“A Completely different Man’s” standpoint is layered, introspective, and utterly distinctive. The second collaboration between actor Adam Pearson and writer-director Aaron Schimberg — the 2 beforehand labored collectively on Schimberg’s “Chained for Life” — is predicated on a real-life dialogue between Pearson and Schimberg (with Sebastian Stan becoming a member of in afterward) on disfigurement, seen distinction, and the continued means of self-acceptance.
Pearson suggested Stan on his function as Edward, an aspiring actor with neurofibromatosis (usually shortened to NF1) who will get the whole lot he thought he ever wished when he indicators up for an experimental process that makes him seem like everyone else (or like Sebastian Stan, even higher). Then Pearson — who additionally has NF1 — enters the narrative because the cocky, gregarious Oswald, whose charisma holds a mirror as much as Edward’s insecurity and makes him query the whole lot he is aware of about himself and the world.
Schimberg approaches the fabric with each vulnerability — the topic is private for him, too, as he explains in our interview — and a refreshingly darkish and sardonic humorousness. Edward’s destiny is a cosmic joke being performed on him by his creator (i.e., Schimberg), who’s written a script that regularly brings struggling upon a personality he additionally says is partially based mostly on himself. The sophisticated cycle of self-awareness, self-hatred, and meta commentary at play in that dynamic is typical of “A Completely different Man,” a movie whose nuances beget extra nuance in flip.
We spoke with Pearson, Stan, and Schimberg after a screening of “A Completely different Man” at Incredible Fest in Austin, Texas, in an interview that went deep instantly — a lot so, that we solely bought to ask a small portion of the questions we had ready.
Adam, you informed Sebastian some tales out of your life to tell his efficiency — what was the forwards and backwards between you guys in growing your characters? They are surely two sides of the identical coin.
Adam Pearson: I feel if you enter an endeavor like this, be it inventive or in any other case, honesty and transparency are all the time helpful. Except I can get to a spot the place I’m going to be open and sincere [with] Sebastian, then there’s no level in doing it. I’m going into the whole lot with a transparent head and a full coronary heart and full openness and belief. In a bizarre means, I let individuals probably disappoint me, [but that] was by no means going to occur on this [project].
We have been simply sincere with one another. We had the open conversations. Some issues have been extra comfy than others, however except we have been ready to go there and push via the discomfort, we’d haven’t any proper to ask an viewers to do the identical after they’re watching the movie. So the ethos off display was used to design the ethos on display.
Sebastian Stan: The dynamic was very clear within the script, so I simply felt that it [would be] good for us to fulfill and join and work out how we work and the way we are able to get in there and ensure we’re all on the identical web page. Lots of these early conferences have been [about], will we all share the identical purpose? As a result of typically you get into a movie and somebody’s within the mistaken film.
After all, I used to be additionally excited to see Adam and the way he was going to totally steamroll into the movie. [Laughs]
So what was the purpose, then? Was it what Adam was speaking about, honesty and pushing via?
SS: The purpose was serving Aaron’s imaginative and prescient of the movie, and serving the story as honestly as doable with out falling into any of the tropes and stereotypes of making an attempt to be humorous or making an attempt to coach or wink on the viewers or make them really feel dangerous. There’s an actual tightrope of tone that I feel Aaron can communicate to, when it comes to actually giving the viewers an elevated expertise past our surface-level reactions in direction of folks that look totally different. And judging by the disabled individuals who have stated to us, “I simply need to say thanks,” I feel we’ve reached that purpose.
What do you concentrate on what Sebastian stated about tone, Aaron?
Aaron Schimberg: Tone comes naturally to me. I don’t actually decide it — really, I do, I agonize about it beforehand. However then it turns into what it’s. And it’s actually simply my standpoint on the topic, which is private for me. I’m all the time coming from a private place about it.
A few of the tone comes from making an attempt to keep away from the tropes and cliches in regards to the topic. I’ve all the time felt kind of oppressed by [the way] we view incapacity. I’ve all the time been scared of individuals with a constructive perspective — once I was rising up, it was the Particular Olympics, and being “particular,” and these infantilizing concepts about incapacity that bothered me, at the same time as a baby. You assume you’re giving me a praise, but it surely’s not likely a praise.
It’s patronizing.
AS: Yeah, it’s patronizing. I’ve all the time felt patronized. So I all the time [thought] you couldn’t present anyone who feels positively about disfigurement or incapacity in a movie, as a result of it’s tied up with this infantilization, this patronizing perspective. This movie comes out of making an attempt to ask, “how do I get there? How do I present a constructive illustration of disfigurement?”
I began on the opposite finish, with the cliché of the lonely unhappy disfigured man. If I do this, I’m additionally in a position to put my very own ache and the true microaggressions and aggressions that come from that [into it], so it’s a extra well-rounded portrait a minimum of. Then we slowly go the torch to Adam.
None of this ever would’ve occurred to me with out understanding Adam. Adam performed a shy character in my first movie who is predicated on myself. I’m shy. And I’ve by no means actually had a constructive perspective about — not solely about my disfigurement, however about something. I’ve all the time blamed [everything] on my cleft palate. And so assembly Adam, and seeing that he’s anyone who takes management of how he desires to be perceived, that was an inspiration to me.
