Sebastian Stan's Career-Changing Audition Disasters Revealed
The Marvel star opens up about missing out on two massive Hollywood roles that could have changed everything. His candid confession about feeling completely outmatched reveals the brutal reality of A-list competition.
Sebastian Stan's life looks pretty sweet from the outside. The guy's got movie star looks, worldwide fame, and the freedom to bounce between serious dramas and Marvel blockbusters whenever he feels like it. But getting to this point wasn't exactly a smooth ride.
Like every actor trying to make it in Hollywood, Stan went through his share of brutal rejections before landing the roles that made him a household name. Some of those near-misses involved characters that would become legendary in pop culture.
The Star Trek Heartbreak
Stan got painfully close to playing one of science fiction's most famous characters. "Captain Kirk for JJ Abrams was one of the first things that I got very close to," he told Huffpost. "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."
Chris Pine eventually snagged the role of young Kirk in Abrams' Star Trek reboot. The 2007 film brought the struggling franchise back to life and made the classic characters relevant again. But the success didn't last. The sequels lost steam, and Pine himself later called the series "cursed."
Green Lantern's Intimidating Competition
Stan's next major disappointment came with an even more star-studded audition process. "Green Lantern was another that I screen tested for," he recalled. "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!'"
Stan's instincts proved correct. Reynolds got the part of Hal Jordan in Martin Campbell's DC adaptation. But winning that role turned into a career nightmare for the Canadian actor. The movie bombed so hard it nearly destroyed Reynolds' career completely. It took years and a certain red-suited antihero for him to recover.
The Marvel Breakthrough
Stan didn't stay on the sidelines long. He first appeared as Bucky Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger, but The Winter Soldier really launched him into the spotlight. Both franchises that rejected him ended up being disowned by their leading men.
Sometimes missing out on something means you're headed for something better. Stan's story proves that timing matters more than talent in Hollywood's unpredictable game.