Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan on 'The Apprentice': 'We're way out on a limb'

NEW YORK (AP) — Even in an election year, most seem to agree on one aspect about Ali Abbasi’s much-debated Donald Trump film “The Apprentice”: Sebastian Stan is a remarkably good Trump and Jeremy Strong is chillingly riveting as the New York power broker Roy Cohn.

One reviewer recently wrote that Strong’s portrayal of Cohn is “uncanny in its accuracy.” The critic? Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.

Since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, after which the Trump campaign pledged legal action, “The Apprentice” has been hounded by controversy. Its makers have had to fight to secure a theatrical release, which, in opening Thursday, comes just weeks ahead of the election. The Trump campaign has called it “election interference by Hollywood elites."

“We’re way out on a limb,” Strong says.

The movie, about Cohn’s mentorship of a young Trump in the greed-is-good 1980s, is a dramatic election-year provocation. It’s an origin story of the Republican nominee beginning with Cohn, the ruthless attorney whose tactics of deny-deny-deny made him a sought-after fixer for the mafia, chief counsel for Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt and a guru to Trump when he was trying to make a name for himself in New York real estate.

“His defiance of reality, and his denial of reality, to me are the signature components of what he instilled in his star pupil,” Strong says, noting that Cohn’s boat was named Defiance. “It’s a legacy of mendacity and lies and denialism and the aggressive pursuit of winning as the only moral measure.”

“The Apprentice,” directed by the Iranian-Danish filmmaker Abbasi and scripted by Gabriel Sherman, puts the Cohn-Trump relationship at its center, and in doing so, gives Strong and Stan two of the best roles of their careers. Strong calls Cohn “probably the single most fascinating person I’ve ever studied and interrogated and attempted to inhabit.”

For two much-satirized figures, the performances are uncommonly humanistic. Cohn has a rich tradition of portrayals, including Al Pacino in Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America." But Strong’s Cohn is uniquely authentic and camp-free. Trump, of course, has been mostly played with “Saturday Night Live”-style parody. But Stan’s Trump is a blank-slate striver, eager to be molded by Cohn. Abbasi says, “I still don’t know exactly how he did it.”

“For him, there’s a special kind of risk-taking,” Abbasi says of Stan. “He has another path of career with the superhero stuff. But Sebastian, on the other hand, has always been someone who takes big chances. He’s been humanizing a lot of douchebag, sleazebag characters — people you don’t want to be. But somehow when you see Sebastian play them, you think, ‘Maybe he’s not that bad.’”

Most actors wanted nothing to do with playing Trump. But Stan signed up, and stuck with the production over several years.

“I went on the ride,” Stan says. “And it was a ride, too, because it wasn’t a movie that came together very easily. It’s a movie I’ve known of for a while. I originally met Ali in 2019.”

“Of course it felt risky,” he adds. “But honestly that factored into the decision, in a way. It sort of plays more into this recent approach to things I’ve taken. It started for me about five years ago. I really started to think of fear as a motivating factor in it maybe being the right sign that I need to commit to something. It’s very easy to just keep doing things that you feel you’ve gotten good at. Then something comes along and it feels like such a crazy mountain to climb.”

That may go doubly for “The Apprentice,” a movie that cobbled together financing and struggled to find distribution before Briarcliff Entertainment stepped forward this fall. Sherman first began writing it in 2017. He had covered the 2016 Trump campaign for New York magazine and took note when a Trump associate commented on Trump employing Cohn’s strategies.

“The idea came to me a flash,” says Sherman. “That’s the movie. Donald was Roy’s apprentice. Let’s do an origin story, a mentor-protege story about how this relationship set Donald on the path to becoming president.”

Trump, who first met Cohn in 1973 and remained close friends until Cohn’s death in 1986, has spoken about his admiration for him. “Roy was brutal, but he was a very loyal guy,” Trump told author Tim O’Brien. “He brutalized for you.” Politico’s Michael Kruse in 2016 detailed the relationship, writing: “Cohn’s philosophy shaped the real estate mogul’s worldview and the belligerent public persona visible in Trump’s presidential campaign.”

More historical analysis of Cohn is on the way. Kai Bird, who wrote “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” on which Christopher Nolan’s film was based, is working on a biography of Cohn.

“Roy Cohn is suddenly one of the most influential people in our country, posthumously, because of what he imparted to Donald Trump,” says Strong.

Strong had first been drawn to playing Cohn several years ago for a project that ultimately didn’t happen. But it got Strong thinking about the intriguing paradoxes of Cohn. If finding a character means finding their pulse, Strong says, “in this case, it’s a sort of reptilian pulse.”

