Sebastian Stan claims actors ‘too afraid’ of Trump to discuss his movie The Apprentice

The Apprentice star Sebastian Stan has found himself in an unusual situation — he is the star of one of this awards season's big contenders, but is struggling to find any of his peers willing to talk about the film.

Stan plays a younger version of the US president-elect in the biopic, which had already caused controversy as Trump himself has disputed some of the more controversial scenes.

But now, the actor has claimed the recent US election result has caused a chilling effect in Hollywood as other stars are reluctant to get into conversation about the movie or his role in it.

As the nominations for awards season gather pace each year, Variety runs a popular Actors on Actors series which pairs stars from nominated films to discuss their respective work — but Stan, speaking alongside The Apprentice director Ali Abbasi at a Q&A in Los Angeles, told how he had found himself locked out of the opportunity.

Here's how the controversy played out.

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What did Sebastian Stan say about The Apprentice controversy?

The Apprentice's director Ali Abbasi is already enjoying success with the biopic, having been nominated for the Palme d'Or, and further nominations are expected to start rolling in.

But speaking alongside Abbasi at a Q&A in Los Angeles, lead actor Stan said that he hadn't been able to find any actors willing to be paired with him to talk about their own movies and ask him about The Apprentice for Variety's Actors on Actors series.

He said: "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. 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."

The Pam and Tommy actor added that the reaction had made him feel concerned about the movie industry feeling free to speak once Trump comes back into power in January.

He said: "That’s when I think we lose the situation. Because if it really becomes like that — fear or that discomfort to talk about this -– then we’re really going to have a problem. 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 added that he hoped people would give Trump's popularity "a closer look and try to understand what it is about this person that’s even driving that".

Variety co-editor in chief Ramin Setoodeh confirmed Stan's comments, saying: "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."

What has Donald Trump said about The Apprentice?

Trump has made it clear that he is not happy about the film, blasting it on Truth Social ahead of its release in the US.

He wrote: "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'. 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!"

The Apprentice made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it received an eight-minute standing ovation, but Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to Rolling Stone at the time: "We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers. This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalises lies that have been long debunked."

The Apprentice's most controversial moments

The film's most controversial scene shows Trump sexually assaulting his first wife Ivana, which was based on the late model's 1989 divorce case deposition, in which she claimed Trump had allegedly raped her once during their marriage but later retracted the use of the word "rape".

She said in a 1993 statement: "On one occasion during 1989, Mr Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently towards me than he had during our marriage. As a woman I felt violated… I referred to this as a rape, but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense."

Trump also denied sexual assault and his lawyers threatened to sue the producers.

There are also other potentially controversial moments in the film.

One scene shows Trump going for scalp reduction surgery and liposuction, but in real life the president-elect has denied ever getting plastic surgery. The scene took inspiration from Ivana's divorce documents, according to reports.

There is another controversial scene where Trump was alleged to have used drugs, with his doctor advising him not to take amphetamines. In real life Trump has often spoken about his tee-total lifestyle and claims never to have drunk alcohol or smoked because of seeing his late older brother Fred's struggle with alcohol abuse.