- Primary Subject: Sebastian Stan's post-release reflections on playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice
- Key Update: Sebastian Stan spoke out about the intense pushback and legal threats faced by The Apprentice film, comparing the hostile environment to the pressures experienced by late-night talk show hosts during Trump's second presidential term.
- Status: Post-Release Discourse
- Last Verified: May 20, 2026
- Quick Answer: Sebastian Stan expressed concern over censorship and political backlash, noting that legal threats aimed at blocking the film reflect a troubling climate for free speech.
Sebastian Stan delivered a blunt warning about the troubling effect on American free speech at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Reflecting on the legal threats and distribution blockades his biopic, The Apprentice, faced, the actor chided the audience for treating Donald Trump's political power as a laughing matter.
Sebastian Stan Gets Candid on Donald Trump's Presidency Post-The Apprentice
It had been two years since Stan delivered his Donald Trump performance for the 2024 biopic, The Apprentice. During the press conference for his new movie, Fjord, Stan said that America is "in a really, really bad place."
When asked about his thoughts on The Apprentice after Trump had been running the office again for over a year, present journalists laughed nervously, prompting the MCU star to address it, "It's just not a laughing matter, to be honest. It isn't."
The Fjord actor continued: "I think we're in a really, really bad place. And to be honest with you, when you're looking at what's happening, right — if we're talking about the consolidation of the media, censorship, threats, the supposed lawsuits that seemingly never end but don't actually go anywhere. You know, the writing was on the wall. We encountered all that with the movie."
While the film went on to receive critical acclaim for its raw depiction of Trump's early real estate career, the journey to the screen was a chaotic battle against politics. Stan argues that this climate of fear has only become more intense since Trump's re-election.
Some may be surprised to know, but the The Apprentice biopic? Trump was never on board with it and actually strongly opposed the project coming to fruition.
The Apprentice was Never Approved Under Donald Trump
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Previously, Trump attempted to stop production of Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice ahead of its 2024 Cannes premiere, threatening with a lawsuit and calling the film "garbage" and "pure fiction."
The then former president's legal team went as far as sending a cease-and-desist letter to block the movie's release. Stan recounted the festival, being unsure whether they would actually be able to premiere it.
"Three days before the festival, [we were] unsure if the movie was going to play the festival," Stan said, "So maybe people are paying attention more to that film, I think it will stand the test of time for that. But we went through all of it, right before Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and so on. So, I wish it wasn't like that."
Stan added that even after two years of filming the project, he was "still purging" the experience of portraying Trump.
Stan certainly didn't pull punches in detailing the censorship of The Apprentice to the current political scrutiny faced by late-night hosts. The actor's remarks serve as a warning that the challenges his film faced were not a one-off fight, but rather the beginning of a new era of Hollywood's self-censorship.
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