“In terms of a sociological, anthropological study, I find him to be a completely fascinating character,” says Strong. “My own judgments have to be left at the door. But it was like peering into the heart of darkness.”

For the two actors, “The Apprentice” posed a particular challenge in balancing judgment and empathy. The film has engendered a spectrum of reaction. Abbasi has claimed Trump might not dislike the film and invited him to see it. (“It’s an open invitation,” Sherman says.) Others have criticized the movie for bringing any degree of sympathy to its lead characters.

“The only way we can learn is through empathy,” Stan says. “We have to protect empathy and continue to nourish it. And I think one way of nourishing empathy is showing what it’s exact opposite can be.”

“(Cohn) didn’t believe in showing vulnerability,” says Strong. “He was only interested in projecting strength, and I find that very tragic.”

Following four seasons of HBO’s “Succession,” which imagined a fictionalized Rupert Murdoch in Logan Roy, Strong found himself again exploring the ruthless machinations of power in New York City.

“I can draw a line between those two, certainly. Rupert Murdoch is at a party at Roy’s house on 68th Street in the film, and Roy and Rupert did a lot of business together,” Strong says. “In some ways I’m a Zelig around these subjects and themes.”

Strong was famously pilloried for a 2021 New Yorker profile chronicling his earnest approach to staying in character. But Abbasi was still sometimes thrown by Strong’s Method ways. “There were days," the director says, "where I was like, ‘Why is he not looking at me? Does he hate me?’ Oh, he’s in character.”

Strong describes transforming into Cohn as “self-erasure,” a process for which he needs to enter “a state of mono-focus” in order to “change the stamp of your nature.” But he’s also hesitant to over-emphasize his immersion.

“It’s all a game. It’s a game, so I don’t get lost in it,” Strong says. “I’m in the boundaries of the game, but I’m just committing to that game.”

Stan has joked about his own Method acting in one scene where continually eating cheeseballs led to a rough morning on the toilet. Adopting Trump’s diet, he says, messed with his health. “I finished the movie and got my blood work done and they were like, ‘Your LDL levels are much higher, like 50% higher,’” says Stan, chuckling.

At the same time, Stan also drew from his own experience. Like Abbasi, Stan, who grew up in Romania before coming to America, has a partially European perspective on Trump. He remembers coming to New York with his mother at age 12.

“She said to me, ‘This is where it happens. This is where you become somebody,’” Stan says. “I really took that in stride. And I’ve had a very love-hate relationship with this thing that she passed on to me.”

Ultimately, the makers of “The Apprentice” argue that all of the tools of drama serve a vital role in bringing a deeper understanding to even the most polarizing political figures.

“My rule of thumb is that if everyone’s happy, something’s wrong,” Abbasi says. “I’m not afraid of controversy. It’s not where I get my kick. But I also knew it would follow with some of this stuff. The kind of movies I like, they have a temperament, like people. You have people who are nice and polite and neutral, but those are not the kind of people you usually remember. People can be bad-tempered or foul-mouthed and you remember them. I want to be one of those people you remember, movie-wise.”

Strong and Stan find themselves in the unlikely position of being scorned by the potential future president for a movie that had to resort to seeking money via Kickstarter. (The campaign has collected more than $400,000. ) As much as they're far out on a limb, both are seen as in contention for their first Academy Award nominations.

“Do I think it’s going to change people’s minds? I’m not sure,” says Strong. “Do I think it will help anyone who sees this movie have a great understanding of the origins of where we are now? Yes, I do. And do I think it could infinitesimally move the needle in a direction that I hope we move in? I do.”

Jeremy Strong, left, and Sebastian Stan pose for a portrait to promote the film "The Apprentice" on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

Jeremy Strong, left, and Sebastian Stan attend the premiere of "The Apprentice" at the DGA New York Theater on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

This image released by Briarcliff Entertainment shows Maria Bakalova, left, and Sebastian Stan in a scene from the film "The Apprentice." (Pief Weyman/Briarcliff Entertainment via AP)

Jeremy Strong poses for a portrait to promote the film "The Apprentice" on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

Sebastian Stan poses for a portrait to promote the film "The Apprentice" on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

Jeremy Strong, from left, Sebastian Stan and Maria Bakalova pose for a portrait to promote the film "The Apprentice" on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

This image released by Briarcliff Entertainment shows Jeremy Strong, left, and Sebastian Stan in a scene from the film "The Apprentice." (Pief Weyman/Briarcliff Entertainment via AP)

Jeremy Strong poses for a portrait to promote the film "The Apprentice" on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

Sebastian Stan poses for a portrait to promote the film "The Apprentice" on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

Sebastian Stan, from left, director Ali Abbasi, Maria Bakalova and Jeremy Strong pose for a portrait to promote the film "The Apprentice" on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged Monday to prove the “doubters” in his own party and among the electorate as a whole wrong as he tries to fight off demands to step down after devastating local election results for his Labour Party.

