We all know Sebastian Stan as the brooding, tortured Bucky Barnes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe – a role he’s inhabited so completely, it’s easy to forget he’s got a whole other filmography that isn’t drenched in super-serum.
But if you look past the Winter Soldier smolder, you’ll find a fascinating lineup of smaller, stranger, and even slightly obscure movies that show just how versatile (and vulnerable) Stan can be. These aren’t your typical blockbuster performances. These are the roles where he gets weird, messy, romantic, unhinged, and even a little haunted.
Searchlight Pictures
Fresh is a sleek, stylized horror-thriller that pretends to be a rom-com just long enough to make you let your guard down. It follows Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a weary millennial navigating the minefield that is modern dating. When she meets Steve (Sebastian Stan) at a grocery store, he seems like a unicorn – funny, flirty, and refreshingly normal. Sparks fly, numbers are exchanged, and soon, she’s agreeing to a spontaneous weekend getaway. But what starts as a breezy romance takes a sinister left turn into something far darker and much bloodier.
Stan plays a character who could have easily walked out of a dating app – but not in a good way. His performance as Steve is magnetic, but you also know, almost immediately, that something’s just off. What makes Fresh interesting is how it taps into the dating nightmare, where everyone is performative, and trust is a gamble. Watching Stan dance through his kitchen to ’80s synth-pop while doing unspeakable things is chilling. He expertly recreates the everyday horror of not knowing who someone really is which makes it terrifyingly real.
A24
In Sharper, Stan trades his Winter Soldier stealth for the slippery confidence of a con artist. The story unfolds like a puzzle box, beginning with a seemingly simple love story and quickly revealing layer upon layer of deceit. Set against the backdrop of New York’s ultra-wealthy elite, Sharper follows multiple characters whose lives intersect through schemes, betrayals, and elaborate emotional traps. Stan plays Max, the mysterious partner-in-crime to Julianne Moore’s character, as they weave their way through a game where everyone is a pawn, a player, or both.
Max knows how to work a room, a situation, and even a person. Every smirk is a weapon. Every compliment is a setup, and yet, you still kinda want to trust him. Stan brings a slick sophistication to the role, and the movie gives him the space to flex that quiet intensity he does so well. But there’s also a sadness under the surface of the story, a subtle suggestion that maybe Max isn’t just playing the game. Maybe the game’s been playing him, too. Stan’s performance is all about what’s not being said. It’s sleek, seductive, and deeply cynical.
Warner Bros.
To be perfectly honest, The Apparition is not a masterpiece. But there’s still something compelling about watching Stan play a scared, morally conflicted scientist in a supernatural thriller that takes itself very
seriously. The film follows a young couple, Ben (Stan) and Kelly (Ashley Greene), who move into a new home in the California desert. Their fresh start quickly devolves into a waking nightmare when a presence linked to Ben’s past involvement in a failed parapsychology experiment begins to torture Kelly. This movie was early in Stan’s career, and it shows a version of him that’s still finding his footing onscreen.
But there’s also a kind of vulnerable sincerity in his performance that makes this movie worth the watch. The movie dives headfirst into classic horror tropes like flickering lights, sudden chills, and ominous whispers while Stan plays the unraveling of a man who knows he’s in over his head with surprising restraint. It’s a little haunted house, a little science project gone wrong, and a lot of awkward tension between him and Greene.
IFC Films
This is the movie where Stan completely lets go. Monday is an intimate, sun-drenched fever dream about two lost souls who crash into each other on a wild Athens weekend and decide, against all good judgment, to start a life together. Mickey (Stan) is a reckless, impulsive DJ, and Chloe (Denise Gough) is a guarded attorney running from a toxic ex. Their initial chemistry is electric and utterly intoxicating. But when the weekend ends, real life begins and with it, the inevitable unraveling.
What Stan does in his performance is strip away all the coolness, all the careful choreography, and let’s himself be flawed. Mickey is wonderful, but he’s also selfish, unstable, and sometimes kind of awful. Their relationship doesn’t follow a typical rom-com arc. Monday is about the kind of love that changes shape the longer you try to hold onto it. It’s sensual, vulnerable, and, at times, deeply uncomfortable. Stan lets himself be a complete mess, and that honesty makes it unforgettable.
Brainstorm Media
In this quiet, gothic psychological drama, Stan dials back the charisma to play a charming interloper with a hidden agenda. Adapted from Shirley Jackson’s haunting novel, the story centers on the Blackwood sisters, Merricat (Taissa Farmiga) and Constance (Alexandra Daddario), who live in isolation after a family tragedy tucked away from a village that resents them. When their estranged cousin Charles (Stan) arrives, everything begins to shift. He brings the illusion of normalcy, but beneath the polished surface is a quiet condescension that grows more menacing with each scene.
Stan plays the duality perfectly, never outright villainous but always passive-aggressive. He doesn’t need to raise his voice or wield a weapon to be terrifying. He just is. There’s a theatrical quality to this movie that suits him well. The setting is claustrophobic, the relationships are tense, and the whole thing feels like a haunted house dreamscape. Stan’s role is less showy than some of his others, but it’s no less effective and proves that sometimes the scariest people are the ones who smile the most.
