Interview with Sebastian Stan AKA The Winter Soldier

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While we were in LA a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to interview some of the cast of the new Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie, including Bucky himself.  Most comic fans will tell you that there are two characters that NEVER come back to life- Uncle Ben and Bucky Barnes.  Even I know that!  So what’s it like to break ‘da rules, and risk the wrath of fanboys and girls everywhere, Sebastian Stan?  (It’s cool!  Most of them are over it- the comic cam out quite awhile ago.)

Question- Was it difficult to switch roles from Bucky to The Winter Soldier?

Sebastian Stan: Well, yes and no. I would say no in the sense that everything is so spelled out for me in the comic books that I sort of feel like I have that to follow as a guide. Yes, in that certain things from comic books often aren’t so easily translated to the screen. There were things visually that were new that we had to discover about the character.

I mean in the comic books there was a lot of information but in terms of how the Winter Soldier moved, how he behaved, what his presence was like on screen, those were all things I had to discover once I was in the outfit and we were actually shooting the movie. And that was more difficult I suppose. At the end of the day the most difficult part was playing someone that’s very different while at the same time the same person.

Question- How do you mentally prepare for a role like this in terms of playing someone who doesn’t even know who they are?

Sebastian Stan: Yeah, exactly. Well, it’s funny the way things happen in life. I don’t want to get too down here but my stepdad was dealing with Alzheimer’s. And so it was interesting because while that sort of process was very painful as an observer, that was one of the things I found to be very helpful for me to observe. What their behavior is like because even though they don’t know certain things anymore, there is still that struggle within them to try and kind of know things. They respond to certain things they see or sounds they hear, a song or something kinda triggers a memory. It’s a very weird internal battle. I watched him a lot for sort of some references. Some of the things of how I was gonna sort of translate that on the screen I didn’t really know until we were literally on set.

Question- When you were first cast as Bucky in the first movie, did you know that Bucky would come back to life as The Winter Soldier later on?

Sebastian Stan: I didn’t because I hadn’t read anything. And there was no script for Captain America when I was auditioning. Actually, all I really had was a scene between Steve Rogers and Bucky and I was auditioning for Steve Rogers. So, I obviously looked up things about Steve Rogers but I never looked up anything about Bucky. And when I didn’t get that part, I sort of thought that was that. I actually didn’t want to read any of the comic books or anything going into the audition process because I wanted to just have a fresh perspective. But then when I talked to them about Bucky after that, they educated me on the story.

Picture via Comicvine.com

Question- How did you mentally prepare to get into character? Do you put on the costume and you’re ready to go?

Sebastian Stan: In this case, I feel like it always depends. The costume was a very big thing. Also I just looked very different. I didn’t recognize myself looking in a mirror honestly, with the mask and the hair and everything. It kind of gave me confidence.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is in theaters now.  Follow the hastag on twitter #CaptainAmericaEvent