If you thought you knew everything there was to know about Donald Trump’s rise to power, get ready to have your world turned upside down. The highly anticipated new film “The Apprentice” is poised to peel back the curtain on one of the most consequential relationships in modern political history – the mentor-protégé bond between the former president and the infamous Roy Cohn.
Directed by the Danish-Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi and written by Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, the movie promises to be a jaw-dropping exploration of how a young, ambitious Trump was molded by the ruthless tactics of the notorious attorney, who served as a top aide to Senator Joseph McCarthy during his notorious anti-Communist crusade.
“It’s a monster movie. It’s a Frankenstein movie,” actor Jeremy Strong, who portrays the chilling Cohn, told Variety. “It’s about the creation of a monster by another monster.”
And if the early buzz surrounding the film is any indication, “The Apprentice” is shaping up to be just that – a shocking, unflinching portrait of the forces that shaped one of the most polarizing figures in modern American politics.
From the moment news of the project first surfaced, it has been dogged by controversy. Trump’s legal team reportedly issued a cease-and-desist order in a failed attempt to stop the film’s production. And with its release coming just weeks before the 2024 election, the filmmakers have described the timing as “fortuitous” and “not an accident.”
But Strong says the movie isn’t merely a partisan hit job. Instead, it’s a nuanced character study that aims to humanize Trump—or, at the very least, to try to understand the forces that transformed him from a young, charismatic upstart into the divisive, domineering figure we know today.
“It’s not a story about the Democratic party. It’s not a story about the Republican Party,” director Abbasi told Variety. “It’s about the whole system of power. The U.S. political system is WWF.”
The film posits that at the heart of that system is the mentor-mentee relationship between Trump and Cohn—a bond that would have a profound and lasting impact on the future president’s modus operandi.
As portrayed by Sebastian Stan, the young Trump is a charming, ambitious figure, aching to please his exacting father and make a name for himself in the cutthroat world of New York power brokers. But his fateful encounter with Cohn, played with chilling intensity by Strong, truly sets him on the path to becoming the Trump we all know.
Under Cohn’s teaching, the film suggests, Trump learned the three cardinal rules that would come to define his approach to business and politics: “Attack, attack, attack,” “Admit nothing, deny everything,” and “No matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat.”
The filmmakers contend that this playbook was instrumental in Trump’s eventual rise to the presidency—a meteoric ascent that the movie doesn’t shy away from depicting in all its gory, Frankenstein-esque detail.
From the shocking scenes of Trump undergoing a liposuction procedure and a scalp reduction surgery to the film’s most controversial moment – a graphic depiction of the then-businessman raping his first wife, Ivana – “The Apprentice” pulls no punches in its portrayal of the man who would become the 45th president.
And while the movie’s political leanings may be a source of debate, the performances of its ensemble cast have been almost universally praised. Stan’s nuanced turn as Trump has been hailed as a revelation, while Strong’s chilling embodiment of the Machiavellian Cohn is earning him early Oscar buzz.
“It’s a hard thing to watch,” Strong admitted. “Because you’re watching the creation of a monster by another monster.”
But as the film’s producers have clarified, that’s precisely the point. In an age of rampant political polarization and the erosion of democratic norms, “The Apprentice” aims to shed light on the very forces that have brought us to this precipice – forces that, the film suggests, were set in motion long before Trump ever set foot in the Oval Office.
“It’s not an accident that this is coming out now,” Abbasi told Variety. “We’re up against everyone, everything. Corporations. Trump. His campaign. Lawyers. We have no backing. We have no billionaire giving us money.”
And with the former president’s legal team already circling like sharks, the filmmakers know they’re treading on dangerous ground. But as Strong put it, they’re ready to take on the “monster” – even if it means risking it all.
“If we were in another country, I would say, ‘Fuck it.’ Bring it on. I’m going to fucking crush you,” Abbasi declared. “But the problem is: We’re dealing with a very complicated, flawed justice system in the United States, where you can bury anyone if you have enough money, legal firepower, and lawyers.”
Ultimately, though, the creators of “The Apprentice” are banking on the power of their story to transcend the political fray. As Abbasi told Variety, this isn’t just a tale about Trump or the Republican Party—it’s a cautionary tale about the corrosive nature of power itself.
“It’s not a story about the Democratic party. It’s not a story about the Republican Party,” the director said. “It’s about the whole system of power. The U.S. political system is WWF.”
In these divisive times, that message might resonate with audiences of all political stripes. Whether they love Trump or loathe him, “The Apprentice” promises to be a must-see cinematic event—one that just might shake the foundations of American politics to their very core.