Entertainment Weekly The Apprentice filmmakers on ‘shocking’ struggle to find a buyer: ‘It’s cowardice in the face of Donald Trump’

For much of the six years it took to make The Apprentice, the filmmakers and actors involved weren’t sure it would ever see the light of day.

But when it finally premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, earning an 11-minute standing ovation and positive reviews, director Ali Abbasi felt like his final hurdle — finding a distributor — would soon be behind him. And yet, the major Hollywood studios and streamers weren’t calling.

“It was pretty shocking for me after the reception we got in Cannes,” he admits. “I understand it from the business perspective of not wanting to have trouble, but we’re not in the business of ice creams. We’re not selling shoes. So yeah, it was shocking.”

He knew it wouldn’t be easy. After all, it’s a movie about the makings of Donald Trump, who many consider to be the most controversial, divisive, and litigious man in America. The former president has already threatened to sue the filmmakers, as has his friend, billionaire Dan Snyder, who helped finance the film, reportedly under the false impression that it depicted Trump in a purely positive light.

While the filmmakers believe the well-researched film to be a fair and balanced portrait, The Apprentice is nevertheless full of shocking scenes. Throughout its two-hour runtime, we see the former president taking diet pills, receiving liposuction and having scalp-reduction surgery, and, most incendiary of all, raping his ex-wife Ivana, as she alleged happened in a 1990 divorce deposition, according to one unconfirmed account. (She later denied her initial testimony, saying she felt “violated” but did not mean to be alleging rape “in a literal criminal sense.”)

“Listen, Trump threatens to sue the mailman, so I’m not surprised,” says journalist Gabriel Sherman, who wrote the script. In fact, Sherman says he finds the legal threats “sort of perversely satisfying.” That’s because the film presents Trump as we know him today to be largely a product of his relationship with his mentor, Roy Cohn, who taught the real estate scion three lessons that he has continued to live by: Always attack, deny everything, and never admit defeat.

“He’s basically just doing what Roy Cohn told him to do — he’s attacking,” Sherman explains. “I know how rigorously researched and solid the movie is, so I’m not worried from a legal perspective.”

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Entertainment Weekly – “I know that might not be a popular thing to say,” the actor admits to EW for our cover story on the movie.

While The Apprentice attempts to find the humanity in Donald Trump, its star, Sebastian Stan, also believes the film shines a light on the Donald Trump in humanity.

“I think that there’s a Trump in all of us to some extent,” the actor tells Entertainment Weekly for our latest cover story. “I know that might not be a popular thing to say, or people maybe don’t want to admit it.”

And if you feel yourself having a strong reaction to that statement, Stan thinks that may be a sign that “there’s some truth” to what he’s saying.

But first, let him explain.

The Marvel actor stars in the film as the former president before he becomes the famous business mogul and politician he’s known as today. The Apprentice charts Trump’s rise to power through the late ’70s and ’80s as he grew from a wannabe power player to a man synonymous with wealth and success — all thanks to the tutelage of his mentor, the infamous Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong).

By peeling back the layers of both men’s personalities, Stan, Strong, and filmmakers, including visionary director Ali Abbasi and journalist screenwriter Gabriel Sherman, want audiences to come away not only with a better understanding of Trump but also of themselves.

“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 explains. “I think that’s where the value is because I don’t think anyone is on a moral high ground.”

And the actor is willing to take his own advice. If there was one Trumpian quality he saw most in himself, it was the politician’s innate need to win at all costs. It’s an urge Stan has had since he immigrated to the United States from Romania at age 12.

“I 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,” he says. “We love a winner in this country. It’s a fact that, to me, felt relatable in many ways.”

Still, some critics have taken issue with how the film attempts to empathize with two men whom many don’t believe deserve it. While Abbasi notes that “there is a range between having empathy for someone and having sympathy with someone,” Stan sees value in “normalizing people that we feel strongly about.”

“People feel very strongly about him in two different extremes,” he says. “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.”

More than anything, the actor hopes the film “leads people towards a reconnection with their own humanity,” adding, “We have to have a better, healthier relationship with the beast in all of us.”