Adam Pearson is set to gamble within 80 characters

NEW YORK – Adam Pearson is an ardent believer in the old adage: Nothing wagered, nothing gained.

Before Pearson was an actor, he worked at the BBC out of college. He was hired for six months, but, like much in Pearson’s life, he was determined to make the most of it.

“I decided I’m going to meet every person on this floor and ask them for coffee,” Pearson says. “If they say yes, great. If they say, ‘No, you’re an idiot,’ I already know that. I’ve lost nothing in that transaction.

“It’s all about taking risks and rolling dice,” says Pearson.

For Pearson, that means something a little different than most. Since he was a young boy, Pearson has had neurofibromatosis, a condition that covers much of his face with benign skin tumors. But far from allowing that to define him, Pearson has become an acclaimed actor, a TV host, and an activist for disabled people.

“This past year has been wild,” Pearson said in a recent interview on a terrace at the New York offices of A24. “If you had told me that I’d work with Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan and I’d be here talking to you right now, I’d be like, ‘Nope. Not going to happen.’”

“A Different Man,” which expands in theaters this week, has been causing a stir since it first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It follows Edward (Stan, with prosthetics and makeup), a disfigured man whose apartment neighbor is a young playwright named Ingrid (Renate Reinsve). After undergoing experimental surgery, Edward is shed of his neurofibromatosis, making him look like, well, Sebastian Stan. Ingrid, not knowing it’s Edward, casts him in her play inspired by her friendship with Edward. But when a charismatic man with neurofibromatosis, Oswald (Pearson), shows up, he quickly upstages Edward.

Pearson, 39, grew up in the London district of Croydon. He has an identical twin brother named Neil who shares his condition though it manifests as short-term memory loss for Neil. After college, Pearson gravitated toward television. He parlayed his initial experience at the BBC into work on a number of series and documentaries, including several on himself.

“I found out who I was by trying loads of things that I wasn’t and by realizing the facade of trying to please people is equally as miserable as the loneliness,” says Pearson. “Once you’re comfortable in your skin and figure that out, and get to the point where you’re like, ‘It is who I am, like it or lump it,’ and the people that matter don’t mind and the people that mind don’t matter, that’s when you can really find your way.”

Pearson has spent two years working on a documentary about storytelling. But “A Different Man” is, he says, “the biggest thing I’ve done. It’s the breakout.”

“Reading all the reviews and the press and stuff has been somewhat overwhelming,” Pearson says. “I’m trying to play it cool. I’m like a duck. On the surface, I look cool and sleek and elegant. And underneath I’m kicking like mad. We’ll see what happens. If this is where the acting journey ends, I’m going out on a high. I’m not taking anything for granted. I’m remembering to take a breath and enjoy it all and not get too caught up in it.”

Asked to recall a moment from this year that he’ll cherish, Pearson describes attending the Berlin Film Festival with his mother and brother.

“For years, my mum has been like ‘You’re not famous in this house,’” Pearson says. “And then she saw me on the red carpet and she thought, ‘Maybe he is a little bit famous.’”

And he’s getting used to it. Schimberg thinks Pearson might be more comfortable promoting “A Different Man” than Stan, the veteran actor of Marvel movies.

“In the trailer, it’s like, ‘Adam Pearson steals the show.’ And I go, ‘Oh man, stealing’s illegal'”, Pearson says, laughing. “But I’m also like: Yeah. Yeah. Adam Pearson, turn up, steal the show, go home, repeat. That’s the plan now.”