Sebastian Stan to play Donald Trump in star-studded biopic, The Apprentice

The Apprentice, a biopic about former US president Donald Trump’s rise to power and fame, has begun filming this week with a star-studded cast.

The film will explore the former US president’s early years as a New York real estate mogul and his relationship with Roy Cohn, the infamous lawyer who mentored him and was later disbarred for unethical conduct.

The film is directed by Ali Abbasi, the Iranian filmmaker who recently received an Oscar nomination for his 2022 thriller Holy Spider. He also directed the last two episodes of the popular video game adaptation The Last of Us. The script is written by Gabriel Sherman, the journalist and author who wrote The Loudest Voice in the Room, a biography of Fox News founder Roger Ailes that was adapted into a 2019 miniseries starring Russell Crowe.

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The film’s logline describes it as “a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty” and “reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers”.

Sebastian Stan, best known for playing Captain America’s ally and Pam & Tommy’s lead, will portray a young Trump. Jeremy Strong, who won an Emmy for his role in Succession, will play Cohn. Maria Bakalova, who earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as Borat’s daughter, will play Ivana, Trump’s first wife.

The film is set in the 1970s and 80s and will show how Trump learned the art of deal-making and manipulation from Cohn, who was a key figure in the McCarthy era and the AIDS crisis. Cohn was also Trump’s lawyer in several lawsuits and advised him on his political ambitions.

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Trump, who was impeached twice and is facing 91 felony charges in four different criminal cases, is expected to run for president again in 2024, according to current polls. He is also involved in a high-profile fraud trial in Manhattan. The film will shed light on the origins of his controversial personality and legacy.