The character of Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, has had a rough go of things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He falls out of a train, gets pumped full of super soldier serum, and gets brainwashed as an assassin for the bad guys. Now, to top it all off, his struggles have bled into the real world, with fans jokingly attempting to "activate" actor Sebastian Stan with the Winter Soldier's code phrase. Looks like even his newfound clout on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier hasn't stopped him from staying grounded.
In a recent interview, Stan spoke about how fans have been approaching him in public and reciting his character's activation words, and it's been happening ever since the trigger was first introduced in Captain America: Civil War. But the actor doesn't consider this annoying. In fact, he's been taking it in stride, even engaging with the fans with a little disclaimer about the perceived effectiveness of the words.
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"It's always very funny, and it's a good, honorable thing, I guess," Stan said when speaking with BBC Radio 1. "You know, you're very taken with it all the time, but you do have to sometimes look at people in the face and say, 'No, I will not become the Winter Soldier if you say that. You can keep saying it, and maybe you should say it, maybe that's a moment we both need to have together, now, here. But nothing crazy will happen.'" The fans he interacts with likely enjoy the bit of tongue-in-cheek character charm Stan offers during these encounters. It feels reminiscent of the sorts of things that happen at conventions.
In Captain America: Civil War, Bucky was struggling with the brainwashing that still plagued him, with his Hydra handler Zemo still exerting influence over him in the form of a string of seemingly random words. While he eventually broke free of the mental conditioning, it's clear the code still holds significance to both the character and Stan himself, who regularly runs into fans spouting "longing, rusted, seventeen, daybreak, furnace, nine, benign, homecoming, one, freight car" at him.
These sorts of fan interactions are always fun to hear about, especially when the celebrity involved is not only in on the joke, but actively takes part in it. For many stars out there, it must be easy for something like this to wear thin on them after a while, particularly when they're part of a media empire as widespread as Marvel. So while it would be understandable if Stan was irritated by it all (in fact, his response to fans certainly feels like an answer to something offered countless times verbatim), the fact that he's still able to take it in stride with good humor says a lot about him as a person.
It's clear that Bucky's past is still haunting him in several ways on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so Stan might want to strap in for even more blasts from the past when meeting fans in the future. Well, either that or a bombardment of questions judging whether or not he really did read The Hobbit.
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Source: BBC Radio 1/YouTube