‘The Apprentice' Movie Director Reveals Why He Wanted a Woman to Play Donald Trump

Ali Abbasi, the director of The Apprentice: An American Horror Story, made headlines recently when he revealed he initially considered casting a woman to portray a young Donald Trump in the film. During the premiere screening in Washington, D.C., Abbasi shared that the idea originated from Trump’s unique and often awkward body language. He explained, “There was a time before I started talking to Sebastian, I thought that maybe it should be an actress playing Trump. Because I thought there was something awkward and off about his body language and I wanted to have that. I wanted to sort of play with that. And we tried it.” Abbasi even reached out to famous actress Cate Blanchet for advice, as she had famously played Bob Dylan in I’m Not There.

As per Daily Mail, the notion wasn’t just a passing thought. Abbasi explored the possibility thoroughly, conducting facial overlays of young Trump with several actresses and even performing voice tests to see if it could work. He shared, “I did also overlays of young Donald's face and different actresses that I was considering. I talked to my prosthetics person and tried to figure out how we could solve it if someone had the good proportions or not.” However, he ultimately scrapped the idea, feeling it became too gimmicky and detracted from the film’s goal of capturing the complexity of Trump’s character. Abbasi explained, "It would have turned into a stunt, and that’s not what I wanted." 

The film, which chronicles Trump’s early years and his relationship with mentor Roy Cohn, hasn’t been without its controversies. Trump’s legal team has threatened to take action against the film, labeling it ‘pure fiction’ and ‘garbage.’ Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, previously described the movie as “election interference by Hollywood elites.” Despite such attacks, Abbasi remains unfazed. As per HuffPost, in an interview, he brushed off the legal threats, saying,  “I doubt they have the balls. They know we’re right. They know there’s nothing to be sued about. They know that things are accurate and double and triple, quadruple checked journalistically and legally. There’s nothing there, you know. I mean, bring it on. That’s what I tell them.”

Interestingly, Trump, known for his social media rants, has himself stayed relatively quiet about the movie. Abbasi believes that Trump might have a more nuanced reaction to the film than his team anticipates. He shared, “I don’t necessarily think he would like it. But I think he’d be surprised. So I’m happy to meet him, have a screening, and then we can discuss it afterward.”

As the movie releases soon, the film is already generating buzz. Abbas praised Sebastian Stan (who plays Trump in the movie) and exclaimed, “I think one important thing with Sebastian is, he - and I've said that before - he's almost specialized in bringing sleazebags and douchebags to life...and give them like humanity and give them sort of, you feel for him. You feel for these characters. Without them being necessarily ridiculed.”