Screenshot via Twitter
The Apprentice actor Sebastian Stan revealed that he failed to find a single actor willing to do an interview show for Variety because they were too “afraid” to discuss his portrayal of President-elect Donald Trump.
Stan told the story of his failed attempt to do Variety’s Actors on Actors, an online show in which actors interview each other, at a post-screening Q&A for The Apprentice on Tuesday night, and Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh confirmed the story in a statement.
Stan’s comments to Apprentice director Ali Abbasi were captured and shared on social media. The actor is best known for his role as Bucky Barnes in Marvel films such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Endgame, and the upcoming Thunderbolts.
The actor said:
The amount of love that I’ve received from some of the biggest, both of us I think, in terms of actors, directors, producers, writers who’ve seen the movie and rave about it, they rave about it, but then, for instance, I had an offer to do Variety Actor on Actor this Friday, and 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. And it doesn’t matter, that’s OK, that’s not to point a finger at anybody. That’s not pointing at anyone specific, we couldn’t get past the publicists or the people representing them because they were too afraid to talk about this movie.
Stan portrays Trump during the ’70s and ’80s in The Apprentice, which follows the future president’s rise to fame and his relationship with lawyer Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong).
The actor argued it’s a mistake for people to “keep casting aside” Trump by not engaging in conversation about him as a human being.
“I understand the emotions are very high, but I think that’s the only way you’re going to grasp this film. 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,” he said. “I don’t know if the love is gonna translate into action, but it’s certainly there from what we’re hearing.”
Setoodeh released a statement on Wednesday confirming Stan’s story as “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,” he told Indiewire.
Attorneys for Trump sent a cease and desist to producers of The Apprentice in an attempt to block its release shortly before the election, but its makers have defended it as an accurate portrayal. Trump himself called it “defamatory.” The film has grossed approximately $4 million in the United States and $12 million worldwide since its release in theaters on Oct. 11.
“A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me, called, ‘The Apprentice’ (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully ‘bomb,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social in October. “It’s a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country, ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’”
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