Sebastian Stan, who stars as Donald Trump in the new Ali Abbasi-directed drama “The Apprentice,” called out the GOP presidential nominee for his hypocrisy after he slammed the movie on his Truth Social platform earlier this week.
“He’s been trying to censor this movie, and at the same time, he claims that he acknowledges free speech … I can’t think of anything more hypocritical,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter at the BFI London Film Festival premiere Tuesday.
In May, the former president’s attorneys reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to those behind the film, which opened in U.S. theaters last week and looks at Trump’s time as a real estate developer in the ’70s and ’80s as well as his relationship with lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).
The film’s scenes depict the former president raping his then-wife Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova), redlining his buildings and neglecting his brother Fred Trump Jr. (Charlie Carrick) as he battles alcoholism prior to his 1981 death.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung threatened to sue over the film in May as he slammed it as “election interference” and “pure fiction,” rebuttals the former president echoed this week. No lawsuit has been filled.
“A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me, called, The Apprentice (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully ‘bomb.’ It’s a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election…,” wrote Trump, who specifically criticized writer Gabriel Sherman.
Sherman told The Hollywood Reporter that Trump’s attack doesn’t surprise him.
“You’ve seen the film, the first lesson that Roy Cohn teaches him is: attack, attack, attack. So Trump hasn’t seen the movie, but he’s clearly following the rules that are in the movie,” he said.
Stan, who was asked about the film’s release being close to Election Day, said he hopes people “dig deeper” for information because of it.
“If you have any inkling of interest, go and really ask yourself: ‘Who is this man? Do you really know? Do you really trust this person to lead a country?’” Stan asked.
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