Starmer argued that he will “face up to the big challenges” and restore hope to the country, in part by forging closer ties with the European Union, six years after the U.K.'s acrimonious departure from the bloc.

“I know I have my doubters and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will,” Starmer said during a speech in London. He vowed to prove to millions of people “tired of a status quo that has failed them” that the government is on their side.

He said Labour is in “a battle for the soul of our nation,” and warned Britain will go down “a dark path” if Reform UK, the anti-immigration party led by Nigel Farage, comes to power.

Labour lawmaker Catherine West, who had vowed to trigger a leadership challenge if the speech didn’t mark a major turning point, said she would hold off for now, though she urged Starmer to resign by September. Dozens of other lawmakers also have urged him to announce a departure date.

Labour has been plunged into gloom by heavy losses last week in local elections across England and legislative votes in Scotland and Wales. The elections have been interpreted as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted since he swept to power in a landslide less than two years ago.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, a powerful lawmaker often seen as a potential challenger, said “what we are doing isn’t working, and it needs to change.”

Rayner did not explicitly call for Starmer to quit, but accused him of presiding over “a toxic culture of cronyism” and said the government must “stay true to Labour and social democratic values” and ease the cost of living for working people.

“This may be our last chance,” Rayner said on Sunday.

Starmer's government has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and been hamstrung by repeated missteps and policy U-turns on issues including welfare reform. He has been further hurt by his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

Last week’s elections saw Labour squeezed from both right and left, losing votes to both Reform UK and the “eco-populist” Green Party. The result reflects the increasing fragmentation of British politics, long dominated by Labour and the Conservatives.

Starmer hopes to regain momentum with Monday’s speech and an ambitious set of legislative plans to be set out in a speech Wednesday by King Charles III at the State Opening of Parliament.

He told an audience of party lawmakers and activists that the government will take control of Britain's energy, economic and defense security and make the country fairer. He announced plans to nationalize what is left of the once-mighty British Steel, a move that could save some industrial jobs in an area where working-class voters have deserted Labour for Reform UK.

Starmer also pledged to put Britain “at the heart of Europe” and forge closer ties with the 27-nation EU, which the United Kingdom left in 2020. Farage, who spearheaded the Brexit campaign, and Reform UK oppose any move to get closer to the EU.

Brexit has been a drag on the British economy, and President Donald Trump's “America First” economic and foreign policy has spurred Britain to seek closer defense, security and economic cooperation with its European neighbors.

Starmer’s government has already moved to ease trade restrictions with the EU, and he said he will secure a youth mobility deal so young people can spend a few years working across the continent.

Labour supporters are largely anti-Brexit, which failed to deliver the benefits its backers promised. But Starmer has been reluctant to reopen a debate that bitterly divided the country. He has ruled out seeking to reenter the EU, or to rejoin the bloc's customs union or single market, things that would make a big economic difference.

None of the high-profile Labour politicians considered potential challengers to Starmer — including Rayner, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham — has yet called for him to resign.

West, who had threatened to run against Starmer for the Labour leadership if he didn't give a barnstorming speech, said she would instead ask fellow lawmakers to back a timetable for a new leader to be elected in September.

“What is best for the party and country now is for an orderly transition,” she said.

Several dozen Labour lawmakers have already urged the prime minister to set a timetable for his departure. British politics allows parties to change leader midterm without the need for a new election.

But some who attended Starmer's speech said kicking out the man who led them to victory in 2024 would be counterproductive.

“You can't be changing prime ministers two years in,” said Kevin Craig, a former local councilor in London. “It's really important we stay grown-up now.”

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer enters his car to leave after delivering a speech at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in Waterloo, London, Monday, May 11, 2026.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer enters his car to leave after delivering a speech at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in Waterloo, London, Monday, May 11, 2026.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech, at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in Waterloo, London, Monday May 11, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech, at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in Waterloo, London, Monday May 11, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer arrives to deliver a speech, at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in Waterloo, London, Monday May 11, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech, at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in Waterloo, London, Monday May 11, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pauses as he delivers a speech, at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in Waterloo, London, Monday May 11, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks to Labour Party members at Kingsdown Methodist Church Hall, in Ealing, west London, Friday May 8, 2026, a day after the local elections. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)