The Apprentice is a 2024 biopic directed by Ali Abbasi, Gabriel Sherman, and starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, and Maria Bakalova. It's based on Donald Trump's life in the late 1970s, early 1980s.
[00:00:28] Casabloga. In this episode, I am talking about The Apprentice, which is a 2024 biopic directed by Ali Abasi, written by Gabrielle Sherman, and starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, and Maria Bakalova.
[00:00:47] It's a biopic about Donald Trump in the late 70s and early 80s, and it was just released less than a month ago.
[00:00:58] And I chose to release this episode when I did, because the election is in two days from the day that this will go live.
[00:01:10] And I figured, hey, what more fitting movie to cover at that date than a movie about one of the candidates.
[00:01:24] Yeah, when I first heard they were making this movie, I had no interest.
[00:01:29] If you follow me on Instagram and on TikTok, I mean, no, if you follow me on pretty much anything, but especially Twitter, or anything really,
[00:01:42] it's very obvious where I stand on different issues and political stuff.
[00:01:54] So, yeah, I actually, I was, I, some people got mad at me a couple weeks ago, because I posted a, I did a, I did my ballot a couple weeks ago.
[00:02:06] I got it in the mail, and I filled it out, and took a picture.
[00:02:09] I had circled, I had filled in the spot next to Kamala Harris.
[00:02:15] I voted for her, and I took a picture, and I said, in case it's unclear where I stand,
[00:02:20] and some people were like, you're voting for the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:02:24] I'm like, okay, you have your opinions.
[00:02:25] I have mine.
[00:02:26] It's, uh, you, you know, you vote your way, I'll vote mine.
[00:02:33] Um, I know, I know I had some people say, you should leave politics out of the podcast.
[00:02:38] But, like, yeah, uh, if, if you know what this movie is, and you know, like, what kind of movie it is,
[00:02:48] and you can kind of tell, like, what I believe before you come in, you can, you can, you can easily skip this.
[00:02:53] Normally, I try to avoid, you know, I, I share political posts on Twitter, and on Facebook, and on everything.
[00:02:59] I usually leave it out of the show, but in this case, I figured, why not?
[00:03:04] Just once, just once, it's fun.
[00:03:07] Um, because when I first heard of this movie, I had no interest in seeing it.
[00:03:11] It was like, oh, it's a biopic about Donald Trump.
[00:03:13] Okay, yeah, sure, it's just gonna, it's gonna be a propaganda piece where he's this infallible, god-like figure, and blah, blah, blah.
[00:03:25] And then I found out that he was suing the filmmaker, trying to have the film suppressed, and it had my attention.
[00:03:35] What's funny is that Trump unknowingly did the Byber Streisand effect on himself, because I was not gonna see this movie.
[00:03:41] I know a lot of people were not gonna see this movie until he sued.
[00:03:46] Now a lot of people are seeing this movie.
[00:03:48] It's like, oh, what is he not wanting us to see?
[00:03:54] Uh, so, even though I, like, I made it clear, like, where I stand, I'm not just gonna be like,
[00:04:01] oh, yeah, this movie tells the complete, un- unaltered truth about Donald Trump.
[00:04:07] There, a lot of what's in here, I, you know, I, I did to kind of do my own research, too.
[00:04:12] I didn't just take at face value, because the director has said,
[00:04:16] everything in the movie is backed up by court documents and testimonies by other people and affidavits.
[00:04:22] And, and for the most part, yeah, that's true, that it, that it is, a lot of what's in this has been, um,
[00:04:32] backed up by other people, but also it is mostly just like, I, you know, I'll give, I'll give Trump the benefit of the doubt on this.
[00:04:40] It is their word against his, but, granted, his word is not exactly worth much.
[00:04:47] He lies about everything, but, anyway, there, uh, the most disturbing scene where, um, just like,
[00:04:56] the one thing that I first heard about is said, there was a, uh, sexual assault in the movie where he,
[00:05:05] uh, sexually assaults Ivana, and that, I was like, I don't want to see that, it, and, and, yeah, uh,
[00:05:17] that one is, like, the most controversial scene, and apparently that's, like, the one scene he,
[00:05:22] that really bothered Trump, which I think that would bother anybody, but, uh, she said herself,
[00:05:31] and, like, their divorce proceedings, that he did that, but then she later recanted.
[00:05:37] To be fair, she did recant it later, and she stood by him.
[00:05:39] Um, so, did it happen?
[00:05:41] Did it not?
[00:05:42] I, I'm not gonna say either way.
[00:05:44] I don't know, because I wasn't there.
[00:05:49] And, you know, she passed away a few years ago, so she can't be like, actually, I take back my taking back,
[00:05:55] uh, of the taking back, or how, I don't know.
