'The Apprentice' actor Sebastian Stan: Hollywood stars fear Trump

Actor Sebastian Stan, best known to cinemagoers as Marvel’s The Winter Soldier, has been on a winning streak lately.

His role in Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man won him the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at this year’s Berlinale, and he was also in Cannes presenting Ali Abbas’ divisive biopic The Apprentice, in which Stan plays none other than Donald Trump.  

Both performances are transformative and excellent, leading to some awards chatter... However, that hasn't stopped certain stars in Hollywood from keeping their distance.

Indeed, Stan has admitted that other actors have been afraid to do appearances with him, as they didn’t want to discuss the president-elect.

The Apprentice was released prior to the US election on 5 November, and features a scene in which he assaults and rapes his ex-wife, Ivana.

The alleged 1989 incident of spousal rape was previously detailed in the couple’s divorce proceedings. Trump denied and Ivana later refuted the claim ahead of his 2015 presidential campaign. In the film, it is shown in unambiguous terms.

The film received strong backlash from Trump himself, branding the people involved “human scum” and threatening to sue.  

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said: “So sad that HUMAN SCUM, like the people involved in this hopefully unsuccessful enterprise, are allowed to say and do whatever they want in order to hurt a Political Movement, which is far bigger than any of us. MAGA2024!” 

Stan, during a recent Q&A about the film in Los Angeles, has now said that the film and the ensuing controversies have led to other actors distancing themselves from him and that he was unable to take part in Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series. 

“I couldn’t find another actor to do it with me, because they were too afraid to to go and talk about this movie. So I couldn’t do it,” explained the 42-year-old actor.  

In a statement given to People magazine, Variety Co-Editor in Chief Ramin Setoodeh confirmed Stan’s account. 

“What Sebastian said is accurate, he said. “We invited him to participate in Actors on Actors, the biggest franchise of awards season, but other actors didn’t want to pair with him because they didn’t want to talk about Donald Trump.” 

Their loss. Stan is a terrific actor, and The Apprentice deserves praise for the way it tells Trump’s story, which is not what you’d expect.

In our review of The Apprentice, we wrote: “Stan is excellent as Trump, convincingly taking the character from obsequious wannabe to out-of-touch gremlin. After his Silver Bear-winning turn in A Different Man, the actor dons more prosthetics but dodges any kind of cheap mimicry by nailing the gestures and slowly drip-feeding more tics and verbal quirks as the runtime progresses. And as the amoral narcissism builds. The fact that Stan is able to capture all the vocal and physical mannerisms and it not be just another grotesque impersonation – especially after years of countless comedians doing their best Don – is a welcome surprise. (...) The Apprentice is not a great film, but a compulsively watchable one, destined to polarize even those who despise Trump. It will be berated for not being enough of a hit job by some; not political enough considering the current climate by others.”

Read our full review here.

What Stan describes sets a worrying precedent when it comes to Hollywood once Trump comes into power in January 2025.

“That’s when I think we lose the situation,” added Stan. “Because if it really becomes like that – fear or that discomfort to talk about this – then we’re really going to have a problem.”

“For many, the idea that Trump is the same as any one of us is a really difficult thing to deal with at the moment and I understand the emotions are very high, but I think that’s the only way you’re going to grasp this film.”

The Apprentice premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and came out in theatres last month.  

Additional sources • Variety, People Magazine