How Donald Trump Biopic ‘The Apprentice’ Changed After It’s World Premiere At Cannes [Exclusive] (2024)

[Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Apprentice]

Director Ari Abbasi's explosive new film The Apprentice has traveled an exciting, turbulent journey to movie theaters. From a Palme d'Or nomination at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where the film held its World Premiere to a shaky release thanks to financing controversies, to being threatened with lawsuits from Donald Trump himself. After much fanfare and speculation, The Apprentice is releasing in theaters for the public to experience.

The Apprentice is a provocative, gritty exploration of the corrosive and unpredictable relationship between infamous McCarthy-era prosecutor Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and Trump (Sebastian Stan) throughout New York City in the '70s and '80s. The movie also stars Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump and Martin Donovan as Fred Trump.

Collider's own Steve Weintraub sat down with Abbasi to pore through the details of his unconventional new biopic. Together, they discussed why certain scenes were added and deleted since Cannes, its intentional punk rock aesthetic, and directing believable, grounded performances from brassy, larger-than-life characters.

The Punk Rock Energy of ‘The Apprentice’

COLLIDER: I've been a fan of your work and I really thought you did a great job with this. I'm really happy to help you promote it in any way on Collider. I've watched a lot of movies and a lot of biopics, or making a film about someone who's real; it feels very stiff and not what this is. This is very punk rock and a different kind of energy. Talk about why that was important to you to infuse it with that kind of energy.

ALI ABBASI: I'm happy you picked up on that, Steve. That was certainly a big part of us not wanting to do a biopic in this traditional sense. They always feel a bit dusty and stiff to me, even the bad guys. They have perfect hair, and they sit in the perfect light, and they're talking importantly about important things that happen to them, and that's not life. If you look at the ‘80s with these guys and these parties, the crazy parties they had... There are some really interesting, famous photos of Donald and Roy together. [Roy’s height] goes under Donald's shoulder or not even that. He's half of his size. They're this really funny couple. Donald looks sweaty and has these big teeth and a little bit of an ill-fitting suit. Roy has this gray face and bloodshot eyes, and this light is bouncing off his sweaty forehead. I mean, this was how reality was, and these people were the crème de la crème of the time, so it wasn’t like they couldn't afford it. It was a different awareness of camera. There was a different awareness. Also, on top of all this is the context of the texture of the '70s and '80s, the birth of punk rock, this sort of apocalyptic scene of New York.

We also deal with characters who are punk rock. I mean, Roy, he did whatever the fuck he wanted. He owned a Rolls-Royce, he had a private jet and yacht, and five vacation houses, and yet he didn't own a credit card. The IRS was fighting for him for years to pay taxes. The guy was feared in Washington, and his bedroom was full of stuffed frogs. So is Mr. Trump. You know more of him, you've seen more of him doing whatever he's doing. These are characters that don't respect any rules, they don't respect any law necessary, they just do whatever the fuck they please, and that is punk rock. But usually, we associate punk rock with Left, anarchist, and anti-establishment, but they have the same energy. It felt fitting for the movie to have the energy.

How ‘The Apprentice’ Changed After It’s World Premiere At Cannes

I saw the film at Cannes. Did you take anything out of the film after Cannes? Add anything?

ABBASI: We did. Yeah. There was some technical stuff. I wasn't happy with the sound and the music; at the time, it wasn't finished. Then I think there was a subplot, something with the defense incident that they had under the building of Trump Tower. They had a problem with the Mob because the Mob was supplying the cement. I think he tried to screw them, and they screwed him back and set fire to the building. Then, they had to go to Roy to reconcile. I love that, and I love the scene, but it felt that the focus got in a different direction.

What we needed to focus on was Trump's character development and the way he deals with his brother's death and all. So that's why we changed that. We added the scene where he goes to his dad and wants to take over the family trust fund. Again, for the same reason. It wasn't, happily, because of the situation we were in, which was uncertainty [laughs] — "if the movie ever comes out" uncertainty. That wasn't the happy part. The happy part was because of that, I felt that it doesn't get better if I censor myself. It doesn't get better if I take the rape scene out. Let's just do the movie as I wanted it and hope for the best. So, that's what we did.

Yeah, I watched it again yesterday, and I thought I was crazy. I'm like, “No, I remember there was a mob scene about the cement.” Also, the scene of Trump in bed with the other woman — I don't remember seeing that at Cannes.

ABBASI: No, you're right. We have added some things. Also, I think the closure with Roy was a bit more distanced and cold earlier. In the final cut, it became more emotional. We are more with Roy's feelings and point of view, which I thought was also interesting in terms of their transformation.

The other thing people might not realize is you were shooting this less than a year ago. When you went to Cannes with the movie, you'd only been editing for four or five months. It was a very rushed process.

ABBASI: Let me tell you exactly how much we edited it: February, March, April. Three months. Three months not only to edit the movie but also to finish the VFX. Start and finish the VFX and sound and everything. It is a kind of crazy. Those things you do once, and you don't know if you can do it again. It was rough, but it was fun. It was punk rock. [Laughs]

Completely. Like I said, I really commend you on how good the movie is considering you were shooting less than a year ago.

'The Apprentice' Adds Dimension to Larger-Than-Life Trump

“They're cartoonish, and we felt that we can't add anything to that.”

The main thing is that all the performances are so good, and they never feel like an SNL caricature. They all feel like they are capturing the essence of these people.

ABBASI: That was the mission statement, absolutely. That was really important for us. These characters are so colorful. They're larger than life. They've been portrayed so many times, and every time, there are sort of two dimensions. They're cartoonish, and we felt that we couldn't add anything to that. We can't do someone's life better than that. Therefore, what we went for was to capture the complexity of their humanity, their multi-sidedness, which I think, in a way, is more exciting than — definitely more exciting than — bashing Trump or praising him.

