Sebastian Stan on Fjord and Why ‘Batman 2’ Is Like ‘Godfather Part 2’

Sebastian Stan has been running around the city of Toronto.

We’re sitting in a restaurant, having lunch between his multiple studio visits for various publications. It’s busy and bustling around us, the way TIFF tends to transform every hotel and restaurant over its 11-day period. Stan settles in at the table and digs into a chicken salad. He’s here to talk with Variety about the movie he says he’s been chasing, in one form or another, since he was a teenager.

“Fjord” is the film Stan long promised himself he would make: a return, however partial, to the country he left as a boy and the language he grew up speaking.

Directed by Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu — a filmmaker Stan says he had tracked for years — it is Mungiu’s first English-language feature and Stan’s first Romanian-language role, a project the two circled for a long time before the right script surfaced. Stan plays Mihai, a fundamentalist father whose children are seized by the state, in a story inspired by a real family and shot in Mungiu’s signature register of long, unbroken takes and a pointed refusal of the close-up.

Coming off an Oscar nomination for the drama “The Apprentice” in 2024, the same year he won a Golden Globe for lead actor (comedy) for another movie, “A Different Man,” Stan sees clearly what he’s after and why. He’s a dad now. He has entered his 40s and it has changed him. “How do I raise kids in today’s world?” he asks, flipping the entire interview into a conversation as we eat and drink at the table. “And how do I not pass on something I’m myself trying to work through?”

Stan has become the rare Marvel actor with a foot in the DC world, too. He met “The Batman” filmmaker Matt Reeves, who he said had seen and loved “The Apprentice” and around the same time cold-called DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn to let him know he was available and, in his words, “ready to rock” when the opportunity presented itself. Of course, he won’t confirm his role and the light visibly goes out of his face when the name Harvey Dent, whom he is rumored to be playing, comes up. But he does not undersell what Reeves is building. “I go to set sometimes and I look around and I’m like, I think we’re making fucking ‘Godfather Part Two,’” Stan says of the movie, which he says Reeves has spent three years shaping. “I really don’t want to raise it up, but I do feel like it’s going to be a payoff.”

He calls himself “allergic” to repeating himself and worries that actors have grown too overexposed to disappear into anything. “We’re not doctors, we’re not on the front lines,” he says of why the subject has to matter. “This is the only way we get to communicate.”

“Fjord,” whose reactions on social media have included people branding it “a MAGA movie,” Stan says, has been labeled that by “people who never see it.” He’s hoping this divided country can still sit together in one theater. Whether audiences take him up on it is another question entirely.

“Fjord” is a rare role that lets you speak your mother tongue and work with a filmmaker from home. What did it stir in you to go back?

The movie’s big theme is the immigrant experience, and that was my way in. When I read the script, I remembered coming to the U.S. and the shame I felt — the self-awareness of just being different. My mom always told me, not too dissimilar from this family in the movie, you don’t want to make allies, you don’t want to make enemies, you want to be nice to everybody. As I got older and got more confident about embracing my differences, around 16, 17, I told myself I had to go back and find a movie to do in Romania one day, to reconnect. Cristian was one of the filmmakers I’d been tracking. I knew how he shot, how morally ambiguous he liked to make his films. We kept trying to find the right thing, and finally he called and said, “I think I have this movie. It’ll be my first English-language movie and your first Romanian movie.” It was a good fit.

The film is inspired by a real family whose children are taken by the state. Where do you draw the line between honoring what happened and finding your own Mihai?

We looked at that particular family, but Cristian was adamant that we not focus on them entirely, because a lot of the movie is still fictional. So I looked at a lot of different families — and I looked at my own. I had a very particular relationship with my father, and I also grew up with my grandfather on my mom’s side. I had that stereotypical Eastern European father — this more subdued, stern, not-so-readable, guarded presence — and I think that informed a lot of my choices. But this family has a specific belief system. We went to some sermons in Romania to get a sense of the religion, and there’s an inherent trust that, no matter how things go, God will reveal that everything will be OK. That was very contrary to how I would react if my kids were taken from me.

You’ve talked about difficult relationships with your father — and gave a shoutout to your stepdad in your Golden Globe speech for “A Different Man,” who raised you. Now that you’re a father, do you feel a responsibility or a subconscious redemption arc?

