After the former president complained about the biopic on social media, the filmmaker joked that he’d fit in a call if he had time
The director of the newly released Donald Trump biopic, The Apprentice, is open to a phone call with the former president … only if he can find the time in his busy press schedule.
Like a scene in the trailer for the film — in which Jeremy Strong plays Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn, who advises him to “attack, attack, attack” naysayers — Trump recently attack-attack-attacked the picture on his Truth Social network. “A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me, called, The Apprentice (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully ‘bomb,’” wrote Trump, who deserves full credit for the basic grammatical errors replicated here. “It’s a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job…” He also stuck up for his late first wife, Ivana, whom he called a “kind and wonderful person.”
“Thanks for getting back to us, @realDonaldTrump,” the movie’s director, Ali Abbasi, responded on social media. “I am available to talk further if you want. Today is a tight day [with] a lot of press for #TheApprentice but i might be able to give you a call tomorrow.”
The picture, which stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, opened last Friday. The release, less than a month before the general election, came about in spite of Trump issuing a cease-and-desist letter in the spring. The Apprentice has received generally positive reviews. Rolling Stone described it as “the Most Brutal Donald Trump Biopic Imaginable” in a review. “It’s a movie that wants you to know how Trump became the man he is today, and how another infamous participant in our nation’s descents into moral free-fall activated something deep within this striver from Queens,” the review said. “Call it The Art of the Deal With the Devil.”