Sebastian Stan recalls when Donald Trump tried to stall The Apprentice's Cannes premiere, calls out censorship

Sebastian Stan, who played Donald Trump in his biopic The Apprentice, has slammed the US President and his policies.

May 20, 2026, 10:21:54 IST

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Hollywood star Sebastian Stan, best known for playing Bucky in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice, has reflected on his 2024 film - a biopic on the US President.

Sebastian Stan played a young Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice.

Sebastian Stan takes on Trump's America

The actor is at the Cannes Film Festival promoting his upcoming film, Fjord. On Tuesday, while speaking at a press conference for the film, Sebastian responded to a question about his thoughts on the biopic, considering that Trump has been in office for over a year.

“It's just not a laughing matter, to be honest. It isn't. I think we're (America) in a really, really bad place. I really do. And to be honest with you, when you're looking at what's happening, right - if we're talking about the consolidation of the media, censorship, threats, the supposed lawsuits that seemingly never end but don't actually go anywhere. You know, the writing was on the wall. We encountered all that with the movie,” the actor said.

The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi, chronicled the rise of a young Trump as a real estate baron in 80s' New York, and particularly focussed on his relationship with his mentor, disgraced lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Given how the film focussed on some of Trump's allegedly shady practices, the President attempted to halt its premiere at Cannes 2024.

“Three days before the festival, we were unsure if the movie was going to play at the festival. So maybe people are paying attention more to that film; I think it will stand the test of time for that. But we went through all of it, right before Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and so on. So, I wish it wasn't like that,” Sebastian Stan added.

Sebastian Stan in Fjord

Sebastian Stan's latest film, Fjord, opened in Cannes on Monday night, receiving a 10-minute standing ovation. Directed by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu, the family drama features Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as the parents of a Romanian family with strict religious beliefs who move to a small village in Norway. When the bruises are noticed on their daughter's body at school, their five kids are taken away, leading to a tragic saga.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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