Sebastian Stan

Sebastian Stan is a classically trained, Romanian-born actor best known for his Marvel Cinematic Universe character, Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, and who won the best actor Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his lead role in A Different Man (2024). Stan’s debut as a young actor was in acclaimed Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke’s 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994), the third film in Haneke’s Glaciation Trilogy.

Stan began his film career properly ten years later with small roles in Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding (2004), The Architect (2006), The Convent (2006), Rachel Getting Married (2008), and Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), culminating in Stan’s notable supporting appearance in filmmaker Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010), starring Oscar-winning (best actress) Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder, premiering at the Venice Film Festival and earning five Oscar nominations and a $329 million global on a $13 million budget.

Stan landed the recurring MCU role of Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in a string of extremely successful Marvel movies, starting with Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and continuing with Stan’s first major starring role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and then Ant-Man (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Thunderbolts (2025).

Sebastian Stan co-starred with Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter, and Wes Bentley in the Heitor Dhalia-directed thriller, Gone (2012), followed by Stan co-starring in the poorly received horror movie, The Apparition (2012), with Ashley Greene. Stan The Bronze (2015)

Stan was cast by director Jonathan Demme for the rock n’ roll comedy-drama, Ricki and the Flash (2015), starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Audra McDonald, and Rick Springfield, and released by Sony/TriStar to a $41 million gross. Stan was then cast in a supporting role in the distinguished cast of director/producer Ridley Scott’s The Martian (2015), based on Andy Weir’s bestseller, and starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Aksel Hennie, Benedict Wong, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover, Chen Shu and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and earning an out-of-this-world $630 million global gross.

Sebastian Stan joined director Stephen Soderbergh for his terrific heist comedy, playing a NASCAR driver in Logan Lucky (2017), starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, Katherine Waterston, Dwight Yoakam, Hilary Swank, and Daniel Craig, grossing $48.5 million for distributor Bleeker Street. Stan stayed in the dark comic mode in his indelible portrayal of Jeff Gillooly in the caustic biopic starring Oscar-nominated Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding, I, Tonya (2017), with Julianne Nicholson, Bobby Cannavale and Allison Janney, who won the best supporting actress Oscar, and returning $54 million for Neon.

Stan co-starred with J.K. Simmons in co-writer/director Michelle Schumacher’s indie drama, I’m Not Here (2017), with Maika Monroe, Mandy Moore, and Max Greenfield, and then Stan appeared with Nicole Kidman as a vengeful undercover cop in director Karyn Kusama’s crime drama for Annapurna Pictures, Destroyer (2018), with Toby Kebbell, Bradley Whitford and Scoot McNairy.

Stan co-starred in the Shirley Jackson adaptation (by Mark Kruger), We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018), with Taissa Farmiga, Alexandra Daddario and Crispin Glover, and released by Brainstorm Media, and then Stan joined director/co-writer/producer  Drake Doremus for his partly improvised romantic drama, Endings, Beginnings (2019), with Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan and Matthew Gray Gubler, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival before a Samuel Goldwyn Films release.

Sebastian Stan starred in director/writer Todd Robinson’s Vietnam War drama, The Last Full Measure (2020), failing considerably at the box office for Roadside Attractions despite a starry cast including Christopher Plummer, William Hurt, Ed Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Fonda, LisaGay Hamilton, Jeremy Irvine, Diane Ladd, Amy Madigan and Bradley Whitford. Stan starred with Denise Gough in the US/UK/Greece co-production from co-writer/director Argyrus Papadimitropoulos, Monday (2020), premiering at the Toronto Film Festival but released to next to zero business by IFC Films.

Stan played support to a starry female lead ensemble (producer Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger, and Lupita Nyong’o) in director/co-writer Simon Kinberg’s spy action movie, The 355 (2022), bombing at the box office for Universal Pictures, followed by Stan reuniting with director/producer Craig Gillespie for the fact-based comedy-drama, Dumb Money (2023), based on Ben Mezrich’s non-fiction book, The Antisocial Network, about the disastrous GameStop stock imbroglio, and co-starring Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Shailene Woodley and Seth Rogen, earning a poor $20.7 million gross for Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing.

Stan, in one of his most eye-catching performances, portrayed young Donald Trump under the evil tutelage of Jeremy Strong’s Roy Cohn in The Apprentice (2024), directed by Ali Abbasi, premiering in the Cannes Film Festival and released in the U.S. by Briarcliff Entertainment.

Sebastian Stan won Berlin Film Festival’s best actor Silver Bear for his lead performance in writer-director Aaron Schimberg’s psychological drama, A Different Man (2024), with Adam Pearson and Renate Reinsve, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin before a release by A24. Stan was star and executive producer (as he was on A Different Man) of Danish director/writer Christian Tafdrup’s horror movie, Let the Evil Go West (date to be announced), co-starring Lily James. Stan, for the first time, was a producer-only on director/writer Andreea Cristina Bortun’s Romanian film, Blue Banks (date to be announced), with Mihaela Subtirica, Stefan Costea and Vasile Pavel.