Adam Pearson is ready to take his chance

NEW YORK — Adam Pearson is a firm believer in the old adage: Nothing bet, nothing gained.

Before becoming an actor, Pearson worked at the BBC after graduating. He was hired for six months, but like many things in Pearson’s life, he was determined to make the most of it.

“I decided to meet every person on that floor and ask them for coffee,” Pearson says. “If they say yes, great. If they say, ‘No, you’re an idiot,’ I already know. I didn’t lose anything in that transaction.”

“It’s all about taking risks and rolling the dice,” Pearson says.

For Pearson, that means something a little different than most people. Since he was a boy, Pearson has suffered from neurofibromatosis, a disease that covers much of his face with benign skin tumors. But far from letting it define him, Pearson has become an acclaimed actor, television host and disability activist. He’s braver than me. He’s braver than you. He’s starred naked opposite Scarlett Johansson. In Aaron Schimberg’s new film, “A Different Man,” he stars opposite Sebastian Stan. Most would say he steals the show.

“This year has been a rollercoaster,” Pearson said in a recent interview on a terrace at A24’s New York offices. “If you had told me I’d be working with Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, and I’d be here talking to you right now, I would have said, ‘No. That’s not going to happen.’”

“A Different Man,” which opens in theaters this week, has been a sensation since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The film 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 rid of his neurofibromatosis, giving him the appearance of Sebastian Stan. Ingrid, unaware that he is 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 steals the show from Edward.

“By the end of the movie, everyone will see that Sebastian Stan is jealous of Adam Pearson, and they will believe it and understand it,” Schimberg says. “In a way, I’m trying to embrace the idea that difference has value. People come away feeling like Adam is a star.”

Pearson, 39, grew up in the London borough of Croydon. He has a twin brother, Neil, who shares his condition, although it manifests itself in Neil’s short-term memory loss. After university, Pearson turned to television. He used his early experience at the BBC to work on a number of series and documentaries, including several about himself.

“I discovered who I was by trying a lot of things that I wasn’t doing and realizing that the facade of trying to please people is just as miserable as being alone,” Pearson says. “Once you get comfortable with yourself and understand that, and you get to the point where you’re like, ‘This is who I am, whether you like it or not,’ and the people who matter to you don’t care and the people who do care don’t matter, that’s when you can really find your calling.”

Pearson landed his first acting role in Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 film “Under the Skin,” in which he played one of the men picked up and slaughtered by Johansson’s alien. It was a unique baptism into the vulnerability required of acting. Pearson discovered that by losing himself in the moment, acting could be liberating.

Pearson starred in Schimberg’s 2019 film “Chained for Life,” in which he plays an actor who plays 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 have argued that Pearson’s casting was abusive, an argument that Schimberg found illustrative. Schimberg, who has a cleft palate, wrote the role partly based on himself. He considers disability to be a central topic for him as a filmmaker.

But more than that, Schimberg felt the critics presented a telling dilemma. He had spent much of his life seeing deformities inauthentically portrayed in films like 1985’s “Mask” and 2017’s “Wonder” by able-bodied actors. If some criticized Pearson’s mere appearance in a film, what does that say about people’s willingness to watch and empathize with people living with deformities?

Schimberg decided to structure “A Different Man” as a film that begins with one type of portrait and evolves into a more authentic one. He also wanted Pearson’s role to be more reflective of his personality.

“Partly because he was shy in Under the Skin and partly because disfigured characters are often portrayed as shy, everyone assumed he was shy,” Schimberg says. “I also wouldn’t have known how outgoing and outgoing he was before I met him.”

“And on a deeper level, he inspired me personally,” 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 kind of attributed that to my cleft palate and the way I’ve been treated because of it. When I met Adam, I was like, why can he be like that and I’m not like that?”

Oswald isn’t quite Pearson, though he comes close. “Oswald is me, but with the volume all the way up, to reference my favorite movie, to 11,” Pearson says. “He’s really charming, so there’s a little bit of Ryan Gosling, ‘Stupid Crazy Love.'”

Before filming began, Pearson worked with Stan to sync 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 get in their way.”

Pearson spent two years working on a documentary about storytelling. On his recent trip to New York, he filmed all over the city. But “A Different Man,” he says, “is the most important project I’ve done. It’s the film that broke me out.”

“Reading all the reviews and the press and all that has been a bit overwhelming,” Pearson says. “I try to stay cool. I’m like a duck. On the outside, I look cool and sleek and polished. And underneath, I move like crazy. We’ll see what happens. If this is where my acting journey ends, I’ll walk away feeling great. I don’t take anything for granted. I remind myself to take a deep breath and enjoy it all without getting too carried away.”

When asked to recall a moment from this year that he will cherish, Pearson describes attending the Berlin Film Festival with his mother and brother.

“For years, my mother would tell me, ‘You’re not famous in this house,’” Pearson says. “And then she saw me on the red carpet and she was like, ‘Maybe he’s a little famous.’”

And he’s starting to get used to it. Schimberg thinks Pearson might be more comfortable promoting “A Different Man” than Stan, the veteran Marvel movie actor.

“In the trailer, you’re like, ‘Adam Pearson steals the show.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh man, stealing is illegal,'” Pearson says with a laugh. “But I’m also like, Yeah. Yeah. Adam Pearson, come in, steal the show, go home, do it again. That’s the plan now.”