The two auditions Sebastian Stan will always regret bombing: “I’m fucked!”
It must be pretty good being Sebastian Stan, who is not only handsome, charming, and world-famous, but he can seemingly do whatever he wants.
If he ever gets tired of making excellent dramas about men with facial disfigurements or the president of the United States, then he can dip back into the wildly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe for a bit; a choice like that feels illegal, but Stan really is the man.
Of course, it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the Romanian-born star, and like every actor on the Hollywood beat, his name was brought up and turned down for many other roles before he got the ones that would make him immortal, especially in pop culture. Speaking to Huffpost, Stan remembered some of the parts he missed out on before hitting the big time, including one of the most famous characters in all of science fiction.
“Captain Kirk for JJ Abrams was one of the first things that I got very close to,” he recalled, “I was really close, and I had a screen test with him at Paramount studios, and my manager had me do a separate photoshoot where I would try and replicate all of these William Shatner pictures.”
The part of a young Kirk in Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek franchise eventually went to the fair-haired Chris Pine, who would pilot the Enterprise across all three of the modern movies. The first film, simply called Star Trek, was a huge success that gave the lagging franchise some much-needed credibility, with the names of the classic characters being relevant for the first time in years. However, as the years went on, the films became less and less impactful, with Pine himself once even calling the series “cursed”.
Speaking of “cursed”, you should hear about the next big opportunity Stan missed out on. “Green Lantern was another that I screen tested for,” he continued, “I remember getting there, and it was like me, Justin Timberlake, Jared Leto, Ryan Reynolds and maybe one other person, and I’m looking at these guys going, ‘I’m fucked! There’s no way this is happening!’”
As it transpired, Stan was in fact “fucked”, and Reynolds landed the role of Hal Jordan in Martin Campbell’s big-screen version of the classic DC property, but as anyone who has ever heard Reynolds talk about this movie can attest, he hated every second of it.
The lacklustre final product damn-near killed the Canadian’s career stone dead, such that it would take many years (and breaking the fourth wall in a red and black suit) for him to get back on track, but there was no guarantee that was ever going to happen.
That’s two franchises that ended up being disowned by their leading men, and as for Stan, he wouldn’t have to wait long until landing his own big break. Though he first appeared as James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger, it was his starring role in The Winter Soldier that properly put him on the map. Let this be a warning to you that if something doesn’t go your way, it’s because it simply wasn’t meant to happen, with something even better just waiting around the corner.
