Adam Pearson Shines as A Different Man

“Mask,” “The Elephant Man.” “Edward Scissorhands, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and even “The Phantom of the Opera” all feature characters who are somewhat struggling with a physical disfigurement prompting audiences to tap into their empathetic side. They all are burdened with  a heart of gold which seems to gloss over the fact that their disfigured appearance makes most uncomfortable.

In “A Different Man,” the audience is provided with a vastly unique perspective on how individuals respond to beauty, appearance, aging and how most perceive, judge and respond based on all of it.  It’s a film about  lost personas, false masks, impersonation and entangled doubles all played out within the illogical confines of a bad dream. Initially, Schimberg was thinking of doing a riff on Rouben Mamoulian’s 1931 pre-Code horror landmark Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, intrigued by the liberation of losing oneself to another persona. Ultimately, he found himself transfixed by the 2017  dramedy “Wonder,”  about a young boy confronting grade-school life with the facial differences of Treacher Collins syndrome.

Being accused of being exploitative by consistently using Adam Pearson (Oswald) in his films, Director Aaron Schimberg wrote this role for Adam.  Schimberg, who was born a corrected bilateral cleft lip and palate, can more than relate to being born with facial disfigurements and it clearly has left a mark on how he views the world. “Adam changed my view about my own disfigurement, because I’ve always lived in fear of the judgment of others,” the director says. “I’ve always lived with a certain sense of shame. Adam takes control of the way he wishes to be perceived. And that’s changed me.”

As someone who doesn’t have a disfigurement, but has been born with a different color skin, hair texture and height, this film viscerally stuck a chord with me in the best way possible. After all one has a choice as all unhappiness in life comes from now accepting what is.

As accomplished as Sebastian Stan (Edward) is as an actor, he is totally eclipsed by Pearson who steals every scene he inhabits with grace, charisma and charm (and no it’s not just his accent).  However, the two of them together are absolute fire and made this film one of my favs for 2024 for many reasons.

Being an actor and theatre geek, it gave me great joy to see this world Schimberg created poking fun at all the absurdities of casting and putting on a show.

“A Different Man”  sheds a much need spotlight on why it is never a good idea to judge a book by its cover as you could be missing out on the best experience of your life with a human who is just that…simply human.