The Chubby Dumpling: Sebastian Stan

The Chubby Dumpling: Sebastian Stan.

Talking about Sebastian Stan, I would say, requires an encyclopaedic knowledge of words; not only that he is a very talented actor and performer, but also he is a very humble human being and an intelligent one as well. Throughout the last ten years, we’ve seen Sebastian in various roles, such as ‘’the Covenant’’, ‘’Gossip Girl’’, ‘’Political Animals’’, ‘’The Martian’’, ‘’Captain America’’, and others. And in each and every role he perfectly mastered the part; whether he is the main antagonist, a psychologically-disturbed persona, a wicked assassin, a space scientist, or an arrogant narcissist, Sebastian’s talents have enabled him to pull off a broadly wide collection of roles. And as English is my second-language, I don’t think I’d be able to justify Sebastian’s skills and talents, but, at least, I’ll try.

Sebastian is an American actor with a Romanian background, which is a very interesting fact about him. He stated that he moved to the US when he was just twelve years old; just a boy, he was merely told that he’ll be moved to the US. Of course, at that period, he would never have known that he’d be pursuing acting as a career. Now, Stan is an extremely established actor and performer. He’s been part of both small and big budget movies. Of course, he is the world’s ‘’ Winter Soldier’’, a very enchanting and deeply suffering character. The first time I noticed Stan was in the very-much-beloved-2006-movie, ‘’the Covenant’’, where he portrayed the main antagonist. He really pulled it off and we were left wondering ‘’ why is he so evil? And why does he want to possess all the powers, including the protagonist’s; he already has got enough on his own. But I think here resides the brilliance of Sebastian, who was, at the time, probably, at his very early twenties. Yet, he is popularly known as ‘’ The Winter Soldier’’; Captain America’s very best friend, who was turned into a brain-washed human weapon, to suffer, then, from a divided self; the agony of either conforming to the destructive-weaponised facet, or to the old kind one.

The agony a divided character requires is definitely not easy to portray; contrarily, it is very hard and demanding, both physically and psychologically. Sebastian, masterly, pulled it off. On social media, innumerable fans have expressed their admiration of how Seb reflected the divided persona of the Winter Soldier on the latest film, ‘Captain America: Civil War’. One particular scene I personally agreed with one of the fans on, is the scene when Bucky – the Winter Soldier - is just looking across the street at one of the sellers who was staring at him suspicious of his identity, and just before he crosses the street to see why is the man staring at him, a police car passes by Bucky who expresses his anxiety and worried-ness that the police is coming for him and then the relief that it is not just with several eye-looks and facial expressions. Sebastian, who was styled in three-piece outfit and his long hair was hided under a cap as Bucky Barnes, took the audience’s breathes away with only that scene, where two contradicting emotions flew over his face simultaneously. WOW! He is a brilliantly amazingly talented actor. He doesn’t, for the least moment, depend on his looks or appearance, which is, clearly and obviously, astounding, but purely presents each and every character out of his deep talent and profound understanding of the character and its history. 

Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier

Appearance wise, Stan is a very good-looking person; a breath-taxingly handsome, attractive human being. His trademark, obviously, is his great hair. One of a kind hair, Seb portrayed Bucky Barnes – the Winter Soldier – with long hair, in the second and the third parts of the ‘Captain America’ franchise, which, in my opinion, made the character even more epic and relatable. Not only he is fighting his beloved close friend, but also he is, unconsciously, unswervingly, spreading chaos all over the globe. Donning Bucky with long coal-black hair, not only served the character appearance wise, but also mental wise. Since he, allegedly, died on the first part of ‘Captain America’, at the previous century, and then was captured by ‘’Hydra’’ – a terrorist organization – to be used as a weapon against the whole world including ‘Steve Rogers’ – Captain America, the hair reflects the tough and suffering journey Bucky has been through for over than fifty years; hence, Sebastian’s hair, alongside his talents, emerged the agonized depths of the character. This comes alongside the fact that Seb didn’t really have a plenty of lines to carry out in each and every scene; the disparity of the Winter Soldier’s lines brings out the best in Sebastian’s acting talents, which is remarkably obvious from the love and admiration his character attracted from the masses despite its villainous aura.

Clearly, a Marvel-movie requires a lot of physical training and rehearsals, and a much more devotion to the materialistic aspect of the script, all of which Seb consciously provides for the Captain America franchise, but as well for the small-budget movies. This particular feature of Seb is what will enable his name to be attached to a word such as ‘’LEGENDARY’’. Perhaps, it is an excessive praise I am directing towards him, but the combination he is of both an amazing performer and a down-to-earth human is really, mainly, the primal factor of this article.

Seb’s physique has a flexibility feature; meaning that he is able to carry on both a muscular and a slim looks, depending on what the role demands. In the Marvel’s franchise, he is muscular, tough, enduring; he basically is a fighter. While in other movies, such as ‘’the Martian’’, for instance, he plays a space scientist which doesn’t really require a particular eye-catching body figure. Basically, Sebastian is flexible; his physique, hair, smile, jaw-line, eyes – not really sure if his eyes are for certain BLUE – are far more than satisfying. 

Sebastian Stan for ‘August Man’ Magazine 2016 - (Credits: Sebastian-Stan.com)

One more attractive fact about Seb is his relationships with his co-actors, and more importantly, his fans. He shares a strong relation with both Chris Evans – Captain America – and Anthony Mackie – Falcon. This threesome portrays and reflects their real life relation onto the movies, which made the characters more relatable, given the fact that the same people share the same relation in reality, but without the psychological aspect of the characters. Then comes Seb’s relation with his beloved fans. He respects them a lot, and devotes time for them as well. Whether in premieres, press conferences or comic cons, he is always very polite and caring with them. The fans are the perk he gets form acting he feels he needs and must appreciate more and more. Sometimes he even goes after them specifically to please them; for instance, while shooting in Berlin, he casually finished his schedule and went to meet a couple of girls who have travelled to meet him specifically. He is a magnificent benefactor.

The fans of Stan are, currently, starting a petition pleading ‘Marvel’ & ‘Disney’ to produce a solo movies with the Winter Soldier as the main protagonist; through such movies, if they happen, the audience would be able to see the journey of ‘’James Buchanan Barnes’’- (1917-1944) – the Winter Soldier – since his early days with Steve Rogers at the the previous century, and the transformation he went through to become, eventually, a mechanized assassin. Until date, about 38,000 people signed the petition which will be directed towards three sides, Marvel, Disney – production companies – and Sebastian Stan himself. I, personally, won’t be able to consider the Marvel world of heroes complete without the Winter Soldier story being told through a movie, who himself is, admittedly, a hero.

Also, never before I’ve seen someone speaking a foreign language and looks very attractive such as Sebastian when he speaks Romanian; I love the language because of him, though I don’t understand it even a bit. He is very humble, and is known for doing what his fans ask him to do. What a generosity of him to grant them what they want from him! He is very very natural, not trying, even slightly, to be someone he is not. He talks about lubricants, loves plums, has a metal arm – just on set – is hilariously funny, chats with his therapist, and various other things one simply cannot transcribe down in one article. The one fact that is established world-widely is that he surely has made Romania proud to have one of a kind representative; he is the UNIVERSE’s Winter Soldier.