Sebastian Stan, known for his roles in Marvel films, has claimed that other actors in Hollywood are too "afraid" to engage in press for his latest project, The Apprentice, a biopic about Donald Trump’s 1970s association with lawyer Roy Cohn.
Speaking during a recent Q&A in Los Angeles alongside director Ali Abbasi, Stan revealed his struggles to find a peer for the Actors on Actors series by Variety, where industry stars quiz each other. He stated, “I couldn’t find another actor to do it with me, because they were too afraid to go and talk about this movie. So I couldn’t do it.”
Stan explained further, “You know, I’ve got to do a lot of great things, and that’s not pointing at anyone specific. It was … we couldn’t get past the publicists or the people representing them, because [they were] too afraid to talk about this movie.”
Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh confirmed Stan’s account, telling People magazine, “What Sebastian said is accurate. 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.”
Stan expressed concern about the industry’s reaction to the project, particularly in light of Trump’s upcoming presidency. “That’s when I think we lose the situation,” he said. “Because if it really becomes like that – fear or that discomfort to talk about this – then we’re really going to have a problem.”
The actor added, “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.”
Stan spoke on the film's purpose, “If all it’s saying is you cannot keep casting this person aside, especially after they get the popular vote, should we not give this a closer look and try to understand what it is about this person that’s even driving that?”
Ahead of the film’s release in the US, Trump had strongly criticized the biopic, particularly a scene depicting an alleged rape of his ex-wife, Ivana. He called the film a “cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job,” labeling it as “fake and classless” while taking aim at the director and screenwriter.
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!”