Sebastian Stan isn’t any stranger to taking part in real-life characters. The actor memorably introduced rock star Tommy Lee to the small display screen in Disney+’s Pam & Tommy, full with pretend tattoos and piercings. He starred as entrepreneur Vlad Tenev in Wall Avenue dramedy Dumb Cash, and as Tonya Harding’s ex-husband in ice-skating biopic I, Tonya.
However his newest function is his most difficult but: taking part in Donald Trump in The Apprentice. The Marvel star underwent a dramatic transformation for Ali Abbasi‘s new movie, which follows the story of Trump’s profession as a enterprise mogul within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties.
Succession’s Jeremy Robust stars reverse Stan as Roy Cohn, a lawyer who served as a mentor to a younger Trump, with Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova taking part in Trump’s ex-wife Ivana.
The origin-story film has attracted controversy since premiering on the Cannes Movie Pageant in Might. The previous president’s authorized crew unsuccessfully tried to dam its launch, calling it a “concoction of lies” that “repeatedly defames” him. Abbasi has contested these claims, saying: “It is not a success piece, it is not a hatchet job, it is not propaganda.”
As The Apprentice lastly arrives in cinemas, lower than a month earlier than the US election, Stan has shared the secrets and techniques behind his portrayal of one of many world’s most well-known males.
Hair, make-up and prosthetics
Stan’s uncanny transformation right into a youthful Trump was achieved because of make-up, prosthetics and a wispy blonde wig. The biopic takes place over a decade, so Stan’s look subtly modifications because the character ages.
The actor instructed Leisure Weekly: “I believe an important factor was monitoring with Ali very particularly: How can we see what we see right this moment slowly change into increasingly pronounced?
“He had very bushy eyebrows; he gained some weight; his hair was altering. So, there have been modifications to the prosthetics and the make-up, however not drastic. Simply sufficient so you may perceive the method.”
Weight achieve
Stan mentioned he gained greater than a stone over two months to play Trump. The actor drank Coca-Cola and ate peanut butter, jam sandwiches and ramen as a part of his routine to remodel into the character. However he selected to not use alcohol to assist his weight achieve, because the ex-president is teetotal.
Stan mentioned: “I referred to as a nutritionist who I labored with earlier than, and I mentioned, ‘How do I rapidly get bloating in my face?’ He was like, ‘Then what I want you to do is get ramen and put a bunch of soy sauce packets within the ramen and begin having that, and you are going to get the salt within the face.”
In a separate chat with GQ, he joked: “I am f***ing 41, I simply labored fairly exhausting to get in form right here.”
Analysis
Stan spent hours watching footage of Trump, together with interviews and documentaries, to nail his voice and mannerisms.
“I had 130 movies on his physicality on my cellphone,” he instructed Selection. “And 562 movies that I had pulled with photos from completely different time intervals – from the 70s all the way in which to right this moment – so I may pull out his speech patterns and attempt to improvise like him… I began to understand that I wanted to start out talking with my lips otherwise.”
Each he and Robust, a famous technique actor, remained in character when on set. He mentioned: “I by no means noticed him out of costume, and he by no means noticed me out of costume. We by no means actually met or spoke exterior of the scenes or after we have been on set.”
Abbasi instructed Stan to seize the essence of Trump, quite than delivering an impersonation. “The distinctive scenario with Donald Trump is he is nearly like a strolling, residing icon,” he mentioned. “So if you perform a little bit extra of that imitation or get too shut, then you’re in mockery or parody, like Saturday Evening Reside.”
The Apprentice will likely be launched in cinemas on 18 October
