Buzzy Trump Movie ‘The Apprentice’ Gets 8-Minute Standing Ovation at Cannes
Screenshot via Apprentice Productions Ontario Inc
The Apprentice, the upcoming biopic about former President Donald Trump’s early career, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday to an eight-minute standing ovation, setting it up for even more buzz ahead of the November election.
The highly-anticipated movie, which stars Sebastian Stan as Trump, Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, and Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump, depicts the origin story of the ex-president’s real estate career under the watch of bulldog mob lawyer Cohn. Ahead of the movie’s premiere, the filmmakers — including director Ali Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman — have remained mostly mum and refrained from doing press that might bring up opinions about Trump, claiming they want the movie to speak for itself.
Abbasi, however, did make comments after the screening, saying: “There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with fascism. It’s time to make movies relevant. It’s time to make movies political again.”
Variety called the film “certainly explosive” and described how Trump and his supporters would not be entirely thrilled with such a movie coming out as the former president seeks another term:
There’s a lot in here that should upset Trump and his supporters. He’s depicted raping Ivana, abusing amphetamines in order to lose weight (then getting tummy tug with a hair implants chaser), and cutting deals with underworld figures so Trump Tower can move forward as planned. He also fails to pay bills and makes a bad bet on a Jersey City casino (so much for “The Art of the Deal”). There’s also a scene where Cohn grips Trump’s leg suggestively under the table that may not play so well at the Mar-a-Lago screening room.
News surfaced on Monday that Dan Snyder, the former owner of the Washington Commanders and a Trump supporter who invested in the production of The Apprentice, was furious about how the movie depicted Donald Trump and attempted to block its release after seeing an early cut.
