Depending on your point of view, the story of Tonya Harding is sort of an American tragedy. A poor girl from a difficult background, Harding follows her passion and ends up the Women’s U.S. Figure Skating Champion and places 2nd at the World Championships the same year. But, she doesn’t fit the model of what the ice skating establishment expects from their figure skaters and her chances at making the Olympic Winter Games team are in peril. Enter her boyfriend/husband/ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and his idiot best friend Shawn Eckhardt. Events spiral out of control and, seemingly without her knowledge, Harding’s chief rival, Nancy Kerrigan, is attacked and suffers a serious knee injury. The unfolding drama created headlines around the world and, not that surprisingly, none of the participants lives were ever the same again. That’s the story director Craig Gillespie brings to life in the new dramedy “I, Tonya” which debuted at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival. (You can read The Playlist’s review here).
For Sebastian Stan “I, Tonya” marks a unique moment in his career. Best known to moviegoers for his role as the Winter Soldier in the “Captain America” films, Stan completely transforms himself as Gillooly and shows surprisingly deft comic timing when the role demands it. And both he and Margot Robbie, who plays Tonya, find a way to convince you these two people who simply should not be together might actually love each other (at least for a little while).
Stan sat down to talk about “I, Tonya,” his career and what he learned from making the Marvel Movies during his short stay at TIFF this past weekend.
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Gregory Ellwood: So how was the premiere last night? Did you sit through it?
Sebastian Stan: Yes. I hadn’t seen the movie and it was great. It was really cool.
Is that normal for you? Do you like to go into film festivals having not seen your film or is it because you’ve just been too busy?
No, they were going to screen it for me at one point and I was in New York and I kind of kept like trying to screen it and then not screen it and then I was like, “You know what? Don’t worry about it. I’ll just see it with an audience.” Which was what I wanted to do. I wanted to see how everybody was reacting to things. It was cool. It was really surreal. It was a good moment for us. I was really proud to be a part of it.
You shoot it, you know what you guys are going for, the director’s going for a certain style. What was your number one takeaway watching it?
There was so much going in to it. I was definitely out of my comfort zone in a lot of ways. I’d never done anything like this before. I felt very challenged in a lot of ways and I didn’t know how that was going to turn out. I knew when we were shooting that we were doing something great because I was seeing how everybody else was doing. And I also knew Craig was going to kill it. I could see the way he was shooting it which was very inspiring to me. Yeah, you don’t know. And I think the main thing is you want to find that fine balance between what do you call it?
Comedy?
Comedy and sort of like the tragedy bit and the fact that even though they were, there was a lot of pain and tragedy. Well, there was a sensational aspect to [the story]. And that’s the tone of the movie. And he did it, man. I felt like he got that and he did it with some of my favorite songs, ever. It’s like my favorite soundtrack is in that movie.
Did you talk to the real Jeff Gillooly?
Yeah.
What did you learn from talking to him?
So, I had listened to the interviews that Steven Rogers, the screenwriter, had had with him. So, I knew Jeff’s [side of the story]. I knew what Jeff contributed to the script. For me, meeting him was more because I couldn’t find enough footage of him online. There’s very little stuff of him. There was only like two or three interviews. And he had a very specific voice and I wanted to hear him talk more and I wanted to see also what he was like when he got, because in the movie, he goes from 20 to 48, 49 or whatever. So, I wanted to see what he was like now. I wanted to see how he smiled and when he smiled. It was more physical, more mannerism-type stuff that I was looking for in meeting him. And probably in some weird way, you’re searching for some rites of passage. You’re searching for somebody you’re about to portray where they’re handing you their life in a way and I was kind of like, “O.K., I’m the guy, I’m going to do my best.”
Out of everyone in the movie he seems the most regretful. The most almost a melancholy mood about him.
Which he is.
Was he like that when you met him?
Yeah, I think the first think he had said to me was, “Why would anyone want to see this? Why would anyone bring this up? Why go back to this?” And I do believe that there’s a part of him that looks backs [at it] the way anybody looks back at their life and goes, “Shit, I was 22 and I was I don’t know.” For me, I’m like, “Shit, I was 22 and I was in college and I was doing this or whatever.” For someone like him maybe it’s something else. But we all have that melancholy thing of looking back in our lives. And it’s very interesting to know that [both he and Tonya] live so closely together but there’s no interaction.
I didn’t know they lived in the same city.
They’re within 20 block radius.
Yikes. Did you talk to Tonya at all?
No, I didn’t talk to Tonya. Margot had talked to Tonya, she didn’t talk to Jeff. I didn’t want to talk to her because I felt it was already very difficult for me to accept certain things about the script. And I knew that if I talked to Tonya it may actually hinder me in a way. So I tried to… I left that to Margot.
I spoke to Elizabeth Olsen earlier this summer when she was doing press for “Wind River” and”Ingrid Goes West.” She talked about how fun it was to do smaller movies like this during her break from Marvel films. Do you feel the same way?
Absolutely. You also forget that, like, my character in [the Marvel movies] is kind of a weird character, too. Like I actually got to do some cool scenes there, too. There was also physicality. For me, if you want to ask me what my favorite thing in the world is? Honestly, I love when someone says, here’s an opportunity for you, just change how you look. Fucking lose yourself in the midst. Get out of your comfort zone. Shave your head and then walk down the street and see how people look at you. See how, how does it feel when you order food. Dye your hair blonde or whatever. It interests me and the actors that I most admire which are the Joaquin Phoenixes, the Christian Bales, there’s so many. I feel like they take these risks and I think one of the reasons they take these risks is because it’s really scary but it’s also the only thing that’s going to push you that way. And I felt that I’d been getting that somewhat with Marvel. That kind of like, “Get out of your comfort zone.” Marvel basically taught me how to fight, you could argue. I learned something new there too in a weird way. But to answer your question in a very long way, this was a very cool passion project to me that felt I could really try and just do some different things. To push myself and that’s all.
What’s really interesting is that you talk about wanting to do roles where you transform yourself. I feel like fans of yours who go to this movie will recognize you, but it’s really like nothing you’ve done before.
You made my day. So thanks for saying that.