He's a wild and crazy guy. Well, at least he is in TALK RADIO. I'm talking about about Sebastian Stan who plays Kent in the current production of Eric Bogosian's Pulitzer Prize Nominated play TALK RADIO. This very talented young actor is hitting the Broadway scene with a vengeance in his latest role. He is probably best known for playing a supernatural punk teenager in the 2006 movie "The Covenant, he also has appeared in THE ARCHITECT, opposite Anthony LaPaglia and Isabella Rossellini, and the recently completed THE EDUCATION OF CHARLIE BANKS.
I talked with Stan about TALK RADIO and acting after seeing his performance recently and here's what he had to say….
TJ: First of all, congrats on TALK RADIO. How are things going for you?
STAN: They're going well. They're going really well!
TJ: You totally energized the stage with your performance. It was truly electric. How does it feel to you?
STAN: I still get psyched about coming onto a Broadway stage every night. I mean, I've never done that before. That hasn't sort of played out for me….it's still very exciting. You develop a kind of gratefulness for it when you spend months trying to get a job.
TJ: Did you base your character of Kent on anyone in particular?
STAN: Yeah, I did. I guess it became a mix of things. I have a couple of friends in musicians, one friend in particular. I never really told him that I was trying to copy him a little bit. He's a little older than me and he was around at that time. And mannerisms of friends that I have seen wasted. A compilation of documentaries that I have watched…Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash and that whole movement. Anything I could find.
TJ: How did you get involved with TALK RADIO?
STAN: I have been having this connection to Eric Bogosian for a couple of years. Not personally, but to his work. His work was pretty much responsible for me getting into college. I used monologues from SUBURBIA and given the school, his work really works well for me…the language, the way he writes…the rhythms. I ended up performing SUBURBIA at school. When he was casting it here off Broadway at Second Stage this past summer, I was auditioning and I had gone back about six times or so for callbacks and work sessions where I really got to know him pretty well. Even though that project, in the long run, didn't end up working out. , He remembered me when I came into auditions this time around, I think he particularly focused on me this time.
TJ: Do you remember what you were feeling at the first rehearsal for TALK RADIO with this amazing cast of actors?
STAN: I was really terrified. It was a read-through of the play and a lot of things go through your mind. Of course, you wonder about people's expectations and you want to come in and own up to the job and all that. It's a learning process and many mistakes and failures are bound to happen. I think for me, basically coming and watching Liev struggle his way through the material making discoveries everyday and yet failing all the time and allowing yourself to be vulnerable in front of everybody like that, encouraged me to kind of step up and say to myself, "You know what? I have the job now? So I just have to stop worrying about what people thing and just own up to it. And be ready to fail." 
