Words: Aobh O'Brien-Moody
Photography: Will Corry
Styling: Zak Maoui
Grooming: Maria Comparetto
Production: Freya Anderson
Adam Pearson doesn’t do false modesty. “I’m the Taylor Swift of Croydon,” he tells me, Zooming in from his home in south London. His mother keeps him in check – or attempts to. “My mum always says, ‘Adam Henry Pearson, you’re not famous in this house’. And, I’m like, ‘No, no, that’s not how fame works. I am absolutely famous in this house. You just don’t care’.”
Pearson’s unabashed self-confidence is very much warranted. The 40-year-old actor, who got his big break starring alongside Scarlett Johansson in Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 sci-fi thriller Under the Skin, is riding high on the success of his latest film A Different Man. The dark comedy stars Sebastian Stan as Edward, a downtrodden actor with neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition that produces benign facial tumours. After volunteering for a pioneering surgery that reverses his facial disfigurement, transforming him into, well, Sebastian Stan, Edward assumes a new identity as Guy. He becomes a successful real estate agent, reconnects with his former neighbour Ingrid (The Worst Person in the World’s Renate Reinsve) and bags the lead role in her play, which she has written about her old neighbour Edward without realising that she’s cast him to play his former self.
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Things take a turn when Oswald – played by Pearson in an energetic and arresting performance – enters the picture. Oswald looks a lot like the old Edward and has the same condition, but comes with a radically different disposition. He’s popular, funny, confident and kills at karaoke. Instantly, the insecure Edward perceives him as a threat and a one-sided rivalry begins. “There are so many layers to it,” says Pearson. “It’s a deeply complex job.”
The film’s director Aaron Schimberg developed the role of Oswald specifically with Pearson in mind. The two had worked together before on Schimberg’s 2018 film Chained for Life. “[Aaron] thought that my performance in Chained for Life went wildly under-recognised because the character was quite shy, nervous and nuanced, and people had incorrectly assumed that that’s who I am, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” says Pearson. “So he went away and wrote a role that was a lot louder and more confident, which would [allow me to] show some range, and flex a bit as an actor. But also now it means we’ve got to do something with me. It was like, am I this guy in real life and not acting? But the idea that I’m not an actor is now null and void.”
A Different Man portrays a facially disfigured person who is joyful and charismatic, and whose condition doesn’t define him. Pearson hopes that the film will challenge perceptions of disability, in particular facial disfigurement and neurofibromatosis, while also begging questions about identity and appearance. “A good film will change what you think for a couple of days, and a great film will change how you think for the rest of your life, and we’re definitely in the great cinema business,” says Pearson. “As long as people leave thinking and talking, no matter what they say, I think the film has done its job.”
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A Different Man is also as unsettling as it is funny. And that’s the point. “I’m a huge fan of dark comedy,” says Adam. “I think comedy is a really good way of communicating what can be quite complex and discomforting subjects. That doesn’t therefore mean you have to make it comfortable. I think some discomfort occasionally is good. They’re called growing pains for a reason.”
Pearson admits that he has “always been a huge comedy guy”. In his teens, he would regularly use humour as a go-to defence mechanism in the face of bullying, but now he sees it as a powerful communication tool as well as a great unifier. “I think laughter is one of the very few things that humans do communally,” he says. “If you go and watch a live stand-up show with other people, you’ll laugh a lot more than if you watched the same thing in a room on your own. It’s almost infectious. But also, everyone always likes the funny guy, don’t they? No one ever says, ‘Oh yeah, Adam, he’s really funny,’ [as an] insult. It’s a universal language.”
Pearson is keen for more comedic roles: “Adam Sandler, if you’re reading this!” He’s also eager to get behind the camera. “I’d like to try my hand at maybe writing and exec-ing something,” he says, before teasing, “Might have something that’s on the go right now, who knows?” But mostly, he’s enjoying riding the wave of A Different Man. And in classic Pearson fashion, he’s unapologetically optimistic about it. “We’ve got awards season coming up, so I’ve put up shelves.”
This article was taken from the winter 2024 issue of Gentleman's Journal. Read about the issue here...
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