Before he was the Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan was a snow bunny trying to make ends meet.
The Oscar nominee recalled how royalties his appearance in 2010’s Hot Tub Time Machine helped him survive before he landed his role as the MCU‘s James ‘Bucky’ Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
“I was actually struggling with work,” he told Vanity Fair. “I had just gotten off the phone with my business manager, who told me I was saved by $65,000 that came in residuals from Hot Tub Time Machine.”
In director Steve Pink’s sci-fi romp Hot Tub Time MachineStan played the typical ’80s bully Blaine, who terrorizes a group of friends (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clark Duke) who travel back in time to their teen years at a 1986 ski resort.
Following his MCU debut, Stan continued to play the Winter Soldier in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Ant-Man (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) and Captain America: Brave New World (2025).
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes in Marvel Studios’ ‘Thunderbolts*’
Courtesy Marvel Studios
Stan can next be seen as the Winter Soldier in Thunderbolts*premiering May 2 in theaters.
The Romanian-born actor’s latest MCU appearance comes after he earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Donald Trump in last year’s The Apprenticewhich also earned him a Golden Globe nod. At the same awards ceremony in January, he won a Golden Globe for his performance in A Different Man.
