“I was looking at them like, ‘Wow, they look weird, man.
Is this going to work?'”
Abbasi tellsEntertainment Weeklya year later, from Copenhagen.
Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong.Danny Kasirye
Once they were in the air, a transformation occurred that neither Abbasi nor the actors can fully explain.
“Suddenly, it started to work,” the director says.
“Also, neither of us are really great flyers,” Stan admits with a laugh.
Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong.Danny Kasirye
“But as Donald and Roy, there were no nerves.
We didn’t even realize that we were in the helicopter.”
Strong adds, “It’s like putting on a magic cloak.”
“I really think it’s that portentous and that significant.”
“I remember I sat there, and Jeremy said, ‘You want to have a cocktail?’
“And he goes, ‘Well, you drink with me.'”
Stan couldn’t argue.
“I never saw him out of costume, and he never saw me out of costume.
We never really met or spoke outside of the scenes or when we were on set.”
The results of their shared commitment are undeniable.
“My initial reaction is, ‘Wow, how the hell am I going to do this?'”
This time, his friends and family also had concerns.
“I had people tell me not to do it,” Stan says.
“I had people tell me I don’t look like him.
I had people tell me that it’s not safe for me to do it.
I had people say that I shouldn’t take a stab at alienate half the country.”
Other actors had already passed, “too scared” to take on the challenge, Sherman says.
But Stan found the anxiety “weirdly motivating.”
Abbasi also wasn’t sure the square-jawed Marvel superhero was the best choice.
But when he looked closer at Stan’s work, he saw an encouraging pattern.
Uncovering the humanity in monsters is a skill Abbasi shares with his star.
Sebastian Stan.Danny Kasirye
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“I love reality.
I don’t watch that many movies and TV shows anymore,” he says.
Jeremy Strong.Danny Kasirye
That approach informedThe Apprentice’s unique visual style, which evokes news footage from the ’70s and ’80s.
“So it felt fitting to be inspired by those newsreels and the archival footage.”
Becoming the Donald
Once Stan was on board, he dove into a rigorous research process.
Sebastian Stan.Danny Kasirye
“If you do the research, there’s a lot that it’s possible for you to understand.
Despite Trump’s wealthy upbringing, not everything in his early life was easy.
Sherman kept that in mind while writing his script.
Sebastian Stan.Danny Kasirye
If there was one quality Stan related to most, it was Trump’s innate need to succeed.
“I understood that drive to rise, to overcome at whatever cost, and to win.
“We love a winner in this country.
Jeremy Strong.Danny Kasirye
It’s a fact that, to me, felt relatable in many ways.”
If he added “10 percent more” prosthetics, it would “look likeSaturday Night Live.”
But if he went 10 percent less, it would “just be Sebastian in a wig.”
Jeremy Strong.Danny Kasirye
The tinkering continued until the cameras rolled.
“We were getting closer to shooting and hadn’t agreed on the prosthetics.
So he called a nutritionist.
Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan.Danny Kasirye
The sodium, he said, would puff up Stan’s face.
But Strong opted to keep it simple on the surface.
“It has to go beyond something simply mimetic,” he explains.
“You are trying to render, with a certain level of exactitude, this person, their behavior.
In Roy’s case, the way he spoke and carried himself physically.
But that stuff is all, in a way, cosmetic.
With this, it was peering into the heart of darkness.”
“Jeremy is, in a way, an unusual actor.
Even the other actors think Jeremy is unusual, and they’re all weird,” Abbasi jokes.
“There were a lot of really strange things about this guy,” Abbasi says.
“He was a freak, but also, he was extremely powerful.
“Maybe that’s a character flaw of mine,” Strong reflects.
“But it is a requirement of the work that I do.”
Room to play
WhileThe Apprenticeis based in fact, improvisation was crucial to Abbasi’s vision.
“Ali has a very interesting, very unique directing style,” Sherman says.
“He likes to do really long takes where he won’t yell cut.
A lot of times it doesn’t work, but then you get these really great moments.”
The author cites a scene briefly shown in the trailer as an example.
“He deserves combat pay for that scene,” Sherman jokes.
“We did so many takes, he must have eaten 5,000 calories of cheese balls.
I ate one bite and almost wretched.”
Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong.Danny Kasirye
EvenMaria Bakalova, who stars as Trump’s first wife, Ivana, felt a learning curve.
Ali is interesting because he changes the way you act.
He just manages to throw things at you.”
Ivana Trump and Donald Trump in 1985.Ron Galella/Getty
It’s a horrifying episode that the filmmakers believe was necessary to confront head-on.
He crosses that line with someone he loved.
“You don’t want to show people something like this because it’s painful,” Bakalova adds.
“Things like this should not exist.
“It all felt safe, but it’s still uncomfortable.”
Ron Galella/Getty
The Apprenticehas been courting controversy since before it landed a release date.
“I have heard people say that, and I know what they mean,” Strong admits.
I know what kind of guy he is.
I see him all the time,'” Stan adds.
“Still, I think there is value in normalizing people that we feel strongly about.
“I think there’s a Trump in all of us, to some extent,” he says.
And if they have that strong of a reaction to it, they should actually question that reaction.”
Abbasi finds the criticism itself concerning.
“I think it’s dangerous to worry about humanizing people too much,” he says.
“Also, for me, the movie is not a Trump movie.
It’s not a Trump biopic.
It is about the American power system.”
There’s also another elephant in the room.
In the end, the answer was Briarcliff Entertainment.
Throughout his career, the exec says he’s targeted films that are provocative, informative, and entertaining.
“I think our industry has generally become very conservative and toothless,” Abbasi adds.
We’re not selling shoes.”
“And I really hope that this model of taking chances is rewarded by the audience.
Not only for us, but also for the health of this whole ecosystem.”
“It feels very loaded,” Strong says.
That fills me with terror.”
Instead, Stan says he hopes the movie “leads people towards a reconnection with their own humanity.”
Jeremy Strong.Danny Kasirye
We have to have a better, healthier relationship with the beast in all of us.”
Sebastian Stan.Danny Kasirye
