Depending on your personal preferences, Sebastian Stan is either best known for his breakout role in Gossip Girl or as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Bucky Barnes. The latter has proven especially beneficial to his career, with Disney Plus limited series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier giving him his most substantial amount of screen time yet in what marks his eighth appearance in the the world’s biggest franchise.
Despite being a very good looking man, Stan is also a much better actor than many people give him credit for, although he’s rarely afforded the opportunity to take top billing in a movie. In fact, if you exclude his MCU outings completely, then the 38 year-old has starred in 23 other features, and his name has come first in the credits of precisely one of them, which was 2019 war drama The Last Full Measure.
However, the second has just arrived, with romantic drama Monday landing in theaters and VOD this past Friday. Co-written and directed by Argyris Papadimitropoulos, Stan and Denise Gough star in the intimate story of a passionate relationship that begins on a hot summer night in Athens, which causes the two main characters to question themselves and each other, as well as their short and long-term futures both together and apart. Stan recently showed off his butt cheeks in a social media post to try and generate some buzz for the project, and in a new interview, he explained why he decided to do a nude scene in the film.
“If it was truthful and made sense, then okay. Obviously, trust was a big thing here. I knew we were trying to tell such an honest depiction of a relationship that we were going to be open to whatever that meant, as long as it remained truthful and made sense.”
At least he’s getting naked to service the story and not just for the sake of it, but Monday has been drawing mixed reviews from critics. The central performances and sun-kissed cinematography are being praised, but it’s everything else that seems to be letting it down, even with Stan going the extra mile.
