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How Sebastian Stan Transformed for ‘A Different Man’

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Makeup artist Mike Marino warned Sebastian Stan that transforming him for his latest role in A24’s “A Different Man” would require much more from the actor than just wearing a mask.

It would be a transformation that would require him to live in the character’s shoes.

In the film, which opened Friday, Stan plays Edward, a man with neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition that causes tumors to grow on the skin and bone. He undergoes medical treatment to change his appearance and radically transforms. Things are going well until he meets Oswald, played by Adam Pearson. Oswald is everything he’s not – confident, funny, popular and charismatic.

Before they began, Marino knew he would have to cover at least one of Stan’s eyes and one ear. Says Marino, “I warned him. I said, ‘We’re going to coat your entire head, hair and everything with glue, and it’s going to be hot and uncomfortable.’”

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The two-time Oscar-nominated makeup artist took photos and live-cast Stan. In addition, he took 3D scans of the actor’s head and printed a 3D version of him. Marino also took a scan of Pearson and 3D-printed his face for reference. “I began the process of what I thought could work on Sebastian, but there were technical limitations to where his mouth, eyes and ears were,” says Marino. “I had to proportionally balance what I could do with Sebastian as makeup, as design not just to copy and mirror Adam’s face.”

Once the sculptures were complete, Marino made the molds and cast the silicone. “We had developed a soft material that was very lightweight and translucent, and I had pre-painted everything with an airbrush ahead of time so that Sebastian would come over to my studio, and it was about a two-hour process of gluing him into this makeup,” explains Marino. Once Marino had completely applied everything, Stan was carrying an extra two pounds on his face.

With Marino working on another project at the time, Stan would have to come in early and would leave for his other job. “Sebastian had hours before he had to go to set. So during that time, he was now living in this makeup in New York City, wandering around, living an experience of what Adam may be living. He got an authentic view of how people perceive you and look at you when you have something on your face, or something that’s different,” says Marino.

Speaking about that experience, Stan says, “On Broadway, one of the busiest streets in New York, no one’s looking at me. It’s as if I’m not even there.” The other reaction was worse: “Somebody would immediately stop and very blatantly hit their friend, point, take a picture.”

Marino’s makeup went through four different stages. For the first part, Marino intensified the paint job and added in scabs and crusty pieces of skin that were flaking off.

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At one point, Edward’s skin has become so scabby and as Marino says “almost-cocoon-like, that he could stretch it.” Marino took a soft makeup cast and glued it onto Stan. “It’s dripping off and it’s hard to hold its form. The day we did that, I had him lean back, and glued that makeup on, and when he was upright, it was dripping, and completely hanging off. Marino explains he created a “secondary design of a transitionary stage where the face is slightly Sebastian and slightly Edward. It’s this mid-stage where his chin is still twisted and his eyes pulled down, and it’s underneath that makeup as he’s peeling it off. We added lumps that lessen with scabs, and when that comes off, we’re finally at Sebastian’s normal state — his face.”

But it doesn’t end there. Oswald’s presence makes Edward yearn to go back to who he was. His only way of doing that is by wearing a mask. So, Marino sculpted another iteration that was designed as a mask that Edward could put on and take off.

Marino hopes “A Different Man” is a film audiences watch because of its important message. “With makeup, we can take it off, and peel it off. Adam can’t. There is this real amazing beauty to someone who has that appearance, who cannot be like everyone else, and it’s shown in the film how cool and awesome he is.” Marino continues, “It’s important to view beauty differently. By nature, it should not be about how someone looks. It’s about their soul, how they feel and who they are.”


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