At this point in American history, every citizen of this country probably knows something about former President Donald Trump and probably something rather unpleasant. But how did his story begin? How did he become the morally and ethically compromised rabble-rouser we know him as today? Director Ali Abbasi aims to answer these questions with his controversial Trump origin story, “The Apprentice.”
The film stars Sebastian Stan as a young Trump struggling to make a name for himself in ’70s and ’80s New York City and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, the beguiling prosecutor made infamous for helping Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Second Red Scare. Abbasi, in his first English-language feature after “Holy Spider” and “Border,” traces the toxic roots from which Trump grew and the influence he managed to inherit.
The film received praise following its premiere at Cannes, though a Trump-supporting backer of the film pulled out ahead of its U.S. release, forcing the production to find another distributor. Thankfully, Briarcliff Entertainment stepped in to get the film seen by a wide public, but, as reported by Vanity Fair, at the New York premiere this past week, Strong admitted that he still felt the pressure of the Trump apparatus, especially unveiling the film in the same city that made him.
“Honestly, it’s kind of chilling,” he said. “I passed Trump Tower on the way here.”
This is not the first time the Emmy-winning actor has dealt with telling a true story based on an integral part of American history. He’s been seen in “Lincoln,” “Selma,” “The Big Short,” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” When comparing them to the timeliness that “The Apprentice” holds in being released at the height of an election season that could see Trump retake the White House, Strong said, “None of them have quite the resonance and real-world ramifications that this does.”
“The world is on fire and the stakes are so high. They’ve maybe never been higher at this moment in our democracy,” Strong told Vanity Fair. Quoting Chicago Sun-Times journalist Sydney Harris, he added, “’History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.’ This is an attempt to peel away the disguise a bit, and show you the playbook, and show you the sort of puppet master behind the guy.”
As Senator McCarthy’s chief counsel during the anti-Communist era of the 1950s, Cohn came to be hated early in his career, yet managed to maintain a high degree of power throughout his life. Strong believes that’s tied to his willingness to beat others down by any means necessary. If Cohn sounds like he has a lot in common with Trump, as “The Apprentice” details, it’s not a coincidence.
“Roy’s legacy is a legacy of shamelessness, mendacity, lies, dissimulation, brutality, and winning as the only moral measure,” Strong said to Vanity Fair. “But he also, like, had a bedroom full of stuffed-frog figurines and a Mickey Mouse sign on his door that said ‘Roy.’ He had a kind of guileless innocence and charm at the same time as he was a lethal, brutal, ruthless, savage, remorseless person. So I’ve never quite seen that polarity in one person before.”
Despite the ire Strong may hold for Cohn on a personal level, he believes we shouldn’t just “dismiss him” as a “monster,” in the same way we shouldn’t dismiss Trump and what he’s capable of. Stan feels similarly about trying to understand what’s underneath all of Trump’s bluster and thinks it’s important that others are willing to take that in, no matter your political affiliation.
“I see someone that is just relentlessly going to go the distance at no matter what cost, and it’s the loneliest person in the world to me,” said Stan at the New York premiere, adding later, “If you don’t like it, walk out, or maybe enjoy yourself, have a laugh, get angry, I don’t know, whatever. Feel. Feel something. Be a human being!”
“The Apprentice” is now in theaters.
