Sebastian Stan calls out reporter for describing co-star as a ‘beast’

Marvel star Sebastian Stan was not happy with one journalist’s question about his co-star during a press conference for their film.

Sebastian Stan called out a reporter for commenting on his co-star Adam Pearson’s facial disfigurement.

While the actors were promoting A Different Man at the Berlin Film Festival in February, a journalist asked, “What do you think happens after the transformation from this so-called beast, as they call him, to this perfect man?”

Stan, 42, quickly decided to call out the journalist “a bit” for his “choice of words” during the panel in a video that resurfaced this week as he and Pearson, 39, promoted the movie’s US release, reports Page Six.

Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson at the A Different Man screening in New York on Tuesday. Picture: Dominik Bindl/Getty Images

“I think part of why the film is important is because we often don’t have maybe even the right vocabulary,” the Golden Globe nominee explained. “I think it’s a little more complex than that.

“And obviously there [are] language barriers and so on, but you know, ‘beast’ isn’t the word, I think.”

In the movie, Stan’s character, Edward, becomes fixated on Pearson’s character, Oswald, who plays Edward in a stage production of his former life.

Pearson has neurofibromatosis, which is characterised by benign tumours growing in the nervous system, both in the psychological thriller and real life.

During his clapback, Stan slammed the public’s “preconceived ideas” about the condition.

“We’re not really educated on how to really understand this experience,” he said. “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.”

Stan was unimpressed with the question. Picture: Berlin Film Festival

The reporter had used the term ‘beast’. Picture: Berlin Film Festival

The Emmy nominee noted, “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.”

As for Pearson, he chimed in to acknowledge that Stan does not know “what it’s like to have a disfigurement.”

However, he said, “[Stan does] know what it’s like to not have privacy and to have your life constantly invaded. You become public property.”

Many YouTube users praised Stan for sticking up for his co-star in a “very gracious” and “sensible” manner.

Meanwhile, others defended the journalist, pointing out that he was “not a native English speaker.”

Another wrote, “So one noticed the journalist [said], ‘This so called beast, AS THEY CALL HIM?’ The journalist was using the words used in the movie. He didn’t really need to be called out. Sebastian Stan misunderstood.”

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Sebastian Stan calls out reporter for describing co-star as a ‘beast’