Sebastian Stan, who portrayed Donald Trump in the 2024 biographical drama The Apprentice, has offered a blunt assessment of the president since his return to office. In remarks to reporters at Cannes on Tuesday, the actor shook his head for several seconds after The Hollywood Reporter's Jada Yuan asked how his understanding of Trump had evolved since the film premiered at the festival two years ago.
"It's just not a laughing matter, to be honest. It isn't," Stan said after media members chuckled at his non-verbal response. "I think we're in a really, really bad place. I really do."
Stan revealed that those involved with The Apprentice were unsure if the film would play at Cannes just three days before the 2024 festival. "To be honest with you, when you're looking at what's happening, which is... the consolidation of the media, censorship, the threats, the supposed lawsuits that seemingly never end but don't actually go anywhere," he said of the current Trump administration. "You know, the writing was on the wall. We encountered all that with the movie."
Stan, who returned to Cannes to promote his upcoming film Fjord, said he's "still purging" himself from his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Trump. The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi, depicts Trump's time as a real estate developer in the 1970s and '80s and his relationship with his late lawyer Roy Cohn, played by Jeremy Strong.
Trump did not appear to be a fan of the movie, using his Truth Social platform to call it "a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job." Those behind the film, released during Trump's 2024 campaign, received a cease-and-desist letter from the then-former president's attorneys. A campaign spokesperson also threatened to sue, though no lawsuit has been filed in the two years since.
Stan himself faced pushback. He claimed an unnamed Hollywood executive advised him against taking the role and revealed he wasn't invited to participate in Variety's "Actors on Actors" interview series in 2024. On Tuesday, Stan wondered whether people are paying more attention to the 2024 movie now, arguing it could "stand the test of time" due to the pushback around its release. "We went through all of it, way before Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and so on," said Stan, referencing the Trump administration's war on late-night TV. "So — wish it wasn't like that."
