Fan Fest News

News for Fans, By Fans!

Sebastian Stan on ‘I, Tonya’ and Being Traumatized by Ice Skating

Photo Credit: An Rong Xu for The New York Times

If you’ve seen Sebastian Stan’s name in headlines lately, it’s for good reason. Stan is currently promoting his upcoming film I, Tonya with a number of interviews and guest appearances across the US.

One of the best things about promo time for the film is how incredibly dedicated and passionate the actors and actresses on set were for telling this story and hearing what they channeled to bring the mockentary to the big screen.

However, the thing we’re enjoying most right now is hearing more about Stan in his own words. In his recent interview with the New York Timeshe discussed everything from channeling Jeff Gillooly to not ice skating and growing up in New York.

We used to come into the city a lot when I was a kid, especially around the holidays, this was the best place to come.

Stan was born in Romania but his mother married an American and they moved to New York and he considers the city his home.

The interview, both to promote I, Tonya and done in a restaurant in the city obviously had a huge ice skating undertone. Stan himself, however, has never been ice skating.

I’ve never been ice skating, ever. I’m traumatized by the idea of it. Look, see those kids out there, falling. I keep thinking that I’m going to fall, and then someone is going to come by and slash my wrists off with one of their blades. So I’m much happier on the sidelines, as a spectator.

After that visualization, we don’t blame him.

One may wonder why Stan took on the role of Gillooly, in fact, Gillooly himself wondered as well. The simple answer? I, Tonya has an incredible script. As an actor, his job is to ‘tell the story’.

I’ve gotten really good at not judging characters. You have that fear of ‘God, I don’t know if I can do this.’ But the script was intriguing. And regardless of what I thought happened, and what judgments I had about all that, I just had to let it go, and trust the script. My job as an actor is to just tell the story as best I can, from my character’s point of view, and let the audience decide.

As he said in his interview on GMA, meeting with Gillooly was something Stan needed to do to get a better understanding of who he was, and is now. Their interaction wasn’t about discussing what happened or prying for never before heard statements, he just needed to figure out how to portray Gillooly.

There was an earlier Jeff in the script that I couldn’t find anything on. How was he when he was in high school? Who was he back then? What did he want to be? How did he smile? When he got excited, how did he move his hands?

I, Tonya was the talk of the TIFF and has already won awards, with dedication like Stan shows towards his role, that comes as no surprise to us. Margot Robbie gave herself to her role as Tonya Harding as well, with the two being at the center of the story, we have no doubt it’ll be done incredibly. Or as incredibly as a story like this can be.

I, Tonya hits theaters on December 8th.