Sebastian Stan has slammed a reporter who suggested that the character played by his nearby co-star was a ‘beast’.
The Marvel actor, 41, was attending a Q&A panel at the Berlin Film Festival, alongside co-star Adam Pearson, who has a skin condition called neurofibromatosis, which causes non-cancerous tumours to grow on nerve tissue.
They were amongst the cast who were promoting American psychological thriller A Different Man on Friday (16 February).
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The Aaron Schimberg-directed film follows the story of Edward (Stan), who after undergoing facial reconstructive surgery, becomes fixated on an actor playing him in a stage play, prior to surgery.
Pearson plays Oswald, while Renate Reinsve stars as Ingrid.
Meanwhile, Edward is fascinated with how the stage actor is not interested in reconstructive treatment.
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Now, at the press conference, Stan was praised for his reaction when a journalist used the word 'beast' to describe the character before the surgery transformed his appearance.
Watch below:
"What do you think happens after the transformation from this so-called beast, as they call him, to this perfect man?" the journalist asked.
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Stan replied: "I am gonna call you out a bit on the choice of words there, because I think part of why the film is important is because we often don't have maybe even the right vocabulary.
"I think it's a little more complex than that, and obviously there's language barriers and so on, but you know, 'beast' isn't the word I think."
"I think ultimately it's just interesting to hear this point, because I feel to some extent that's one of the things the film is saying, you know, is that we have these preconceived ideas," he added.
"We're not really educated on how to really understand this experience.
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"So I can't really speak to that, one of the things I love about the movie is that he's offering you a way to kind of look at it.
"Hopefully if you can have the same objective point of view while you're experiencing the film, then maybe you can pick apart the initial instincts that you have, and maybe those aren't always the right ones."
Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis, said: "This was the hook that we gave to Sebastian - You don’t know what it’s like to have a disfigurement, but you do know what it’s like to not have privacy and to have your life constantly invaded.
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"You become public property."
Viewers praised Stan, as one person commented: "So Sebastian was definitely right about checking that guy on his choice of words great job Sebastian way to defend and stick up for a fellow colleague and actor."
Others noted that he did it 'politely and eloquently'.
Topics: Health, Celebrity, TV and Film
Anish Vij