The famous actor talks about the challenge of bringing a character as well-known as Donal Trump to the big screen in Ali Abbasi’s new film.
Sebastian Stan reveals the behind-the-scenes of playing a role like Donald Trump in The Apprentice, the long-awaited and controversial new film by Ali Abbasi. Written by Gabriel Sherman and presented in world premiere last May at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, the film will be released in Italian theaters on October 17.
Sebastian Stan Talks About His Trump: “He Always Seemed Like He Needed to Prove Something”
Sebastian Stan, who we know for his role as Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Universe, has taken on one of the biggest challenges of his career: playing the well-known tycoon and former American president Donald Trump in his youth.
In a recent interview, the famous actor revealed the challenge, the difficulties, and the ambition of playing such a well-known character. Stan said about it: “It was really nerve-wracking. It was scary. It was intimidating. I felt like I was looking at a big mountain to climb. A big part of the preparation for me was figuring out what to do and what not to do. You have to understand that most people are going to watch the film with strong feelings, with their own idea of who this person is, with their own opinions and preconceptions. I felt like I had to introduce him in a way that wasn’t already known and try to find the human being. Try to make it as real as possible.”
The actor then added: “Obviously, when you play a real person, and especially when you play Him, you have to make choices in terms of how you play him organically so that it doesn’t feel like a caricature but at the same time it feels relatable. He speaks a certain way, he gestures, he has body language and expressions, he has a certain way he walks into a room. I looked at those things. Those aspects have evolved over time. If you look at him back then, he’s not the same guy that we see every day now. So I felt like I had to identify that evolution over time.”
Stan finally reflected on what are the aspects that drive and motivate Donald Trump in the film The Apprentice: “As an actor, you have to make choices about the internal things that drive and motivate the external. Where do those things come from? He always seemed to have a need to prove something. I felt like there was [in Trump] a great need to be heard, a great need to succeed, a great need to overcome, and maybe complete, an absence that he had. That’s what a movie is, that’s what an interpretation is. Maybe someone else would have taken it in a different direction. We wanted this to be as real as possible.”
Source: Collider