so that I get more attention online, or, I\u2019m going to fight for this cause or whatever so that someone will give me a pat on the back.\u2019 It was totally selfless in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt this, he is quiet for a minute. Maybe he\u2019s worrying again about getting parenthood right, or just thinking about all the things our conversation has circled: integrity, protection, flexibility, and now selflessness.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019ll be a great dad.<\/p>\n

\n\tSebastian Stan shot on location in New York at Go Studios. <\/p>\n

\n\tEast Deck Creative Crew: photographer\/creative director, Andrew Zaeh; videographer\/editor, Jack Mallett; digital tech, Rob Grima; production designer, Vianny Guevara. Deadline design director: Fah Sakharet. Deadline video director: Ben Bloom. Sebastian\u2019s stylist: Jason Bolden. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Cristian Mungiu\u2019s Fjord, Sebastian Stan returns to his Romanian roots with a story that forces us to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[266366,266367,5839,249591,6639,4080,266368,266369,77,88773,257730,16804,1377,266370,80486,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-954307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-a-different-man","9":"tag-annabelle-wallis","10":"tag-cannes","11":"tag-cannes-2026","12":"tag-cannes-film-festival","13":"tag-celebrities","14":"tag-cristian-mungiu","15":"tag-disruptors","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-fjord","18":"tag-renate-reinsve","19":"tag-sebastian-stan","20":"tag-the-apprentice","21":"tag-the-batman-ii","22":"tag-the-batman-part-ii","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116560372267590455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}