It additionally discombobulated me as a result of I believed, “I may have been totally different. Might I’ve seen all this in a different way? Might I’ve not let this cease me? Have I been leaning on this an excessive amount of?” I used to be coping with these emotions truthfully within the script. It allowed me to create a brand new form of portrayal, which I do know to be truthful as a result of Adam confirmed me a brand new option to be disabled.
Truly, that does lead me to one thing — I wished to speak to you about your efficiency, Adam. These guys have been saying it’s an exaggerated model of you in actual life. What was exaggerated?
AP: The clothes was enormously exaggerated, which I appreciated. But in addition the mannerisms, larger actions, a distinct form of voice work — I’d by no means be that chipper in actual life. If I did, all my associates can be like, “what are you doing? How a lot do you’ll want to borrow proper now?” So yeah, simply turning the quantity up ever so barely. The entire jujitsu saxophone factor is totally made up.
Yoga within the park.
AP: I can’t do any of that. He’s simply such an attention-grabbing character. “I ran off to Tangiers with my professor.” After all he did. Stunned, however not.
Talking of those two characters being two sides of the identical coin and what you have been saying about illustration that isn’t patronizing: In my thoughts, Edward and Oswald symbolize two paths ahead for individuals with disfigurements. Are you going to be assured like Oswald and let your character push via, or are you going to break down inside your self like Edward does? That alternative, or that message — it’s a part of what you have been making an attempt to do right here?
AS: Lots of people appear to come back away with the message of, “the grass is all the time greener. It is best to settle for your self and love your self.” And people points are introduced up within the movie. Is the grass all the time greener? Can you settle for your self?
However to me, there’s no ethical judgment on self-acceptance. Not everyone can do it. I haven’t been in a position to absolutely settle for myself. Anyone who posts an Instagram story the place they put a filter on themselves — in some methods they’re making a masks. And I don’t decide that. To me, the film is about that battle. A few of it could simply be the best way Edward was born. A few of it’s what he’s been made into, or what society or different individuals’s judgments have made him, or the best way he was raised, or any variety of issues. And when you possibly can’t settle for your self, or you must battle to do it, it’s straightforward sufficient to say, “effectively, simply love your self.”
And that may be trite and patronizing, too.
AS: And perhaps you get there some days however you fall off and also you get up and also you’re struggling once more. So it’s not a judgment for me, however it’s about that course of and the way painful it may be.
AP: It’s a tough course of, self-acceptance and self-love. I don’t assume it’s a one-size-fits-all store, and all of us have good days and dangerous days. I feel in an effort to love your self, you’ve bought to get up saying, “Alexa, play ‘Macho Man’ by The Village Folks” and dance round in some form of weird ritual of self-confidence.
And I feel that’s significantly true now that all of us have our little low vanity machines in our pocket, and we’re ceaselessly evaluating our behind-the-scenes to different individuals’s biggest hits. And nobody’s taught these younger individuals any kind of media literacy to be like, “A) that’s one second in time, and B) that’s airbrushed to excessive heaven.” We’ve bought all these individuals chasing one thing that they’re by no means going to get, as a result of it doesn’t exist. Even when they did get it, they’d do not know what to do with it. It’s a canine chasing a hearth engine. There’s a Jim Carrey quote — and I hope that I don’t butcher it right here — however he stated that he needs everybody may obtain their hopes and desires, so that they’d notice it gained’t make them pleased.
SS: I feel there are one million Edwards strolling round, they usually’re not essentially disfigured. [There’s] this obsession we’ve all succumbed to with different individuals’s lives, and I actually blame social media for that, in numerous methods. It’s so detrimental to the self, the consumerism of all of it in America and the way we benefit from one another for revenue. You might have individuals which might be actually searching for any form of validation to really feel okay about themselves. And as a substitute we’re simply pulling them and coaxing them and manipulating them. So that they’re simply continually chasing this ghost, a shadow model of themselves.
How did you set it, Adam? The canine chasing the automotive?
AP: The canine catching the fireplace engine. What are you going to do now? You possibly can’t drive!
SS: This movie clearly offers with numerous that. I fear that folks aren’t all for going that deep and truly asking themselves, “what’s it about me that I hate? What’s it about me that I decide or I really like or I’m pleased with?”
AP: And should you can’t do it in 280 characters, it’s “too lengthy, didn’t learn, on to the following one.”
SS: The opposite factor that I fear about is that we’ve gotten into such a selective considering mindset that we’re liable to depriving ourselves of going deeper. It’s a lot simpler to simply write one thing off. “That’s mistaken, that’s proper, that’s it, I don’t have to consider it any extra.”
AS: “Do higher.”
SS: Proper. “Do higher.” Do you’ve gotten the answer, then? I really like that everybody’s a critic, however the place’s the answer in your half? What’s your contribution?
AP: The place’s the nuance? Nuance is without doubt one of the saddest bits we’ve misplaced in our society.
