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Sebastian Stan has told Donald Trump that he should be “grateful” about how he has been portrayed in the new biopic about the former president’s early career as a real estate businessman.
The Apprentice, which sees Stan play Trump, opens in cinemas this week after previously struggling to find a distributor. It has been the source of much controversy, with the Republican presidential nominee calling it a “fake and classless movie written about me”.
The film from director Ali Abbasi focuses on Trump’s first attempts to make a name for himself in 1970s and 1980s New York, with the help of lawyer Roy Cohn, played by Succession starJeremy Strong.
Despite Trump’s protest, which included threats of a lawsuit, Stan believes that the 78-year-old politician should be appreciative of the light that they have tried to shine on his life and character.
“They [Trump and Cohn] are very complex individuals, and that’s what it’s like in life, no-one is morally completely on the right side or perfect in any way, everyone has flaws, and there are some redeeming qualities as well to them,” Stan told the BBC.
The actor, who plays Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universre (MCU), continued: “I think [Trump] should be grateful, to be honest. We have pretty much handed him, I think, a very complex, three-dimensional take on his life, and I can’t recall anybody else doing that.”
Strong added: “We live in this hyper-polarised world where we see things in terms of heroes and villains, but the world isn’t really like that.
“And neither of us were interested in simply vilifying or demonising these people. Your job as an actor is to leave your judgement at the door.”
Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter who wrote Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal, has said that the film, which features a rape scene, gets the most important thing about him right.
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Schwartz said in an op-ed for The New York Times he now sees The Art of the Deal “as an unintended work of fiction.” Trump is “exhibit A” when it comes to the difference between how “leaders and other high achievers” present themselves and “how they feel on the inside,” Schwartz writes.
The film is being released just weeks before the 2024 US election, with Trump said to be marginally behind in the polls to Kamala Harris.
