Sebastian Stan portrays Donald Trump in the Ali Abbasi-directed film The Apprentice.
In a new interview, the Captain America: The Winter Soldier star talked about humanizing the twice-impeached former president of the United States.
“I think that there’s a Trump in all of us to some extent,” Stan told EW. “I know that might not be a popular thing to say, or people maybe don’t want to admit it.”
The Apprentice, set to be released in U.S. theaters on October 11, follows Trump’s rise to power before becoming a business mogul and politician.
“It’s important for us to explore perhaps the darker elements that live within all of us so that by bringing them into the light, we can understand how to have a better relationship with them rather than suppressing and avoiding and pretending that they’re not there,” Stan said. “I think that’s where the value is because I don’t think anyone is on a moral high ground.”
Stan related to the character he was portraying in the film saying he “understood that drive to rise, to overcome at whatever cost, and to win. I understood that simply from my own very, very small, humble beginnings with the American dream. We love a winner in this country. It’s a fact that, to me, felt relatable in many ways.”
Trump has become a very polarizing figure in politics with his divisive rhetoric, and Stan knows that “people feel very strongly about him in two different extremes.”
“They think he’s either God’s son or he’s Lucifer incarnate, and I think we need to bring him back down to earth in the hope of understanding,” adding he hoped the film led “people towards a reconnection with their own humanity.”