One of my favorite little things going on in our culture right now is that every time Sebastian Stan does a public appearance, someone either asks him to speak Romanian or someone says something in Romanian to him because he’s so contagiously enthusiastic about it. And like. That’s fucking awesome to me. Because finally people are seeing a positive representation of Romania, of Romanian people and the language they speak.
I’ve never seen the Marvel movies he’s in but I just really appreciate him as a cultural presence. So many of his fans are looking up phrases in my grandmother’s language now. Finally it’s not just the place where Dracula lives. This is a real, desirable person whose pride in his country of origin is electric to everyone who encounters him.
Our community is very small. Most people in the US haven’t knowingly met a Romanian person and most people in Western Europe look down on people from Eastern European countries. I’m genuinely grateful to Sebastian Stan for forcing the world to confront those biases and to see us as talented people who matter. Mulțumesc și noapte bună, prietenii mei.