Sebastian Stan has played a Marvel super soldier and Donald Trump. With “A Different Man” he is taking on a new challenge.

Whether he is playing super soldier Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or former President Donald Trump in The apprentice, Sebastian Stan knows that his face is the focus in many of his roles.

“As actors, we have that, and we have to use it somehow,” he told Yahoo Entertainment, pointing to his face. “I think it's important to continue to grow and evolve. You get comfortable quickly… and then it just gets boring and you look for a challenge.”

Stan accepted the challenge and played in Another man as Shy actor Edward undergoes medical treatment to correct his facial deformity, which radically changes his life. When he meets Oswald, a charismatic man with the same disease as him, Edward becomes obsessed.

Oswald is played by Adam Pearson, an actor with neurofibromatosis, which causes his face to be covered in tumors. Another man Writer and director Aaron Schimberg told Yahoo Entertainment that he developed the role of the confident and popular Oswald specifically with Pearson in mind and that it would never have happened without him.

Schimberg's goal was to have Pearson play a version of himself that went to “wild extremes” – and to showcase his acting skills in a different kind of role than the shy, timid roles that disabled actors are often pigeonholed into.

“Oswald is like me, but with the volume turned up to 11,” Pearson told Yahoo Entertainment. “I think if I was like that all the time, my friends would find me and punch me… but it was fun to be loud and social.”

For the scenes before Edward's facial transformation, Stan was sculpted with multiple layers of makeup and prosthetics – but that's just the character's external appearance. Stan said that speaking openly with Pearson about his experience with neurofibromatosis helped him really understand Edward.

Stan also went over the script with Kaleb Yohay, a doctor who specializes in neurofibromatosis, and spent time scouring YouTube for testimonials from other sufferers. He also spoke with a woman named Elna Baker, whose 2016 post appeared on This American life describes her experiences with the drastic weight loss that made her unrecognizable to her neighbors.

“[Baker] “She talks at length about how this has affected her life and her self-esteem, and it was helpful for me to hear her perspective on it because there are a lot of similarities between our stories,” Stan said. “I've had a lot of help.”

For Pearson, many scenes in the film show what it's really like to live with a facial change. One of the most striking examples is how people act overly familiar with Edward's pre-transformation character, as if they've met him before. He was able to draw parallels between this tendency and what Stan might have experienced as a celebrity.

“I said there are two ways to lose your anonymity in society – either disfigurement or fame,” Pearson said. “I shot myself in the foot in both cases. [feet] on it.”

Schimberg, who has a cleft palate, said working with Pearson on the set of his 2018 film Chained for life helped him overcome fear of being judged for his own facial transformation. His goal for the film is not to “teach anyone in the industry what to do,” although he did offer some advice.

“I think if you have more people behind the scenes – more writers and directors with disabilities – you get more comprehensive portraits of disability,” he said. “I would advise film producers to hire more of those people.”

Ultimately, Schimberg wanted to see himself represented in the production of this film.

“I'm not saying some directors don't have the right to portray disabilities, but when it's done from a personal perspective, it becomes more truthful,” he said.