CraveOnline: I know people prod for news and things like that, but I think what people really want is an assurance that this being done right.
Sebastian Stan: Absolutely, and I totally understand. I totally get it. As an actor, approaching it, that was always my main concern, wanting to do it the right justice, the way that it’s written, the way the material has been that people have loved. It’s kind of a neat thing because you already have it all mapped out. In a way you don’t always get that as an actor. You don’t always have all this information that you can draw from, and I can definitely tell that, from my point of view and from the others that are involved, we all just tried really hard to make sure to honor [it].
I feel like Bucky was a very dapper guy. What did you do to change into The Winter Soldier as opposed to Bucky?
I mean, there wasn’t very much for me… Honestly, all I had to do was look at the comics and look at what’s there on the page, and what’s there on the page is that you have a guy who almost, pretty much, even looks different. Do you know what I mean? So there’s traces of that. What I really was trying to do in the first movie is prepare myself, a little bit, that if this was the way it was going to go, that hopefully when you do see this movie and then you look back at the first movie, that you’re going to see certain things in the first movie that I’ve tried to implement in order to make sense that they’re going to come up in this movie.
That’s very forward thinking of you.
So my hope is that, [while] there is a very different quality about him, there’s also things about him that kind of go, “Okay, that’s the person. That’s just a version of that person that we’ve seen, and this is the…” You know, if you took this characteristic of that person, this is what would happen. We’re all happy, right? We’re all either happy, sad, angry, emotional… It’s one of those things where it’s sort of like… We all have friends where we go, “Oh, that guy’s really funny.” Imagine if you take one of the characteristics of somebody you know, and you just maximize it, like you’re just working on a muscle. So if, per se… What would it be like if Bucky got really angry? I mean, really angry?
Tell me about the difference between Joe Johnston and the new directors. Are they very different on set? Do they have a different idea of the tone of it?
I think, you know, Joe was extremely particular to, and I think he really got the… It has to do with where he comes from, and the movie he’s worked on. He really understood the origin of the character, the world, and that 1940s vibe, and he was the man for the job. The Russos were very specific. They came in with a very specific idea of what they wanted this movie to [be]. They wanted it to feel a certain way, they wanted it to look and have a more fast-paced, modern, realistic approach to it, and in a sense have something about it be a little non-comic bookish, in a sense that [it’s] more relatable. So, personally, when I look at the two movies, I look at the first one like listening to the story of what happened, whereas when you look at this one, the idea is you’re going to be there with these people, in that room while that’s happening. They were very specific about that.
I would like to about a movie I actually “have” seen. The Covenant is kind of awesome.
[Laughs] Wow! Yeah.
The final fight scene in that movie is a total blast, in a very, very special way.
Oh great.
When you go, “Oooooooooh witchy…?” I can’t do it.
Oh, please, it was a very hard line to get through! [Laughs]
That was in the script?
That was in the script, and you know to be quite honest… [Laughs] That was in the script. I remember at the read through I walked to the producer and I said, “I’m not really going to have to say that on the day, right?” “No, no, no, no, no! Don’t worry about it! No, yeah, that’s just a reference.”
And then the day comes and it’s like, “No, you’re going to have to say it.” Oh, god! And all I know is my friends that I went to acting school with, one of my friends was like, “Sebastian Stan! Congratulations from Rutgers University!” It was a very hard line to make myself believe saying it.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
