‘Fresh’: Sebastian Stan Shares His Dance-Filled and Knife-Swinging Audition Tape
Sebastian Stan became a household name through his role as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Outside of this world, there are many performances from Stan that show off his versatility as an actor. His new film, Fresh, features him at his most frightening and sinister. To celebrate the film’s release, Stan shared his audition video to Instagram, which features him dancing and swinging a knife around.
‘Fresh’ sees Sebastian Stan taking on a more horrifying character
In Fresh, Stan plays Steve, a doctor who seems like your average cookie-cutter good guy. At one point, he meets Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a girl who is sick of the world of modern dating. When she begins dating Steve, she decides to take a chance on him, believing she may have found a keeper. Unfortunately, her risk does not pay off as it turns out Steve is actually a cannibal.
Fresh premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and immediately had critics talking about Stan’s menacing and disturbing performance. In an interview with the Boston Herald, Stan says that he was both “freaked out” and “intrigued” by this role.
“When I finally saw what it was about, I have to say, I was intrigued,” Stan said. “Freaked out! But intrigued as well. I had to try to understand what sort of movie this was going to be. Because it had so many shifts tonally. It was funny at times and scary. But Primarily it starts in such a relatable, romantically comedic way. It just had me thinking.”
Stan shows off his knife skills in his audition video
Part of the role of Steve is being skilled in the kitchen, even if it is to handle human meat. To audition for the role, Stan made a video where he danced in a kitchen to “Teardrops” by Womack & Womack while wielding a knife. It’s a disturbingly hilarious video but also one that perfectly captures this character. Stan recently posted the video on Instagram and, in the captions, and thanked director Mimi Cave for taking a chance on him
“October 2020. My FRESH audition,” Stan writes. “Sent this to @mimicave after our meeting. Thank you @mimicave #MaryParent and #kevinmessick #adammckay for trusting me and taking the chance. FRESH now playing on @hulu.”
Stan is giving more performances that show off his range as an actor
In addition to Fresh, Stan also stars in Pam & Tommy where he plays Motley Crue drummer, Tommy Lee. While playing a rockstar can often be a standard performance, Stan makes it unique by being so lovably weird, including a scene where he talks to his own sentient genitalia.
Stan also gained attention as a dramatic performer with his role in I, Tonya, where he played Jeff Gillooly, Tanya’s husband. In many of these roles, Stan is acting opposite women, including Lily James, Margot Robbie, and Edgar-Jones. In an interview with Indiewire, Stan calls the work he’s done with these women “the best work that [he’s] done.”
“I’ve certainly felt that the work that I’ve done opposite some of these incredible actresses has been the best work that I’ve done,” Stan explained. “It all sort of started with I, Tonya and Margot [Robbie] and that experience. After that, it was Nicole Kidman, Jessica Chastain, and then recently Julianne Moore, and Lily and Daisy, of course. Maybe I naturally gravitate toward [these projects] because I grew up with women, because I grew up with my mother and she was a single mom for a while. I don’t think about it. I just go instinctively where I’m pulled and it just happens that [working with women] seems to have generated the best results.”
Fresh is now streaming on Hulu.
