Honoring Ed Brubaker's Winter Soldier storyline may have been the goal for Captain America: The Winter Soldier cast and crew, as MTV News notes, but Sebastian Stan looked into much more in preparation for his sub-titular role. When Movie Web asked the Romanian actor if his personal background played a role in his approach to Bucky Barnes, Stan says, "I was born in Romania, yeah...That's funny, because my friends used to tease me. I grew up, in some sense, in a communist country. I lived there until I was eight years old, but there were still communism. My friends would tease me and call me a red. Its funny, cause, low and behold, I end up with a Red Star on my shoulder. It was a neat little coincidence." After three to five months of physical training for long, epic fight scenes, Sebastian Stan says, "I dove into the whole cold war thing. I looked at the KGB. I looked at all kinds of spy movies, and all kinds of documentaries about that time, and what it was about. I grabbed anything from that time period. Anything about brainwashing. Just anything, cause I had the opportunity to do it. I went all over the place."
Stan researching the KGB, Cold War and even brainwashing likely indicates the Winter Soldier's backstory will translate almost directly onto the big-screen. This isn't a huge surprise, but it does, perhaps, hint that we'll see that backstory in flashbacks, where we'll also explore Black Widow's past with the soldier and more, and how it all relates to current events in the movie. For the full interview with Sebastian Stan, head over to Movie Web and also watch MTV's chat with him below.
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” picks up where “Marvel’s The Avengers” left off, as Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and teams up with Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, to battle a powerful yet shadowy enemy in present-day Washington, D.C. Starring Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Georges St-Pierre, Hayley Atwell, Toby Jones, Emily VanCamp and Maximiliano Hernández with Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Redford, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is directed by the team of Anthony and Joe Russo from a screenplay written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely and is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series, first published in 1941. Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige is producing the film. Executive producers on the project include Alan Fine, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Michael Grillo and Stan Lee. The creative production team on the film includes director of photography Trent Opaloch, production designer Peter Wenham, editors Jeffrey Ford, A.C.E. and Mary Jo Markey, A.C.E. and three time Oscar®-nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is set for release on April 4, 2014. In addition to “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” Marvel Studios will release a slate of films based on other iconic Marvel characters including “Iron Man 3” on May 3, 2013; “Thor: The Dark World ” on November 8, 2013; “Guardians of the Galaxy” on August 1, 2014; “Marvel's The Avengers” sequel on May 1, 2015; and “Ant-Man” on November 6, 2015!