Sebastian Stan continues to get himself attached to experimental biopics with projects like Pam & Tommy and I, Tonya, and now he’s set to play probably one of the biggest political figures of the 2020s, Donald J. Trump.
Stan’s young Trump character is set to be in the middle of the movie The Apprentice, but he’s also going to come with a mentor in the form of Roy Cohn (Succession’s Jeremy Strong).
While some have forgotten just how influential Cohn was during his time, the movie is looking to explain his connection with Trump and how he influenced so much of the former president’s personality.
Cohn Meeting Trump
Trump was said to have met Cohn while he was looking for someone to defend his company when they were sued by the state for discriminating against tenants who were people of color. Here’s the meeting between the two in the film:
While the movie doesn’t look to be a full-out biopic, it does seem like The Apprentice will be covering the time that Cohn took Trump under his wing and taught him all about the tricks of being a successful salesperson, from Trump’s constant denying of the truth to him putting more focus on the public opinion rather than the rule of law.
Trump was Cohn’s Apprentice
Though Cohn may have died way back in the 80s, he’s recently been getting a lot of attention because of how many people realize his influence on Trump has been very substantial to his overall character. A documentary on Cohn was released a few years ago with Bully. Coward. Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn, and PBS even did a short feature on him and his history with Trump.
It’s also worth noting that Cohn was a closeted homosexual, and though he had publicly denied it, he was known to have several boyfriends throughout the course of his life. He died at the age of 59 due to AIDS.
Though it’s not clear how much of that part of the story will take place, it’s very likely that the film will also follow Trump’s journey after the death of Cohn, because there’s also the whole fiasco with his first wife Ivana Trump who is played by Maria Bakalova (Borat 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)
Jeremy Strong: The Movie Doesn’t Take Sides
With the election season coming, it was said that The Apprentice was almost banned from screening in the US, but apparently still managed to push through because it wasn’t outright demonizing Trump or Cohn.
In a recent interview with Stephen Colbert, Jeremy Strong, who plays Cohn in the film, said about the movie, “I think it’s not a pro-Trump movie or anti-Trump movie. It’s not telling you who to vote for. I think it’s trying to examine these individuals and take them seriously as human beings, which is not something we tend to do. We tend to other-ize and demonize and mock these people.”
The Apprentice is now showing in select theaters.