Cringe At Sebastian Stan As Donald Trump In The First Clip From 'The Apprentice'

By Andrew Sanford | Film | September 3, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Film | September 3, 2024 |

People love watching movies and TV shows about s***ty people. That is certainly true with fictional characters, but even more so when watching something that features a (often fictionalized) version of a real person. People flocked to a movie where Leonardo DiCaprio played real-life stockbroker Jordan Belfort. Any film buff will chew your ear off about how great Goodfellas is (as they should), a movie about former gangster and murderer Henry Hill. Many, myself included, were glued to their seats for over three hours as Robert De Niro played a de-aged Robert Sheeran, a former hitman who may have killed Jimmy Hoffa.

But not all bad people get their time on the silver screen courtesy of Martin Scorsese! Many directors, writers, and actors have brought despicable people to life for the art of cinema (albeit not as glamorous). There is an allure to watching people we know have made bad decisions and seeing how and why that happened. We as an audience, can either empathize with their misdeeds or assure ourselves that we would never make the same choices. But, are there limits to what audiences will accept?

The biggest example in my mind is the film Chapter 27. That film starred Jared Leto as Mark David Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon. Leto gained over 60 pounds for the role, getting gout as a result. Luckily, the film gained him an Oscar for Best Actor and earned him a Nobel Prize in Performance Art. Just kidding! The movie was roundly panned. People were mad about that movie before it hit theaters, and its subpar performance critically and financially shows that their anger did not subside.

People have their limits! And we are about to face another attempt to push people to them. A film called The Apprentice is due to release in October. It stars Jeremy Strong as New York City Prosecutor (and massive piece of s***) Roy Cohn. More importantly, it stars Sebastian Stan as former President and current threat to the United States, Donald Trump. The film shows Trump earlier in his career as Cohn takes him under his wing.

Even writing that sentence makes me wince! Most of the examples I’ve listed so far are people who were dead and/or forgotten by the time the movie about them was released. Trump is a problem right now. Few days go by when Americans aren’t forced to look at his dumb face or hear his stupid voice. Do we want to watch a fictionalized version of his not-at-all-humble beginnings? Is there an audience for this?

Sebastian Stan does not seem to be doing a direct impression of Trump, so we’ll be spared the umpteenth attempt to do a “Trump Voice.” Still, we’ve spent more than a decade zeroing in on this man’s terrible life. What is to be gleaned from going over it now, aside from sick curiosity and morbid satisfaction? Watch the clip below and decide for yourself.