But if you look past the Winter Soldier smolder, you’ll find a fascinating lineup of smaller, stranger, and even slightly obscure movies that show just how versatile (and vulnerable) Stan can be. These aren’t your typical blockbuster performances. These are the roles where he gets weird, messy, romantic, unhinged, and even a little haunted.
Fresh (2022)
Searchlight Pictures
Fresh is a sleek, stylized horror-thriller that pretends to be a rom-com just long enough to make you let your guard down. It follows Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a weary millennial navigating the minefield that is modern dating. When she meets Steve (Sebastian Stan) at a grocery store, he seems like a unicorn – funny, flirty, and refreshingly normal. Sparks fly, numbers are exchanged, and soon, she’s agreeing to a spontaneous weekend getaway. But what starts as a breezy romance takes a sinister left turn into something far darker and much bloodier.
Stan plays a character who could have easily walked out of a dating app – but not in a good way. His performance as Steve is magnetic, but you also know, almost immediately, that something’s just off. What makes Fresh interesting is how it taps into the dating nightmare, where everyone is performative, and trust is a gamble. Watching Stan dance through his kitchen to ’80s synth-pop while doing unspeakable things is chilling. He expertly recreates the everyday horror of not knowing who someone really is which makes it terrifyingly real.
Sharper (2023)
A24
In Sharper, Stan trades his Winter Soldier stealth for the slippery confidence of a con artist. The story unfolds like a puzzle box, beginning with a seemingly simple love story and quickly revealing layer upon layer of deceit. Set against the backdrop of New York’s ultra-wealthy elite, Sharper follows multiple characters whose lives intersect through schemes, betrayals, and elaborate emotional traps. Stan plays Max, the mysterious partner-in-crime to Julianne Moore’s character, as they weave their way through a game where everyone is a pawn, a player, or both.
Max knows how to work a room, a situation, and even a person. Every smirk is a weapon. Every compliment is a setup, and yet, you still kinda want to trust him. Stan brings a slick sophistication to the role, and the movie gives him the space to flex that quiet intensity he does so well. But there’s also a sadness under the surface of the story, a subtle suggestion that maybe Max isn’t just playing the game. Maybe the game’s been playing him, too. Stan’s performance is all about what’s not being said. It’s sleek, seductive, and deeply cynical.
The Apparition (2012)
Warner Bros.
To be perfectly honest, The Apparition is not a masterpiece. But there’s still something compelling about watching Stan play a scared, morally conflicted scientist in a supernatural thriller that takes itself very
seriously. The film follows a young couple, Ben (Stan) and Kelly (Ashley Greene), who move into a new home in the California desert. Their fresh start quickly devolves into a waking nightmare when a presence linked to Ben’s past involvement in a failed parapsychology experiment begins to torture Kelly. This movie was early in Stan’s career, and it shows a version of him that’s still finding his footing onscreen.
But there’s also a kind of vulnerable sincerity in his performance that makes this movie worth the watch. The movie dives headfirst into classic horror tropes like flickering lights, sudden chills, and ominous whispers while Stan plays the unraveling of a man who knows he’s in over his head with surprising restraint. It’s a little haunted house, a little science project gone wrong, and a lot of awkward tension between him and Greene.
Monday (2020)
IFC Films
This is the movie where Stan completely lets go. Monday is an intimate, sun-drenched fever dream about two lost souls who crash into each other on a wild Athens weekend and decide, against all good judgment, to start a life together. Mickey (Stan) is a reckless, impulsive DJ, and Chloe (Denise Gough) is a guarded attorney running from a toxic ex. Their initial chemistry is electric and utterly intoxicating. But when the weekend ends, real life begins and with it, the inevitable unraveling.
What Stan does in his performance is strip away all the coolness, all the careful choreography, and let’s himself be flawed. Mickey is wonderful, but he’s also selfish, unstable, and sometimes kind of awful. Their relationship doesn’t follow a typical rom-com arc. Monday is about the kind of love that changes shape the longer you try to hold onto it. It’s sensual, vulnerable, and, at times, deeply uncomfortable. Stan lets himself be a complete mess, and that honesty makes it unforgettable.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2019)
Brainstorm Media
In this quiet, gothic psychological drama, Stan dials back the charisma to play a charming interloper with a hidden agenda. Adapted from Shirley Jackson’s haunting novel, the story centers on the Blackwood sisters, Merricat (Taissa Farmiga) and Constance (Alexandra Daddario), who live in isolation after a family tragedy tucked away from a village that resents them. When their estranged cousin Charles (Stan) arrives, everything begins to shift. He brings the illusion of normalcy, but beneath the polished surface is a quiet condescension that grows more menacing with each scene.
Stan plays the duality perfectly, never outright villainous but always passive-aggressive. He doesn’t need to raise his voice or wield a weapon to be terrifying. He just is. There’s a theatrical quality to this movie that suits him well. The setting is claustrophobic, the relationships are tense, and the whole thing feels like a haunted house dreamscape. Stan’s role is less showy than some of his others, but it’s no less effective and proves that sometimes the scariest people are the ones who smile the most.