Sebastian Stan is breaking his silence on becoming a father for the first time.
News broke in April that Stan’s girlfriend, Annabelle Wallis, is pregnant with the couple’s first child after the Mercy actress was spotted with a growing baby bump in New York City.
In an interview with Deadline published on Monday, May 11, to promote his new movie, Fjord, Stan, 43, opened up about his latest role as a first-time dad, which resonates with the plot of the new drama. In the film, Sebastian’s character, Mihai Gheorghiu, must reckon with his own obligations as a father as he and his wife (played by Renate Reinsve) face scrutiny over their parenting skills among their small-town neighbors.
“I want to be a good dad,” the Thunderbolts actor told Deadline.
Later in the interview, Stan added, “I’m feeling the responsibility of being a good father. And not to mention a good man. I’m 43 and I feel, in a lot of ways, I’m just starting to learn now. It’s just crazy to me. So, I love when I see I’m discovering different people’s point of view. I try to read as much as I can, no matter what the point of view is, just to understand it.”
Stan said he’s also been contemplating what it means to be a man more than ever.
“It’s funny, in the last couple years, I’ve started to identify sometimes being a man with just holding a plank for a very long, long time,” he explained.
“Because I think it is about tolerance,” he continued. “And I think that’s something that we’re not teaching young men. We’re not teaching them how to tolerate discomfort, how to understand their own emotions, their own anger, their own frustrations. Nobody’s educating them on how to embrace depression, or being sad, feeling things, being weak, crying.”
As he prepares to enter fatherhood, Stan reflected on the example set for him by his stepfather, whom he described as being a “real man” in his life during his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical at the 2025 Golden Globes.
Stan praised his stepfather’s “quiet integrity … this quiet strength, this way of providing, this way of being there. Listening and understanding and protection as well. You’ve got to provide and protect.”
“That’s kind of what I thought about in terms of what it means to be a man. And sometimes that means putting your own ego aside and looking at how you can support your family, or your loved ones, and be an example,” he added.
In his interview with Deadline, Stan also shared some insight into his home life with Wallis, 41, with whom he was first linked in 2022. The actor said Wallis, who is from Oxford, England, has introduced him to British television.
“Oh, my god! What is the show that my girlfriend [and] I watch all the time where you’re watching other people watch TV? Gogglebox! It’s hilarious,” he said. “And it has a very weird, pleasing, soothing quality to it.”
