A Couple of Days to Thunderbolts: Sebastian Stan Gets Political, Personal, and Honest About Pre-Marvel Struggles – A Marketing Strategy or Just Stan Being Stan?
With Marvel’s Thunderbolts just around the corner, Sebastian Stan—our beloved Winter Soldier—is on a press tour that feels less promotional and more like a therapeutic deep dive into his past, politics, and private life.
In a recent sit-down with Vanity Fair, Stan didn’t shy away from talking about the hard years before Marvel came knocking. According to him, his acting career in 2011 was hanging by a thread, and it was only a lifeline in the form of $65,000 in residuals from Hot Tub Time Machine that kept him afloat.
Marvel boss Kevin Feige saw something in the then-struggling actor. “You could see that he has so much inside him and so much behind his eyes,” Feige recalled. He was right—Stan’s portrayal of Bucky turned Winter Soldier didn’t just earn fan love, it launched him into a decade-long run with Marvel that gave him both a career and clout.
Fast forward to 2024-2025, Stan's portfolio has shifted. He starred in A Different Man, which got him a Golden Globe win, and then took on one of his most polarizing roles yet—playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice, which earned him an Oscar nod. That film stirred the pot, especially with Trump himself lashing out, calling it “a cheap, defamatory, politically disgusting hatchet job.” Stan? Unbothered. “I would put money down he’s seen it 100 f—king times,” he said, not mincing words. “He’s a narcissist... and I bet you there’s certain things he likes about it.”
Stan’s take on Trump wasn’t caricature—it was psychological. “He loses his humanity,” Stan noted, emphasizing that his approach was more about empathizing with the trauma behind the man than playing to outrage. It earned him praise not just from critics, but from icons. Jane Fonda singled out his performance during her SAG Awards Lifetime Achievement speech—an endorsement Stan considered “maybe better” than winning the Oscar.
While Stan has been stepping into more serious, award-worthy roles, he’s also offering rare glimpses into his personal life. For someone who keeps things close to the chest, he opened up slightly about his three-year relationship with Malignant and Peaky Blinders actress Annabelle Wallis.
“It’s the one part of my life I try to keep for myself,” he said, though he acknowledged that even then, “it sort of ends up being out there.”
The couple was first linked in 2022 at Robert Pattinson’s birthday bash and made more public appearances in 2024—Berlin Film Festival, Cannes, and most recently, the Oscars and Vanity Fair afterparty. When Stan took the Golden Globe stage, he made sure to shout out Wallis: “Annabelle, I love you.” A subtle but clear marker that their relationship, while guarded, is anything but trivial.
He even managed to squeeze in a mom moment, joking that she was "very upset" he didn’t shave for the Oscars—just before giving her a kiss on the red carpet.
Sebastian Stan, now 42, is no longer the guy scraping by on residuals. He’s a Golden Globe winner, an Oscar nominee, and still the face of Marvel's darker, brooding anti-heroes. With Thunderbolts hitting theatres on May 2, the timing of this vulnerable, highly political, and emotionally charged press run raises one question:
Is this smart marketing for a Disney-backed antihero flick, or has Sebastian Stan just finally reached that point in his career where he can say whatever the hell he wants?
Either way, we’re listening.