A Different Man cast and character guide: Who plays whom in the award-winning psychological thriller?

A Different Man just earned its lead actor, Sebastian Stan, his first Golden Globe, but that isn't his only Globe-nominated performance this year.

2024 proved to be a lucrative year for Sebastian Stan. He was in the year's two acclaimed projects - Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice and Aaron Schimberg's A Different Man. The former allowed him to play the current president of the United States in an origin story, while the latter offered him a chance to portray a man hoping to change his appearance. Both performances helped him with the Golden Globe nods.

While more popular for playing Bucky Barnes in the MCU, Sebastian Stan starred in a far more demanding role in his award-winning role. A Different Man shows him playing a struggling actor hoping to make it big in the industry. However, his self-perception and constant fear of judgment stop him from being his best self. Its official synopsis reads:

"An aspiring actor undergoes a radical medical procedure to transform his appearance drastically, but his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare."

The premise is quite similar to this year's major award contender, The Substance, which also shows an actor struggling with self-worth and appearance going through a drastic transformation.

Besides Stan in the leading role, A Different Man also stars a few more interesting faces. Let's find out who they are.

A Different Man cast and character guide

1) Sebastian Stan as Edward

Sebastian Stan as Edward (Image via YouTube/@A24)

Sebastian Stan has over three decades of acting experience in a variety of film and television projects and is finally receiving his flowers. The MCU fans might know him as their Winter Soldier. He began this journey with the 2011 release Captain America: The First Avenger, and most recently in the Disney+ series, What If...? In 2025, he will reprise this role in Thunderbolts*

Besides these popular projects, Stan has also starred in I, Tonya (2017), Fresh (2022), and The Martian (2015). Before A Different Man, he also received a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination for his performance in the Hulu series Pam & Tommy.

2) Renate Reinsve as Ingrid

Renate Reinsve as Ingrid (Image via YouTube/@A24)

Renate Reinsve is a Norwegian actress who came into prominence after her breakout performance in Joachim Trier's The Worst Person in the World. In 2024, she starred in three projects besides the Sebastian Stan film. They were Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel's Armand, Thea Hvistendahl's Handling the Undead, and David E. Kelley's Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent.

In A Different Man, she plays Ingrid, Edward's next-door neighbor and an aspiring playwright who becomes crucial to his acting journey and personal growth.

3) Adam Pearson as Oswald

Adam Pearson as Oswald (Image via YouTube/@A24)

Adam Pearson is a British actor and presenter who made his acting debut in Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin. He has starred in British television programs and played a co-lead in 2019's Chained for Life.

In A Different Man, Pearson plays Oswald, a talented and confident actor with neurofibromatosis that Edward envies.