That discrepancy has led many to call the workprint a hoax. But others argue that the inconsistency is intentional: a final prank from Schimberg, a director who has described his own career as “a series of masks worn so long they become skin.” Even if the A Different Man workprint never sees an official release, its legend serves a purpose. It reminds us that film is not a fixed artifact but a living process—and that sometimes, the most radical version of a story about identity is the one that admits it isn’t finished.
Moreover, the workprint reportedly contained a subplot involving a documentary crew filming Edward’s transformation. That meta-layer—a film within a workprint of a film about acting—becomes a hall of mirrors. Schimberg allegedly cut it because it “broke the illusion too early,” but in the workprint, that broken illusion is the point. As of this writing, no legitimate copy of the A Different Man workprint has been released. A24, the studio behind the film, has neither confirmed nor denied its existence. However, a 4K bootleg surfaced briefly on private torrent trackers in late 2024, allegedly sourced from a post-production drive lost at a Brooklyn coffee shop. The file’s metadata suggested it was rendered on March 12, 2023—eight months before principal photography even wrapped. a different man workprint
In the workprint, the final act did not take place at the off-Broadway play’s afterparty. Instead, Edward confronted a mirror that didn’t reflect his new face, only a digital glitch. The sequence was reportedly scrapped because test audiences found it “too abstract.” What makes the A Different Man workprint so compelling is not just its missing scenes, but its texture . In the finished film, Schimberg uses slick, Kubrickian symmetry to emphasize Edward’s alienation. The workprint, by contrast, is shaky, poorly lit in spots, and features boom mics dipping into frame. It is, unintentionally, a perfect metaphor for the film’s central tension: the gap between who we are and who we perform. That discrepancy has led many to call the workprint a hoax