May 21, 2024

sebastian stan, the apprentice, Ali Abbasi, cannes dispatch, greg williams
hollywood authentic, cannes dispatch, cannes film festival, greg williams, hollywood authentic
sebastian stan, the apprentice, Ali Abbasi, cannes dispatch, greg williams

CANNES DISPATCH 12 …
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS


Sebastian Stan has played real life protagonists on film before – most notably Jeff Gillooly, in the critically acclaimed, I, Tonya and Tommy Lee in awards-winning Pam and Tommy. But his turn as former president, Donald Trump, in Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice, is attracting heat – not least from the 45th POTUS himself. ‘As always it’s about understanding,’ Stan told Hollywood Authentic when we shot him before the premiere at the Palais. ‘The challenge was perhaps working against preconceived ideas or what’s currently out there. Had to go back in time. To the beginning. And go step by step without judgment.’ 

Premiering in Cannes this week, The Apprentice charts the rise of Trump in 70s and 80s New York as he evolves from a debt collector with real estate ambitions to a Manhattan baller who learns how to ‘win’ from unscrupulous lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). An origin story, if you will. 

sebastian stan, the apprentice, Ali Abbasi, cannes dispatch, greg williams
sebastian stan, the apprentice, Ali Abbasi, cannes dispatch, greg williams

Stan, with his sandy wig and pursed lips, portrays Trump as a nuanced sponge to Cohen’s shady mentorship, a kid trying to get out from under the shadow of his father who takes advice we now recognise as his MO, and runs with it. As he grows in capital and stature, the boy becomes a man, the persona fixed.

It’s certainly a big swing for Stan, taking on the depiction of such a divisive, current figure. But the gamble paid off in Cannes – the film received an 8 minute standing ovation at its premiere and prompted discussion on the Croisette. Though Trump himself is threatening to sue to production and disputing the depiction of events.

sebastian stan, the apprentice, Ali Abbasi, cannes dispatch, greg williams
sebastian stan, the apprentice, Ali Abbasi, cannes dispatch, greg williams

‘The hope we have is that people watch the film cos I always feel that there is always something to learn,’ Stan says of the movie that sees Trump betray family and friends, get liposuction and BJs, and bend the truth to his needs. ‘For me as an actor standing next to this brave artist [Abbasi] that I respect and will follow wherever he goes – and all these people that had enough balls to do this project – we have to take on things that are risky and perhaps uncomfortable to talk about. I think it’s important that we do, because it’s in our face every day and we need to have a perspective. And I think there’s a lot to learn from the film.’

sebastian stan, the apprentice, Ali Abbasi, cannes dispatch, greg williams

Sebastian Stan wears Balenciago. Watch by Cartier
The Apprentice premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival and will be released later this year. To see our review out of Cannes click here

Words by JANE CROWTHER


Ali Abbasi’s take on the origins of Donald Trump’s take-no-prisoners MO plays as a scuzzy 70s version of the Shakespearean Hal/Falstaff dynamic that stop short of his political career but includes plenty of cheeky prescience towards the 45th former POTUS’ now famous traits.

We meet Trump (Sebastian Stan) as a debt collector for his disapproving Dad (Martin Donovan) and a wannabe real-estate player with dreams of building the best hotel in a Manhattan riddled with vice and poverty. A New Yorker who wants to see the city bounce back from 70s debt and lawlessness, make cash and get out from under Daddy’s shadow, Trump is a callow water-drinking youth ripe for shaping when he meets infamous lawyer, Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) in a private members club. A ruthless, influential and feared man who hangs out with crime kingpins and will do whatever it takes to win a case, Cohn sees potential in Trump – taking him under his wing to teach him three rules for being a ‘killer’ in life. It’s advice viewers will recognise; attack, attack, attack; the truth is fluid, never admit defeat.

As Cohn’s mentorship (in dressing, media manipulation, networking) takes hold Trump’s image begins to crystallise – the navy suits, the helmet hair, the hyperbole – and he sheds his past. His father is eclipsed, his troubled brother jettisoned, his wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) betrayed… and Trump gets liposuction, his bald patch removed, his face looks more and more like, in Ivana’s words, ‘an orange’.

Though Stan portrays Trump with some signature moves (hand gestures, his stiff neck, the pouting) his performance is nuanced, getting to the heart of the stone-cold ambition and narcissism that took him from knocking on doors for rent money to the oval office. And he throws himself into the more cartoonish moments with relish as Trump meets Andy Warhol, gobbles speed, gets blow-jobs from casino girls and worries about his weight while refusing to exercise. 

But the more interesting aspect of the film is not necessarily the rise of an international figure, it’s the man who shaped him. Strong is repellent and reptilian as Cohn, an unblinking mercenary who oozes malevolence and misanthropy, and ultimately, one of the first people Trump stabs in the back. Though a controversial marital rape scene horrifies, drawing audible gasps from the Cannes audience, it’s Cohn’s treatment at the hands Trump that really strikes a nerve in a movie that dramatises known aspects of his rise to power.


Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova and Martin Donovan is screening at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Release date TBC