A one-minute clip from Donald Trump’s biopic titled The Apprentice was released recently.
The film stars Marvel actor Sebastian Stan as Trump and chronicles his life as a real estate agent in the 1970s.
In the clip Stan is seen talking on the phone with a reporter about his purchase of the Commodore Hotel. Stan tells the journalist that he will be successful because he has ‘flair’.
‘I intend to acquire the Commodore, and I’m planning on making it the best and the finest building in the city, maybe the country. In the world, Judy in the world, it’s going to be the finest building in the world, it’s going to be a spectacular hotel, absolutely spectacular,” he says, using his famously grandiose adjectives.
Jeremy Strong plays Trump’s former lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn in the film and he is seen sitting next to him advising him on what to say during the phone call.
Film premiere
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and received a standing ovation from the audience. The movie features scenes showing Trump getting liposuction surgery and sexually assaulting his ex-wife Ivana Trump. That bit is believed to be based on a 1989 divorce deposition by Ivana which claims that Donald Trump raped her although she later back-pedalled on that and said she felt violated and did not want the word “rape” to be used in the criminal sense.
The controversial content has led to the film taking some time to get a US distributor with Briarcliff Entertainment securing the rights last month.
Trump’s team unhappy
Trump’s presidential campaign spokesman Steven Cheung has threatened to sue the filmmakers, saying it is “garbage” and “pure fictions which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked.”
The film’s director Ali Abbasi said, “Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people – they don’t talk about his success rate though, you know?”
Commodore Hotel
Trump purchased the Commodore Hotel in midtown Manhattan in 1976. The hotel was renovated for $100 million and was reopened as the Grand Hyatt New York. Trump got a 40-year tax abatement to purchase and renovate the hotel which was highly unusual for that time.
The Apprentice will be screened in cinemas on October 11.