I think some of it is, ‘Oh, I’ll right the wrongs I couldn’t when I was living my own experience’ — I can maybe provide the things I didn’t have. But mostly I’m more mindful. You start to realize how much of our parents and the voices in our heads are things we took on growing up, not necessarily authentically us. How do I manage that, so I don’t pass on something I’m myself still trying to work through?

The reactions to “Fjord” have been divisive, and I’ve read some that have called it ‘A MAGA movie.’ How do you feel about that?

Here’s the thing: When did it become normalized to think that one side has all the answers and is completely faultless? A lot of those reactions come from people who haven’t seen the movie. It highlights why we need more films like this — to remind us there was a time when people could meet, disagree and at least hear each other out. The movie doesn’t go and point the finger and say, “Well, you hold the key and you don’t.” It’s just going, “Fuck, we’re flawed as people.” And, by the way, kids shouldn’t be the ones paying the price for that.

I also read somewhere that people wanted to see your character explode. He never quite does.

In real life, people don’t always have the tools for that. Coming off “A Different Man” and “The Apprentice,” where I played these larger-than-life characters, I wanted something difficult in a different direction. I knew Cristian likes to shoot these long one-takes; I knew he doesn’t like close-ups and it was a different challenge to do something more restrained — something that reminded me of the unpredictability I saw in men who don’t know how to express themselves. Movies sometimes make that a little more romantic.

Coming off an Oscar nomination for “The Apprentice,” and no shade to any of your MCU counterparts, but you’re one of the only people using your post-MCU powers for good — a stretch nobody would call safe. What are you chasing in a role now that you weren’t a few years ago?

One, I’m chasing the opportunity to offer something different. I’ve become allergic to repeating myself. Actors are so overexposed at this point — whether you’re on social media or not, everything is personal, everyone wants to know everything. It makes the job harder, because people want to see you play one thing. I don’t care as much what it is, as long as it lets me offer something new. If that’s paired with a topic that’s relevant, it becomes even more undeniable. As you get older, you want to do something that can stand the test of time, that’s a conversation starter about the relevant issues we’re dealing with. We’re not doctors; we’re not on the front lines. This is the only way we get to communicate.

Did you grow up watching Batman? And did you ever think you’d be in a Batman movie?

100%. My favorite superhero movie is “Batman Returns” — I remember exactly where I saw it, over Christmas. I didn’t see the original first. It was Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito and I was obsessed with that movie. I also, shamefully, really like “Batman Forever” — I love the Riddler, I love Jim Carrey …

What about Tommy Lee Jones?

[pauses] He’s an amazing actor. I don’t quite know. In that movie, Jim Carrey overshadowed him.

Interesting.

But, growing up in Europe, Batman was the most recognizable thing to me. So when the MCU came first, it opened a door to comics I didn’t grow up with and I thought, well, that’s it, there’s no way I can get to the other side. No one’s going to hire me; I’ll be Bucky.

And then …?

Two things happened at the same time. I got a call to go meet Matt Reeves, who had seen “The Apprentice” and loved it and said, “I want to talk to you about this new movie.” And at the same time, I’d reached out to James Gunn and said, “Listen, man, I’m just letting you know — I’m here, I’m alive and well, I’m ready to rock.” And then it happened. I still feel like sometimes I’m like, did I leave the team for the other team? These worlds keep going parallel, and weirdly they help each other.

Everyone’s asking you about Harvey Dent. There was a video of you basically walking away from the question. Do you have newfound respect for Tom Holland when it comes to secrecy?

I have a lot of respect for Tom Holland. He was always notoriously bad at it, right? Look, there’s no way to keep any secret anymore. What I’ll say is this: there’s no way people will fully grasp how this movie is until they see it. I go to set sometimes and I look around and I’m like, I think we’re making fucking “The Godfather Part Two.” I feel that highly about it. Matt has spent three years working on it. There’s a lot of speculation about these roles, about what this movie is, but I think it’s going to be a good payoff — it’s really grounded and real, and that’s what I loved about it. You want to tease it a little, but we still have a long time.

Last question. David Harbour did this when I sat down with him — can you say one line from the movie, out of context, that your character says?

What did David say?

His was “You … are Tony Stark.”

That’s tricky. Ummm …

Do you say ‘Hello’ or anything like that?

I don’t even know if I say “hello.” [laughs] I want to give you something good. Let me say that the word “cookies” comes up. So enjoy that.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.