Actor Sebastian Stan has given fans the first official look at his character in the forthcoming indie drama, A Different Man.
In the film, Stan plays a man with neurofibromatosis type one, a genetic condition which causes tumours to grow along the body’s nerves.
Stan’s character undergoes facial reconstructive surgery, but, according to the film’s synopsis, becomes obsessed with an actor depicting him in a play about his life.
To portray the character before surgery, Stan employed the use of heavy facial prosthetics, which can be seen in the image he shared on Instagram (embedded below).
In the post, he credits Mike Marino, the film’s makeup artist.
Marino is known for his work on Matt Reeves’s DC Comics thriller The Batman, which involved transforming Colin Farrell into the unsightly villain known as The Penguin.
Written and directed by Aaron Schimberg, A Different Man also stars The Worst Person in the World actor Renate Reinsve and Under the Skin’s Adam Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis in real life.
While the makeup has been praised on social media, some have raised concerns over the decision to cast an actor who does not have neurofibromatosis in the lead role.
“God as a fan of Sebastian for a long time I’m so upset about this,” wrote journalist and disability activist Rachel Charlton-Dailey.
“Oh Sebastian Stan NO! Can we stop casting abled people for roles like this?” wrote another person. “This is likely gonna make people actually living with neurofibromatosis feel like absolute s***. To be fair, the prosthetics are impressive but that’s not the point.”
“Great, now we’re gonna have to argue with Sebastian Stan ‘stans’ because he chose to take a role playing someone with neurofibromatosis,” wrote someone else. “Yes, someone with the condition is in the movie but that person isn’t in the main role. That’s the problem.”
