Donald Trump is arguably the most controversial figure of the 21st Century. However, I would hazard a guess that most Gen Z voters don’t know the real story behind Donald Trump.
The Apprentice, a film directed by filmmaker Ali Abbasi and written by journalist Gabriel Sherman, follows the story of Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan)’s rise to power in the early 1970s-1980s. In doing so, the film dramatizes multiple plot points and therefore shouldn’t be viewed as a completely accurate depiction of the man’s life. However, I believe the film does an extraordinary job of shedding light on the cultural and political context that gave rise to a figure like Trump, and culminated in his being elected.
The film opens with a Richard Nixon quote that I believe functions as the film’s thesis: “People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook.” Following this, the opening credits show Trump walking to the Commodore Hotel, interspersed with stock footage from the 1970s and a gritty punk song blaring in the background. I believe this contrast is also paramount to understanding this film, as it represents the contrast of Trump’s aspirations for glamour within the dirty cultural landscape that birthed him.
For a film where we see a young, impressionable man realize his potential for immoral corruption, it is paramount that the audience actually likes our main character before he fully descends into debauchery. Within the first 30 minutes, Sebastian Stan does an excellent job of getting us on Trump’s side. As someone who went into this movie with countless negative preconceived notions about him, young Trump’s exploits as a slumlord made me want to root for this ambitious, down on his luck businessman. However, from Stan’s first scene as Trump, we see inklings of the man we know today: “There’s a skill to being a billionaire. It’s a talent. You have to be born with it. You have to have a certain gene,” Trump muses.
Sebastian Stan’s nuanced performance is a wonderful surprise. In every other adaptation of Trump I’ve seen, they portray him as an outwardly comedic caricature. Stan isn’t concerned with doing the “Trump Voice” and being a parody, instead he focuses on nailing his subtle facial movements and body language. This allows for the film to immerse the audience in the film’s world and the film’s take on Trump.
At its core, The Apprentice is about the society and culture that encouraged, developed, and allowed Trump to become who he is. And that cutthroat culture is personified in Jeremy Strong’s turn as Roy Cohn. Sherman’s script indeed portrays Cohn as a proto-Trump, the man who passes a torch of corruption and immorality onto the young Donald.
Roy Cohn was an extremely influential lawyer and prosecutor known for his brutality and corruption. A notorious homophobe and closeted gay man, Cohn passed away from complications due to HIV/AIDS in 1986. He served as an attorney and mentor for Donald Trump up until his passing. Jeremy Strong describes his masterful performance as a “demonic Peter Pan who never grew up,” but instead of taking Donald around Neverland, he corrupts the young man’s mind, indoctrinating him into his cutthroat ideology.
Strong has multiple showstopping monologues. He disappears into the script, and Roy Cohn comes alive as he sows the seeds in Trump’s brain that will later flourish in the decades to come: “There is no right and wrong. There is no, uh, morality. There is no truth with a capital T. It’s a construct. It’s fiction. None of it matters except winning. That’s it.” According to Strong, Cohn was a “very vicious, despicable person … by many considered one of the worst humans of the 21st century,” yet somehow I felt bad for him by the end. In the first half of the film, he is an utter monster, but Strong does an incredible job of making the audience pity him once it becomes apparent that he’s suffering from AIDS.
In my opinion, Roy’s final scene should’ve won Jeremy Strong the Best Supporting Actor award at this year’s Academy Awards. While staying at Mar-a-Lago, Donald gifts–the now wheelchair bound–Roy fake zirconian golden “Trump” engraved diamond enameled cufflinks. While it is unknown out of ignorance or malice, Donald then brings out an American flag cake adorned with sparklers, and the frail Cohn is so weak he cannot force himself to attempt to blow them out. It is outstanding that the audience even has a sliver of empathy for Roy after what he’s done, but Strong’s performance is so humanizing that he does the impossible.
While everything was filmed digitally, the halcyon days of Trump and Cohn’s relationship have a film stock grain effect applied. As Stan’s portrayal of Trump devolves further into a brutal, grotesque figure and Roy Cohn falls out of his orbit there’s a switch to an extremely low quality VHS/TV effect. Thematically, this transition is very effective, as America was introduced to Donald Trump on reality TV. It’s almost like Abbasi is attempting to pull back the veil, showing the American people that the moral rot that exists at the very core of Trump’s being has been there all along.
The first shot of Roy Cohn, slowly zooming in as he stares down the barrel of the camera, draws parallels to the manner in which the Director of Photography, Kasper Tuxen, shoots Donald’s initial romance with Ivana later in the film. Three possible interpretations presented themselves to me. Firstly, both relationships were transactional; there was never affection, only an opportunity for the man staring down the barrel of the camera to exploit the person he covets and vice versa. Secondly, perhaps both relationships were based on genuine infatuation, but ego and hubris doomed them. Lastly, that both relationships were based on one’s domination of the other, both Trump’s and Cohn’s gaze represents their domain over whomever they glare.
Most of the controversy surrounding The Apprentice lies in its portrayal of Ivana and Trump’s marriage. While assembling his 1993 book, “Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump,” author Harry Hill III uncovered a previously sealed deposition from Ivana and Donald’s divorce. “During a deposition given by me in connection with my matrimonial case, I stated that my husband had raped me,” Ivana’s statement in preface for “Lost Tycoon” read. She then addresses the incident in question, stating: “On one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited toward me, was absent. I referred to this as ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.” It is important to mention that she was formally under oath when she initially detailed the assault. Additionally, the context that in 2023, Trump was found liable for sexually abusing journalist E. Jean Carroll, is critical to understanding this situation.
Gabriel Sherman’s script adapts and dramatizes this alleged incident in the film. When Trump’s team got wind of the film’s inclusion of the alleged assault, they sent a cease and desist letter to the film’s producers, threatening legal action if the film received a widespread release. “This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung stated. While they failed to ban the film, this warning appears to have served its purpose, as this led to the newly-minted independent Rich Spirit Productions picking up the film, which destined it for a smaller opening in select theaters as opposed to a wide-scale release, significantly hurting the film’s box office.
It is also important to note that the film’s director, Ali Abbasi, was accused of groping an A-list actor at a Golden Globes party. In a statement released on Twitter, Abassi confirmed the incident, stating, “I fully understand that my action made someone uncomfortable, regardless of my intent, and for that, I am truly sorry.” While I think Ivana’s story has the right to be told and should be adapted and dramatized, this situation certainly raises the question of whether Abbasi was the proper person to handle these sensitive topics and bring Sherman’s script to life.
“[The Apprentice] is trying to examine these individuals and take them seriously as human beings,” Jeremy Strong shared in an interview with Stephen Colbert, and in my opinion, it does. At times, you want to root for Donald, and at others, you are completely disgusted by him. Roy’s intense monologues about the American way, all the while committing countless felonies in front of Donald, feel like they come from a different man than his frail ghostly appearances at the back end of the film. By virtue of this, I think the film effectively humanizes even the most polarizing people in politics. It is important to recognize that humanization means the ugly parts will be shown, and that we should interact with art that uncomfortably shines a mirror to society and our country; for those reasons, I believe this is an extremely worthwhile watch. Whether you love Trump or hate him, I would recommend The Apprentice.