[00:06:00] People, people who, like, were on his side, and they flip-flop, they're like, oh, I hate him, I hate him so much,
[00:06:06] and then, like, later they're like, I'm gonna vote for this guy, because he's
[00:06:10] giving me money or something, I don't know.
[00:06:14] Uh, there are a lot of times in this movie, I will say again, uh, to be fair, it feels like
[00:06:26] you're watching, like, a prequel movie, like, you know, you know, like, the lines, and, like,
[00:06:34] where this character ends up, and they, it's kinda like, uh, like, you're watching, like,
[00:06:40] the Star Wars prequel, they have to pick up the robe, and say the lines, like, you, uh, you are now
[00:06:48] Darth Vader, like, there's moments like that, where, we're, like, he's having conversations with,
[00:06:58] uh, Cone, who is played, I didn't talk about the actors, is played by Jeremy Strong,
[00:07:08] and I'll come back, and I'll talk about the actors in a minute. There are scenes,
[00:07:12] there's, like, moments where it feels like they're setting up, like, oh, this is where he
[00:07:18] gets this idea from, this is why he does that, and it's like, mm, okay, I don't know if this
[00:07:24] happened, this just feels a little too convenient. Like, there's literally a scene where somebody
[00:07:31] introduces Donald Trump to the, the, the phrase, make America great again. So, yeah.
[00:07:42] I, I, I'm not gonna say the movie is 100% fact. At the very least, I'm gonna call it historical
[00:07:49] fiction, because there, I, I get the end of the movie, or, like, I don't, I don't remember if it
[00:07:57] is the end of the movie. Sometime in the movie, he, uh, shows Trump going in and getting liposuction,
[00:08:03] and, like, the surgery on his scalp, and he fully denies it, and that's not, you can, I mean,
[00:08:11] he denies everything. He says he's in perfect health. No one's ever been more healthy than I am
[00:08:14] right now. Yeah, right. Um, but, like, something like that's kind of a big thing, and wouldn't they
[00:08:22] have, like, records? I mean, I know you can, like, hide your medical records. I know that's what people
[00:08:26] are trying to get in the dupe, or at least his medical records, and he won't, but that's, I'm sure
[00:08:33] there are ways to, like, find that out. I don't know, things he has done. I'm not an expert. I'm not
[00:08:39] gonna sit here and say, oh, yeah, liposuction is publicly recorded, and, like, the hair thing,
[00:08:45] that's, you know, everyone can find that out, but, like, it is kind of, it is kind of a shocking scene.
[00:08:55] Uh, like, he goes under, and it actually, like, shows, it's kind of a graphic depiction, too,
[00:08:59] where it actually shows, like, them cutting, like, fat, like, like, a whole bunch of fat off of his
[00:09:05] body, like, it's almost like that scene from Saul, um, whenever they're, like, drilling into his skull,
[00:09:12] they, like, except, like, they, they, they, like, cut away part of his scalp, and, like,
[00:09:19] stitch it together, and it's, like, very graphic, and, like, that's, that could have left that out.
[00:09:25] That wasn't necessary, but it did show him as being, like, a, being a narcissist, being a racist,
[00:09:34] uh, his, his, uh, father, Fred Trump, is, uh, portrayed in the movie, and, as I know,
[00:09:42] it's documented that they didn't, uh, they didn't rent to black people, they only rented to whites,
[00:09:50] for the most part, and that's portrayed in the movie, they got a lawsuit against them for that,
[00:09:54] and they're trying to, that's why he hired Cone to begin with, and they became, like,
[00:09:59] protege-type relationship, and, I'm actually, I'm going to talk about the actors real quick,
[00:10:09] because I'm, like, in my mind, back in my mind, I'm, like, okay, I gotta get back to that,
[00:10:11] I gotta get back to that, I gotta get back to that, really quick.
[00:10:16] I just want to say, Sebastian Stan, you know, he, you, you know him, um, his most famous role
[00:10:23] that I know him from is as Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier in the MCU. He's been in, like,
[00:10:29] a lot of those movies, and that's how I know him from, and I thought that he was going to do a Trump
[00:10:36] impression, like, every single time you see Trump portrayed anywhere, you see people doing
[00:10:42] a Trump impression, whether it's good or bad, and that's what I was expecting, but no, he doesn't
[00:10:49] do an impression, which is really good, like, that's actually kind of refreshing, he, he played
[00:10:53] Trump, but he wasn't doing an impression of Trump, you know? He was mostly using his own voice,
[00:11:01] which was great, I, I love that he didn't try to do, like, a caricature of Donald Trump, which is,
[00:11:09] yeah. Maria Bakalova, she's most known for playing the daughter of Borat in Borat's subsequent movie
[00:11:18] film, and I didn't know this until I was researching for this movie, she was the voice of Cosmo the
[00:11:24] Space Dog in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, I did not know that, that was kind of cool.
