It’s Debate Day in America, and everyone’s stomach is in knots as we wait for Vice President Kamala Harris and convicted felon Donald Trump to take the stage tonight in Philadelphia.
So, it’s no accident that film distributor Briarcliff Entertainment chose today to release the trailer for their already controversial Trump biopic The Apprentice—you know, something to tide us over!
From Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider), the film taps frequent Marvel anti-hero Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) to play this real-world villain to democracy, honing in on his early days as a wannabe real estate mogul when he still had his Big Boy Businessman training wheels on.
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Now, we know what you’re thinking: “Wait a minute, Sebastian Stan? Isn’t he incredibly handsome? How can he play someone like Trump?” Well, that’s nothing a bad wig and some subtly frightening makeup can’t fix. It’s movie magic!
Anyway, the crux of The Apprentice is the hate-mongering former president’s unlikely relationship with notorious New York City prosecutor Roy Cohn, here played by Succession star Jeremy Strong.
Cohn’s noxious reputation no doubt precedes him. In the ’50s, he worked alongside Senator Joseph McCarthy to orchestrate the Second Red Scare, a story that was recently revisited in Fellow Travelers, which plainly shows Cohn to be a deeply closeted, self-hating gay man. And, of course, his final days as he succumbed to AIDS—while vehemently denying it—are powerfully depicted in the acclaimed play Angels In America.
Related*
‘Succession’ star Jeremy Strong as notorious gay attorney Roy Cohn is deeply creepy
Strong was snapped on the set of The Apprentice, in which he plays Cohn.
As Abbasi’s film posits, Trump only became the Trump we know & loathe thanks to the tutelage of Cohn, who lays out some guidelines for his mad grab at power. Rule 1: Attack, attack, attack. Rule 2: Admit nothing, deny everything. Rule 3: No matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat.
It’s definitely a playbook the MAGA mouthpiece still uses today.
Since premiering at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, The Apprentice has already courted its fair share of controversy, thanks especially to scenes that depict Trump’s alleged drug use, plastic surgery, and volatile relationship with his first wife, Ivana (played by Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova).
Hilariously, billionaire Dan Snyder had donated money to the film’s production, but was reportedly furious when he saw an early cut and realized it wasn’t a positive portrayal of his friend. Trump’s presidential campaign has also threatened to take legal action against the film, to which its producers responded: “The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president. We want everyone to see it and then decide.”
Director Ali Abbasi has also stood his ground and wasn’t mincing words when he addressed his Cannes audience after the premiere: “There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising wave of fascism. The good people have been quiet for too long, so I think it’s time to make movies relevant. It’s time to make movies political again.”
Related*
‘Where’s My Roy Cohn?’ uncovers the secret gay story behind the man who created a monster
Director Matt Tyrnauer spills the T on the man who prosecuted the Rosenbergs, caused the Red Scare and the Pink Scare all before his death from AIDS.
Well, Trump, like it or not, your biopic is coming—and it’s coming soon! Briarcliff Entertainment plans to release The Apprentice in select theaters on October 11… just a few weeks shy of the 2024 Election and on National Coming Out Day!
(By the way, even the movie’s name has to have been strategic, right? Now it’s the first thing you see when you search “The Apprentice Donald Trump”—and not his long-running NBC reality competition show of the same name. Whoops, sorry Don!)
Check out the wild first trailer for The Apprentice below:
Related*
Former aide gives damning assessment of Donald Trump’s “desperate” mental state
And Mary Trump, a psychologist, says some of her uncle’s recent comments are bizarre.
Jim
I don’t remember Cohen being a NYC prosecutor ????
And while Cohen was a significant influence Donald is his Dad’s (Fred) son!
RIGay
I think I am going to wait for the musical…
still_onthemark
I’m sure I’ll like the musical too (five years from now) but I’ll see this! Jeremy Strong, good casting. Of course DJT is suing because of The Apprentice name and like all his lawsuits it goes nowhere but at least he doesn’t bother to pay his lawyers.
abfab
The only person he still pays is Melania.