When the Oscar nominations came out yesterday, there was only one big surprise in the Best Actor category. The race in Best Actor has been remarkably stable this awards season, with “sure thing” nominations for Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), Timothee Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) and Colman Domingo (Sing Sing). If anything, I wondered if Domingo would end up being a victim of the ever-present #OscarsSoWhite, but he did get nominated and I’m so happy for him.
The big Best Actor shock was that Oscar voters said “nah” to Daniel Craig in Queer, and they slipped Sebastian Stan in the fifth slot. It was also a surprise because Stan wasn’t nominated for his Berlin Golden Bear & Golden Globe-winning performance in A Different Man. Instead, he got nominated for his turn as a young Donald Trump in the “controversial” film The Apprentice. The Apprentice was so controversial that Variety couldn’t even do an “Actors on Actors” piece with Sebastian, because no one wanted to be paired with him.
While I’ve never counted Sebastian as one of my internet crushes or anything, I do find him impressive and he’s a very underrated actor. I find his backstory fascinating too – he and his mother immigrated to the US from Romania when he was 12/13. He speaks English with a perfect American accent, but he’s still fluent in his mother tongue. He’s actually in Romania this week, and he reacted to his first Oscar nomination from his birth country:
“I can’t believe I’m in Romania while receiving this news. It’s surreal. I’m stunned. I’m speechless. I’m humbled. I guess this is what they mean by the American Dream. I’m so grateful to everyone who made the impossible, possible. Thank you to the Academy for this brave recognition.”
“I guess this is what they mean by the American Dream” – that got me. I actually got choked up. It’s incredibly surreal though, because the “American” brand has never been lower, all because of Trump. And Sebastian Stan is nominated for playing Trump.
I posted this clip a few days ago – I think this is from an interview from 2023, but it was new to me. Love the way he pronounces his name.
Sebastian Stan speaking his own name with the original pronunciation in Romanian
pic.twitter.com/jCBxdNQniS
— Sebastian Stan Archive (@sebstanarchive) January 22, 2025
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
