Captain America: The Winter Soldier's Sebastian Stan Calls Heath Ledger An Inspiration

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan plays Captain America's destructive foe, The Winter Soldier. In a press conference at the London premiere for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Stan said he hopes to honor the legacy of the great actors who have performed as villains before him. "I think we've all seen in the last decade [how excellent these performances have been]," Stan said to a room full of journalists (via Cover). "So for me it's just a responsibility you know. Playing a villain as a character, just look at how these other guys have done it. What can I do to contribute?" One performance that Stan singled out was the late Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning role as The Joker in The Dark Knight. "I just always admired his performance and him as an actor," said Stan. "I can't compare myself to anything like that. He is an inspiration. That was his most memorable performance, [the Joker]." In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and battles a new threat from old history: the Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier. We'll see how high Stan's performance as The Winter Soldier ranks among the pantheon of comic book movie villains when Captain America: The Winter Soldier is released into theaters on April 4.