As you know, there's been arguing about the movie. On the liberal side, we have made them too human — they're bringing too much space, too much oxygen, and being too soft. Then, on the other side, we did a hit job — there’s criticism, they're monsters and whatnot. In a way, I'm thinking if we pissed both sides off, we've done something right.

I'm pretty liberal. I thought you painted a very realistic portrait of people.

Keeping ‘The Apprentice’ True to Itself

“For me, it's important that whatever happens with these characters, you stay in that moment.”

I wanna ask some spoiler stuff. The film ends with Sebastian as Trump, a close-up on the eye, and you see the reflection of the American flag, the city, and a plane flying. Why did you want to end it with that shot?

ABBASI: I felt like you want to end it where the character mentally is. The point where our movie ends is almost like the beginning of Donald Trump as a politician — his ambition, his brand of patriotism, even the music! That music, the guitar solo that starts everything, that hair metal piece, for me, feels like the music to his ambitions. The same vulgarity, the same in-your-face, and the same grandeur. I try to stay true to the character, actually. This is the beginning of the great expectations. [Laughs]

A lot of films, when they're dealing with people, will have text come up at the end of a movie, like, “Such and such happened.” Did you ever think, "I'm gonna put text on the screen?" Or because these people are so well known, you're like, “We're not doing that.”

ABBASI: That's a Hollywood thing. They're like, “Okay, we told you this, but what happened is that he went, and he married, and he survived, and they went into hiding, and they're okay. Don't worry about it.” That gives you closure outside of the movie. But for me, what that does is it delegitimizes the movie, as well. It says, “Okay, you've been seeing a piece of whatever entertainment, and then here's this information.” For me, it's important that whatever happens with these characters, you stay in that moment. You stay where you started with those characters. You finish with those characters.

‘The Apprentice’ Is Not a Trump Biopic

Besides the scenes we talked about, did you end up with a lot of deleted scenes? Did you have like a much longer cut you were happy with?

ABBASI: I had a much longer cut, but it wasn't cut down because of censorship. There were a few scenes where we tried to agree with our former investor Kinematics, and we ended up in a “horse trade situation,” where if you cut these, then we agree on the cut. There were a few of those. But at the end of the day, I think what I wanted to do was to make the movie focused, fast-paced, at least for myself [laughs], entertaining, and not dwelling too much on other things than focusing on the Donald/Roy relationship. It's not a Trump biopic; the way we can navigate it is through that relationship. There was a great scene with Ivana getting to know Don's family. It's a hilarious lunch where they were all ordering this exact same thing — steak — and Ivana wanted fish. That was a huge conflict because she was independent. That was very fun. But then you look at it, and the movie is not about that. It's not a Donald/Ivana movie. It's a Donald/Roy movie. So there was stuff like that, as well.

Do you see yourself making another English-speaking film for your next movie? What are you thinking about?

ABBASI: Steve, I've been jumping around a little bit. My first movie was in Danish, my second movie was a Swedish movie, my third movie was an Iranian movie, and now it's an American movie. I love that ability. I'm proud that I can switch this way back and forth, but I don't think there's “point of pride” making it an English-speaking movie. You know what I mean? It's a movie, as in any other language. If I find it compelling, if the story is compelling, I would love to tell it. If it's not, there's no point in me pursuing a career in a certain language necessarily.

That being said, what I love is, I'm not really interested in necessarily doing an American movie as such, but I'm interested in doing movies about America. America is such a fascinating arena. There's so much complexity. There are huge forces, colorful characters, fantastic settings. It is a very, very cinematic place. That excites me.

I just want you to make more movies. Whatever you decide to do, I will watch it. I'm just curious. So, you don't know exactly what you're going to do next?

ABBASI: I promise you, I will stay away from politics next time. I've had enough. I'll pay my dues.

Why Ali Abbasi Thanked Oscar Isaac and Other Hollywood Celebrities

I looked in the credits, and you thanked people like Guillermo del Toro, Paul Dano, Vanessa Kirby, and Oscar Isaac. These are some of the Hollywood people you thanked. Did you thank them because you're a fan, or did they actually help with this film in some way?

ABBASI: No. I mean, I'm a fan of a lot of people. I don't necessarily thank them in my credits. No, these people were involved in one way or the other. They contributed, they helped, they had meetings with me. They talked about it in different ways. I'm grateful. As did Tony Schwartz, as did Roger Stone. I think whoever did on whatever side, I owe them at least a thank-you, and that's what I'm doing.

Congrats on this movie and whatever I can do to help people watch it, I will do.

ABBASI: Please, please, please let people know that this is coming out on October 11th, and it's in the cinemas. We have a feeling that people have heard of the movie, but they actually don't know that it is being released. Some people still think it's blocked by Trump and whatnot. If you can raise that awareness, that would be great for us.

Well, you're the third interview I'm doing for the film, and I assure you that I will let people know.

ABBASI: Thank you. I appreciate that.

I'm happy it's coming out before the election, but also, at this point, when Trump said that he could walk down Fifth Avenue, shoot someone, and still get elected, he's not lying. It's crazy.

ABBASI: Well, I got to go hide in the bathroom, I guess.

The Apprentice is in theaters now.

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The Apprentice

R

Drama

Biography

The story of how a young Donald Trump started his real-estate business in 1970s and '80s New York with the helping hand of infamous lawyer Roy Cohn.

Release Date

October 11, 2024

Director

Ali Abbasi

Runtime

123 Minutes

Writers

Gabriel Sherman

Studio(s)

Fabula Pictures

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