If you've seen Meryl Streep's newest film, Ricki and the Flash, you're probably dying to dish on a certain blue-eyed boy you met at the movies — you know the one. In the film, Streep plays a mother of three children: Julie (played by Meryl Streep's real-life daughter Mamie Gummer), Adam (played by relative newbie Nick Westrate) and the charming, soon-to-be-married Josh. Who's the actor who plays Josh in Ricki and the Flash , you ask? Why, it's no other than Sebastian Stan — aka The Winter Soldier, aka Bucky Barnes from Captain America and the Marvel Universe!
If you don't recognize Stan playing one of Meryl Streep's sons in Ricki and the Flash , you've probably never seen Captain America, or just have a horrible memory. But, never fear, oh, Sebastian Stan-less one, for I will tell you everything you need to know on your new favorite Hollywood crush.
In Ricki and the Flash, Stan plays Josh, the newly engaged son of Ricki Randazzo (Streep). While other actors might get starstruck working alongside Streep, Stan revealed that it was co-star Rick Springfield who left him freaking out.
"I was personally very much more concerned about Rick Springfield, because I love him and 'Jessie's Girl.' So when they were rehearsing I was fixated on him, hoping that he would, like, break into song. Finally on the last day I think he did. So I was kinda taken aback by him," Stan told BuzzFeed.
That said, Stan admitted to getting nervous around Streep, revealing, "I never knew, sort of, how to gauge [Streep], which is kind of how my character was dealing with her character as well, which kind of played out nicely. I never knew. You know, her process: How much is she Meryl Streep and how much is she the character? It was like being on a bed of pins and needles."
So, he's cute, he's got pretty good taste in music and he gets nervous in front of Meryl Streep — but what else do we really know about Stan?
First things first: he's 32, dating actress Margarita Levieva, and has already had a pretty varied career in Hollywood, working in television, studio films and indies. Stan had breakout roles in the short-lived series Kings and, more memorably, in Gossip Girl, in which he appeared as bad boy Carter Baizen in the show's third season. (Fun side note: Stan actually worked previously with Gossip Girl co-star Chace Crawford in the weird fantasy film The Covenant in 2006.) Of course, Stan's biggest break came in 2011, when he starred as Bucky Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger.
Stan's character (spoiler alert!) appeared to die in the first Captain America film, but he was reborn in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as, well, the Winter Soldier. And, if his role in that film, as well as his brief appearance in Ant Man, doesn't convince you he's a major Marvel player, consider the fact that he revealed to Newsarama that he signed a nine picture deal with Marvel.
Marvel Universe aside, Stan has also been making a name for himself on the stage, appearing in two Broadway shows, Talk Radio in 2007 and Picnic in 2013. After Captain America, Stan returned to television, where he starred in USA's Political Animals alongside Sigourney Weaver and stole the show as a recurring guest star on ABC's Once Upon A Time, playing the Mad Hatter.
With Ricki and the Flash opening this weekend, it's safe to say Stan will likely be staying on the big screen for quite some time. Up next, you can catch him starring alongside Matt Damon in The Martian before he reprises his role as the Winter Soldier in Captain America: Civil War , set for release on May 6, 2016.Images: Giphy (3)
