The stars of a new movie about Donald Trump have responded to the former US president's stinging verdict of the film, saying that his language reminded them of Hitler and Stalin.
The Apprentice, whose backers include Fís Éireann and Irish company Tailored Films, stars Sebastian Stan as the young Trump and Succession star Jeremy Strong as lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, who mentored the future president in seventies and eighties New York.
Trump delivered his verdict on The Apprentice on his social media platform Truth Social yesterday, using some typically colourful language.
Thanks for getting back to us @realDonaldTrump. I am available to talk further if you want. Today is a tight day w a lot of press for #TheApprentice but i might be able to give you a call tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/TU1b3Qg2rL
— Ali Abbasi (@_aliabbasi_) October 14, 2024
Branding the new film as "FAKE and CLASSLESS", he called it a "cheap, defamatory and politically disgusting hatchet job".
He also called the makers and cast of the film "HUMAN SCUM" and accused the movie of trying to hurt his chances of re-election this November.
"At the same time, it’s a great endorsement for our film because if it is really all a pack of lies, as he claims, then why is he so threatened by it?"
Stan’s co-star Strong has previously talked about the real-life implications of making a movie that portrays Trump in a less than flattering light and has even said that the cast and makers of The Apprentice are "now in the line of fire".
"This movie is being released at an intersectional point with history and politics in real-time," he said.
"I was very troubled yesterday by Trump’s language, by his use of the phrase 'human scum', which is a phrase that has been used by Hitler and Stalin and Kim Jong Un Kim, Bolsonaro and Putin.
"I find the invocation of that phrase really terrifying. It breaks my heart to think of where America is at the moment."
Strong added: "I also think the Roy Cohn in me was doing cartwheels at Trump’s post yesterday because Trump attacked us and denied the veracity of the film, which is exactly what Roy Cohn taught him to do with anything that came in his path, that’s how you steamroll it over.
"I also found it to be a tacit endorsement of what the film explores."
The Apprentice also stars Maria Bakalova as Trump’s ex-wife Ivana, who passed away in 2022, and Mark Rendall as the young Roger Stone, who introduced Trump to the Make America Great Again political slogan.
Stan portrays a Trump that most people will be unfamiliar with - a young and unsure wannabe property mogul trying to find his way in a New York blighted by crime and urban decay in the seventies.
"If people are going to vote for him, they should familiarise themselves with the whole of him, which is much more complex than what he has been selling for I don’t know for how long," Stan said.
"We’ve got to go beyond soundbites, clickbait and algorithms to inform ourselves and if there is any inkling of curiosity left, then if you go back in time and research it, you see that Trump was quite different.
"Although there were things there that still fuel what is going on today, I think there is a real sense of insecurity and emptiness and denial of vulnerability and empathy and reality within Trump that only increased with time as he gained more and more validation from Roy Cohn.
"I’m not sure what Trump would be like now without Cohn."
Given its subject matter, The Apprentice initially struggled to attract investors and Stan was advised by friends and some of his fellow actors not to take the role.
It was released in the US last Friday and already there is a danger that the film will be boycotted by liberal and MAGA audiences for entirely different reasons.
"You’re probably right," Strong said. "But I think the movie is essential for anyone who cares about the state of our world and what’s at stake in election so I hope that isn’t the case.
"I think people should see it and form an opinion, not the other way round."
The Apprentice is in cinemas this Friday 18 October.
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