NEW YORK – Adam Pearson is an ardent believer in the old adage: Nothing wagered, nothing gained.
Before Pearson was an actor, he worked at the BBC out of college. He was hired for six months, but, like much in Pearson’s life, he was determined to make the most of it.
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“I decided I’m going to meet every person on this floor and ask them for coffee,” Pearson says. “If they say yes, great. If they, ‘No, you’re an idiot,’ I already know that. I’ve lost nothing in that transaction.
“It’s all about taking risk and rolling dice,” says Pearson.
For Pearson, that means something a little different than most. Since he was a young boy, Pearson has had neurofibromatosis, a condition that covers much of his face with benign skin tumors. But far from allowing that to define him, Pearson has become an acclaimed actor, a TV host and an activist for disabled people. He is braver than me. He is braver than you. He has acted, naked, across from Scarlett Johansson. In Aaron Schimberg’s new film, “A Different Man,” he stars opposite Sebastian Stan. Most would say he steals the show.
“This past year has been wild,” Pearson said in a recent interview on a terrace at the New York offices of A24. “If you had told me that I’d work with Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan and I’d be here talking to you right now, I’d be like, ‘Nope. Not going to happen.’”
“A Different Man,” which expands in theaters this week, has been causing a stir since it first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It follows Edward (Stan, with prosthetics and makeup), a disfigured man whose apartment neighbor is a young playwright named Ingrid (Renate Reinsve). After undergoing experimental surgery, Edward is shed of his neurofibromatosis, making him look like, well, Sebastian Stan. Ingrid, not knowing it’s Edward, casts him in her play inspired by her friendship with Edward. But when a charismatic man with neurofibromatosis, Oswald (Pearson), shows up, he quickly upstages Edward.
At “the end of this movie, everyone is going to see that Sebastian Stan is jealous of Adam Pearson, and they’re going to believe and understand that,” says Schimberg. “In a way, it’s me trying to take ownership of this idea that being different has value. People are coming away from it feeling like Adam is a star.”
Pearson, 39, grew up in the London district of Croydon. He has an identical twin brother named Neil who shares his condition though it manifests as short-term memory loss for Neil. After college, Pearson gravitated toward television. He parlayed his initial experience at the BBC into work on a number of series and documentaries, including several on himself.
“I found out who I was by trying loads of things that I wasn’t and by realizing the facade of trying to please people is equally as miserable as the loneliness,” says Pearson. “Once you’re comfortable in your own skin and figure that out, and get to the point where you’re like, ‘It is who I am, like it or lump it,’ and the people that matter don’t mind and the people that mind don’t matter, that’s when you can really find your way.”
Pearson's first acting job was in Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 film “Under the Skin,” in which he played one of the men picked up and slaughtered by Johansson’s extraterrestrial. It was a unique baptism into the vulnerability required for acting. Pearson found that, in getting lost in the moment, acting could be freeing.
Pearson co-starred in Schimberg’s 2019 film “Chained for Life,” playing an actor acting opposite a beautiful woman (Jess Weixler). The experience was rewarding for Schimberg but some of the discussion around it led to “A Different Man.” Some alleged Pearson’s casting was exploitative, an argument that struck Schimberg as illustrative. Schimberg, who has a cleft palate, had written the role partially based on himself. He considers disability a core subject for himself as a filmmaker.
More than that, though, Schimberg felt the criticism represented a telling dilemma. He had spent much of his life seeing deformity portrayed inauthentically in movies like 1985’s “Mask” or 2017’s “Wonder” by able bodied actors. If some took issue with Pearson appearing in a movie at all, what did that say about people’s willingness to watch and empathize for people living for deformity?
Schimberg resolved to structure “A Different Man” as a movie that begins with one kind of portrayal and morphs into a more authentic one. He also wanted Pearson’s role to be more reflective of his personality.
“Partially because he was shy in ‘Under the Skin’ and partially because characters with disfigurements are often portrayed as shy, everyone assumed he was shy,” says Schimberg. “Until I met him, I wouldn’t have known, either, how extraverted and gregarious he is.”
“And on a deeper level, I was personally inspired by him," Schimberg adds. "It almost threw me into an identity crisis. I have a cleft palate. I’m socially awkward, I’m shy. I’ve always sort of blamed this on having a cleft palate and the way I’ve been treated because of it. When I meet Adam, I questioned: Why can he be this way and I can’t be this way?”
Oswald isn’t quite Pearson, though he’s close. “Oswald is me but with the volume turned way up, turned up — to reference my favorite film — to 11,” says Pearson. “He’s really charming so there’s a little bit of Ryan Gosling, ‘Stupid Crazy Love.’”
Before shooting began, Pearson worked with Stan to synchronize and compare parts of their movements and performances. He was also learning. “I’ve always said, if you want to learn how to do something, find someone who does it better than you and just get in their way.”
Pearson has spent two years working on a documentary about storytelling. On his recent trip to New York, he was shooting around the city for it. But “A Different Man” is, he says, “the biggest thing I’ve done. It’s the breakout.”
“Reading all the reviews and the press and stuff has been somewhat overwhelming,” Pearson says. “I’m trying to play it cool. I’m like a duck. On the surface, I look cool and sleek and elegant. And underneath I’m kicking like mad. We’ll see what happens. If this is where the acting journey ends, I’m going out on a high. I’m not taking anything for granted. I’m remembering to take a breath and enjoy it all and not get too caught up in it."
Asked to recall a moment from this year that he'll cherish, Pearson describes attending the Berlin Film Festival with his mother and brother.
“For years, my mum has been like ‘You’re not famous in this house,'” Pearson says. "And then she saw me on the red carpet and she thought, 'Maybe he is a little bit famous.’”
And he's getting used to it. Schimberg thinks Pearson might be more comfortable promoting “A Different Man” than Stan, the veteran actor of Marvel movies.
“In the trailer it’s like, ‘Adam Pearson steals the show.' And I go, ‘Oh man, stealing’s illegal'" Pearson says, laughing. "But I’m also like: Yeah. Yeah. Adam Pearson, turn up, steal the show, go home, repeat. That’s the plan now.”