[00:11:31] And then Jeremy Strong, he played, oh yeah, uh, Maria Bakalova, she played Ivana Trump, and that was,
[00:11:38] I don't know, I figured that was obvious, but that I would also say too, because, you know, it's like,
[00:11:43] who is she? There's only so many people, because she could have been. Jeremy Strong is in it, and he plays
[00:11:49] Roy Cohn, who was the, uh, the attorney that Trump befriended, and Jeremy Strong, he, uh,
[00:11:58] I haven't seen a lot of his movies, but, uh, there's three notable ones here that I want to point out.
[00:12:04] He played John George Nicolet in Lincoln, he played James Reeb in Selma, and he played Lee Harvey
[00:12:15] Oswald in Parkland, so he has, I would, I would say a habit of playing real life people,
[00:12:24] but, like, that's only, like, a small part of his, uh, his filmography. He's actually been in a lot of
[00:12:32] movies, those are just the ones that stood out to me from the movies that I've seen, and they were
[00:12:37] real people, which I thought was kind of funny. And then, uh, Ali Abasi, I've actually never heard of him
[00:12:46] until this. Uh, he had directed Shelley, uh, and he directed Holy Spider, which, uh, apparently are
[00:12:55] horror films, which I've never seen or heard of, and he directed a Trump biopic, so that's kind of
[00:13:03] random. I don't know if it was, like, a passion project, or if they handed it to him. I don't
[00:13:09] remember. Um, but the only thing on here other than The Apprentice that I've heard of is he directed
[00:13:16] a couple episodes of The Last of Us, so that would be the most recent thing he's done before this,
[00:13:24] I think. And I'm assuming the attention he got from that led him to do this? I don't know.
[00:13:33] I will say, you know, this is not a very flattering portrayal of Donald Trump, which I think is good,
[00:13:40] but at the same time, it's not at, like, over the top, Trump is the most evil person ever,
[00:13:47] and we're going to show him as a caricature type thing. It was kind of a, it was an honest portrayal,
[00:13:54] but it was, it's like a fictionalized honest portrayal, because they very easily could have
[00:14:01] gone down that over-the-top villain character that, you know, you see him portrayed all the time,
[00:14:10] like, he, they could have done the SNL Donald Trump version, which, they could have made it a comedy,
[00:14:17] but they, no, obviously they didn't do that. I'm glad they didn't do that. They, I'm glad they went
[00:14:21] the route that they did with this, and they made him, they made him a real person. It was like
[00:14:29] something that I've, I've said in the past, I don't know if I, obviously, I was going to say,
[00:14:35] obviously I haven't said it in the podcast, because I, like I said, I try to avoid politics.
[00:14:40] As much as I'm not a fan of him, I don't just automatically believe every negative thing I hear
[00:14:47] about him. Like, I still do my own research and stuff. Some, they say, oh, he said this,
[00:14:55] and so I've watched the whole speech, not just the soundbite, and like, okay, he did say that,
[00:14:59] but he also said this over here, which makes it sound worse, actually, if you put it together,
[00:15:05] or, you know, stuff like that. Like, there, there have been times where people say that,
[00:15:12] you know, he said or did something, and I look at the context, and I'm like, okay, yeah, you're,
[00:15:17] you're missing, like, the bigger picture type thing, and there is plenty of reason not to like him,
[00:15:24] but we don't need people making up more things. You know, if you start making up stuff,
[00:15:34] and saying, oh, he's evil because of this, then that just kind of invalidates the actual
[00:15:39] things, you know, and I'm glad this movie doesn't fall into that, where they go over the top,
[00:15:47] and make him out to be this over-the-top villain, which I think I've already said that,
[00:15:52] but, yeah, it is, it's not flattering, but it is still kind of, it's middle of the road enough
[00:16:01] that I'm sure, like, his biggest supporters, if they, if they're not turned off by this movie,
[00:16:05] by the fact he's doing it, if they're, um, actually, you know what, I was gonna say that
[00:16:10] they would still like it, but I can guarantee you that that's not the case. When I walked into this,
[00:16:14] when I walked into the screening, it was, it was packed, which I was surprised by, but I did notice
[00:16:23] it was mostly older people, and they were all decked out in American flags, and MAGA gear, and,
[00:16:30] and as I was walking up to my seat, I was thinking to myself, I wonder if they know this isn't a
[00:16:35] flattering portrayal, and sure enough, it was like attending a Trump rally, because people kept leaving,
[00:16:47] and cut.