‘What I see in Trump is a very broken, pained, paranoid, insecure little boy’: Sebastian Stan further unpacks playing Donald Trump
Sebastian Stan had quite the banner year in 2024. After winning a Golden Globe for his work in the A24 film A Different Man, fans hoped to see his streak of nominations continue. Including him getting recognition for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice.
The Ali Abbasi film put Stan in Trump’s blonde toupé and wasn’t the President-elect’s favorite film of 2024. In talking about his preparation for playing Trump, Stan described the upcoming president pretty accurately. Mainly in that he is an insecure little man who lets that fuel his decisions. That’s what makes him such a terrifying person to have in office.
Stan was speaking with Awards Watch‘s Brandon Lewis about The Apprentice when Lewis asked about what Trump’s “lie” is. He went on to give a pretty honest answer about who Trump is as a man in his eyes.
“What I see in Trump is a very broken, pained, paranoid, insecure little boy,” Stan said. “And I don’t say that to simply go, ‘He’s human, and you should feel bad for him.’ I say that to highlight the flaws that might get in the way of this person having power or moral authority. I don’t know if that’s a person I would necessarily trust.”
What Stan said is exactly why Trump is such a terrifying figure in our politics. He doesn’t really have a “moral authority” because, as Stan said earlier in his chat with Lewis, it is about a transactional experience for Trump. That lack of empathy or care about mankind outside of what they can do for him is a haunting thing to think about when it comes to the President of the United States.
Exploring the American Dream
Another aspect of Stan’s chat with Lewis that I found interesting was how he spoke of The Apprentice and the American Dream. Stan was born in Romania and moved to America at a young age but says that through playing Trump, he was able to unpack the burden of the American Dream that he himself grew up with.
“When I came to America, my mom said to me, ‘We’re here now, and I’ve sacrificed my life, and you’ve got to make something of yourself because you have this opportunity that so many kids are not going to have.’ I hear that, and it drives me, but I also feel this burden of responsibility and pressure of ‘What if I fail?’ I find with many people…you see them accumulating more things, and it’s never enough. There’s always something else.”
Stan went on to talk about how the film explores that idea of the American Dream. “To me, The Apprentice is part of this ideology and the American Dream. When is it enough, and what does it do to a person? I think my journey through Vienna and coming here and trying to understand what it means to be an American influenced me 100% with that part and probably what drove me to do it,” he said.
The Apprentice is currently available to rent on major streaming platforms.
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