“A Totally different Man’s” perspective is layered, introspective, and fully 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 in a while) on disfigurement, seen distinction, and the continuing technique of self-acceptance.
Pearson suggested Stan on his position 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 all people 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 Totally different Man,” a movie whose nuances beget extra nuance in flip.
We spoke with Pearson, Stan, and Schimberg after a screening of “A Totally different Man” at Implausible Fest in Austin, Texas, in an interview that went deep instantly — a lot so, that we solely acquired to ask a small portion of the questions we had ready.
Adam, you instructed 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 believe once you enter an endeavor like this, be it inventive or in any other case, honesty and transparency are all the time useful. Until I can get to a spot the place I’m going to be open and trustworthy [with] Sebastian, then there’s no level in doing it. I am going into the whole lot with a transparent head and a full coronary heart and full openness and belief. In a bizarre approach, I let folks probably disappoint me, [but that] was by no means going to occur on this [project].
We had been simply trustworthy with one another. We had the open conversations. Some issues had been extra snug than others, however until we had been ready to go there and push by way of the discomfort, we’d don’t have any proper to ask an viewers to do the identical once they’re watching the movie. So the ethos off display screen was used to design the ethos on display screen.
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 determine how we work and the way we will get in there and ensure we’re all on the identical web page. A whole lot of these early conferences had been [about], will we all share the identical purpose? As a result of generally you get into a movie and somebody’s within the unsuitable 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 by way of?
SS: The purpose was serving Aaron’s imaginative and prescient of the movie, and serving the story as in truth as potential 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 unhealthy. There’s an actual tightrope of tone that I believe Aaron can communicate to, by way of actually giving the viewers an elevated expertise past our surface-level reactions in the direction of folks that look totally different. And judging by the disabled individuals who have stated to us, “I simply wish to say thanks,” I believe we’ve reached that purpose.
What do you consider what Sebastian stated about tone, Aaron?
Aaron Schimberg: Tone comes naturally to me. I don’t actually choose it — really, I do, I agonize about it beforehand. However then it turns into what it’s. And it’s actually simply my perspective 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 concerning the topic. I’ve all the time felt type 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 toddler. You suppose you’re giving me a praise, but it surely’s probably not 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 any person 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 capable of put my very own ache and the actual microaggressions and aggressions that come from that [into it], so it’s a extra well-rounded portrait at the very least. Then we slowly go the torch to Adam.
None of this ever would’ve occurred to me with out figuring out 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 any person 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 assumed, “I may have been totally different. May I’ve considered all this in another way? May 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 actually 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 approach to be disabled.
Really, that does lead me to one thing — I wished to speak to you about your efficiency, Adam. These guys had been saying it’s an exaggerated model of you in actual life. What was exaggerated?
AP: The clothes was tremendously exaggerated, which I appreciated. But additionally the mannerisms, greater actions, a special form of voice work — I’d by no means be that chipper in actual life. If I did, all my mates can be like, “what are you doing? How a lot do you have to borrow proper now?” So yeah, simply turning the amount 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. Shocked, however not.
Talking of those two characters being two sides of the identical coin and what you had been saying about illustration that isn’t patronizing: In my thoughts, Edward and Oswald signify two paths ahead for folks with disfigurements. Are you going to be assured like Oswald and let your character push by way of, or are you going to break down within your self like Edward does? That alternative, or that message — it’s a part of what you had 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’s 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 all people can do it. I haven’t been capable of totally 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 choose that. To me, the film is about that wrestle. A few of it might simply be the best way Edward was born. A few of it’s what he’s been made into, or what society or different folks’s judgments have made him, or the best way he was raised, or any variety of issues. And when you’ll be able to’t settle for your self, or you need to wrestle to do it, it’s straightforward sufficient to say, “properly, simply love your self.”
And that may be trite and patronizing, too.
AS: And possibly 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 suppose it’s a one-size-fits-all store, and all of us have good days and unhealthy days. I believe with a view to love your self, you’ve acquired to get up saying, “Alexa, play ‘Macho Man’ by The Village Individuals” and dance round in some form of weird ritual of self-confidence.
And I believe that’s notably true now that all of us have our little low shallowness machines in our pocket, and we’re eternally evaluating our behind-the-scenes to different folks’s best hits. And nobody’s taught these younger folks any type of media literacy to be like, “A) that’s one second in time, and B) that’s airbrushed to excessive heaven.” We’ve acquired all these folks 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 fireplace 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 goals, so that they’d understand it gained’t make them completely happy.
SS: I believe there are one million Edwards strolling round, and so they’re not essentially disfigured. [There’s] this obsession we’ve all succumbed to with different folks’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 reap the benefits of one another for revenue. You’ve folks which can be actually searching for any form of validation to really feel okay about themselves. And as an alternative 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 hearth engine. What are you going to do now? You’ll be able to’t drive!
SS: This movie clearly offers with numerous that. I fear that individuals aren’t concerned with going that deep and truly asking themselves, “what’s it about me that I hate? What’s it about me that I choose or I like or I’m proud of?”
AP: And when 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 susceptible to depriving ourselves of going deeper. It’s a lot simpler to only write one thing off. “That’s unsuitable, that’s proper, that’s it, I don’t have to consider it any extra.”
AS: “Do higher.”
SS: Proper. “Do higher.” Do you have got the answer, then? I 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 among the saddest bits we’ve misplaced in our society.