INTERVIEW: SEBASTIAN STAN, THE WINTER SOLDIER
Q: Were you at all concerned about how they’d pull off the look of the arm?
Stan: Actually, I was always worried about that. It actually informed, in a way, a lot of character stuff for me because I had enough time to work with it, and it sort of changed the way I was moving. It was one of those things where I sat and I sort of thought and thought and thought about what it was going to be like on the day, but until you just get into it completely, until it was just on and everything, then that discovery came to light. It was really neat because I felt like it just was the missing piece. And then I was really informed where to go with it.
Q: Talk about your character now in present day…
Stan: It’s just a neat thing. It’s just a really cool sort of thing. The World War II aspect is, you know, you get to research the music and the way people talked and the way they behaved and the way they dressed and what there hobbies were. You get to daydream about what these guys might have done on a Friday night. And there’s something very romantic about the way everyone dressed back then and all that. It’s cool. You take that and you bring those, well for him essentially, bring those [traits] from that time into the world of today. There’s a lot of sides to that. There’s a lot of comedy to that because it’s sort of having to get to know everything all over again, or for the first time rather. There’s a lot of endearing sides to that; to having someone with such an old mentality yet still very fresh in the world that we know today. Winter might not be there just yet.
Q: How much of the old Bucky will we see in The Winter Soldier?
Stan: I think my goal is that you’ll get to see that. You know, the truth of the situation is (although) he looks very different (and) there’s different things about him, it still comes from the same person. I think you’ll get to see that no matter what. I think part of my goal here was to make sure that you see an extension of that version, but just a different color of that same version in a way. I think he’s still the same guy; he’s cut from the same cloth. In terms of the first movie, all I was really trying to show here and there were aspects of him when he was, there’s that one shot where he sort of saves his life. You see that he’s a sniper and someone who is, just something about his face and his sort of expression when he sort of saves Steve’s life and kind of shot someone without being really hit by it. Just little things like that; that there was an edge to him, that there was something that he was maybe wrestling with a little more. At the time, in the first movie, it’s like they’re just trying to find themselves. They’re just young guys trying to find themselves who have go to war, so whatever that means. I hope that people can kind of track that a little bit when they look at it A to Z.
Q: Talk a bit about working with Chris again…
Stan: It’s like no time’s gone by. It’s really neat. We just see each other when we go, ‘Round two. Here we go.’ And then we’re back to where we were. If anything, we just grew up a couple more years, and then funny enough, you find that that experience makes its way into the character as well, which is appropriate in a weird way because some time has gone by. I always thought that was a cool thing about having a little bit of time as opposed to having gone right into this movie like right after the first one, because I feel like I grew up a little bit and then Winter Soldier to some extent, even though he barely ages to some extent, he is a little bit older as well in the few years that he was not in the homeostasis situation that he sort of wasn’t aging a little bit. I think a lot of those dynamics will actually just make it into the film, which will be interesting.
Q: What intrigues you about the story/character?
Stan: It’s just so interesting because he stood out to me in the comics. He’s sort of like this tragic character, like in Shakespeare or something. I’m not trying to get all actor-y and blah blah. What I mean is just, it’s like this guy’s eternal struggle to try to find himself and try to be a good person in all the sense, that he’s learned that he’s supposed to be, and then this thing happens to him and then he goes on this whole path relearning about himself and what he has to live with and all the things that he’s done. You know, it’s such an interesting, heavy, and rich kind of character, and it’s just so exciting to me. It’s never black or white with him, there’s always these other things, there’s so much more to the character. And later on and when he eventually tries to find his place back in the world. But even when he’s quote end quote brainwashed and whatnot, he’s still dealing with the dreams and nightmares so on, and he doesn’t know where it’s coming from. It’s kind of like taking a really unstable person and putting them in one of the most dangerous weapons, and just go, go into the world and see what happens. It’s a cool ride that way.
