Sebastian Stan is in some deep trouble. While doing press for his Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy, the Tommy Lee actor admitted to viewing the leaked, real-life sex tape of the Hollywood couple.
Stan is best known for originating the role of Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was last seen playing the steel-armed superhero in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
In addition to making the big bucks with Marvel Studios, Stan has starred in numerous movies such as Fresh, The 355 and I, Tonya. Most recently, he’s been making headlines for his role as rockstar Tommy Lee in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy. The cast and creatives behind the show have been adamant about treating its tricky source material with the utmost respect, especially to Baywatch actor Pamela Anderson who never gave her consent for the series to be made.
Stan admits to watching sex tape
Despite Anderson’s drive to be a serious Hollywood actor, her ambitions were often reduced by men who viewed her solely as a sex symbol. Pam & Tommy touches upon this briefly in the series, showing dramatizations of instances where her script lines were cut in favor of slow-mo runs on the beach and male reporters chose to comment on her looks rather than her roles during their meet-and-greets.
The cast and creatives of the show have been very insistent that they respect the icon and strived to do her justice in the show’s eight episodes. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Craig Gillespie confirmed that Anderson refused to be involved with the show.
He said, “I felt, for us, what we’re trying to do is really change the narrative and your perspective of what happened. And this felt like such an opportunity to do that and to be able to look at the story through today’s lens and the outrageousness and just the atrocities that happened.”
Gillespie continued, “I felt that hopefully, it would change people’s point of view on that. So everybody tried to focus on that.”
But it seems as though that narrative wasn’t shared with the show’s leading actor Stan. In an interview with This Morning, Stan appeared alongside his costar, Anderson actor Lily James, and spoke about how he tapped into his character. He revealed that part of the process was viewing the real-life sex tape that was widely distributed without Anderson’s consent.
When asked if he watched the tape, the actor said, “Well, it was research.” Stan went on to say, “It’s my job as an actor to find as much as you can about who you’re playing.”
Sebastian Stan’s comments recieve backlash
Fan and critics were furious to hear Stan’s comments and many have called him out for the lewd behavior. Sharing a clip of the interview, one wrote, “yeah, this whole show is completely immoral and unethical, and both lily and sebastian have showed how little they care about victims of abuse.”
Others have called out the actors for being insensitive, sharing that a woman’s privacy shouldn’t be violated for research purposes. Even some of his fans have weighed in on the controversy.
One Marvel fan wrote, “I love TFATWS and Bucky, but that doesn’t mean I can’t criticize Sebastian Stan. Why would anyone watch a sex tape KNOWING it was leaked???”
Despite the waves of backlash that the show has faced since pre-production, it still resonated well with viewers. Pam & Tommy currently has an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.7 on IMDb. Hopefully, Stan can “right some wrongs” in his next interview.
Pam & Tommy is currently streaming on Hulu.