“The first rule is: attack, attack, attack.” A kaleidoscopic trailer was released Tuesday of the new Donald Trump biopic/origin story The Apprentice, which depicts Trump’s years becoming an unforgiving Manhattan real estate magnate and Manhattan scenester under the tutelage of infamous lawyer Roy Cohn.
In the film, Sebastian Stan plays Trump, with Succession Emmy-winner Jeremy Strong playing Cohn. The Apprentice had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where critics marveled that it wasn’t just a salacious, headline-grabbing attempt, but an actual Oscar contender. “The Apprentice is an attempt to dig into the psyche of the man who became president—and is now running again—during his formative years, and it’s in Strong and Stan’s portrayals that we begin to see something that hasn’t already been rehashed time and time again,” The Daily Beast’s Esther Zuckerman wrote in her review.
But in the months following that premiere, the film became mired in controversy.
