The Apprentice
everybody should go see this film before election day. from sebastian stan to jeremy strong to maria bakalova, this cast is absolutely STACKED.
if you know me you know i have to at least briefly talk about jeremy strong (my #1 role model in my opinion one of the greatest actors of our time). i knew jeremy strong was incredible before this, but something that really struck me in the apprentice was his physicality. though it seemed so natural, every movement he made was so so so intentional. perfect example is the constant head nod. so normal and authentic you don’t think twice about it but it genuinely adds so much to his character. i know this is his job but you could even see roy cohn in his walk. kendall roy who??
as probably one of the biggest trump haters ever (right behind anderson cooper) i did not go into this movie expecting to cry. i sobbed like a baby!! not because i felt sympathetic, but just because this movie so deeply moved me.
there was a moment between jeremy strong and maria bakalova that just absolutely moved me. for me it was in that moment that everything that i was witnessing really sunk in. like this man was our president. this awful, awful man. think about that. though this movie provided a very nuanced take on trump and made me look at him from a new perspective, it also exceeded at reminding me of what i already know. what i’ve always known about this man. with someone who is constantly in the news for doing stupid stuff it is so easy to focus so much on all of the miscellaneous and forget how truly evil this man is. and forget the past actions that have defined that evil inside of him. but this movie serves as a stark reminder of just who american citizens elected to be the 45th president of the united states. just wow. absolutely incredible.
and sebastian stan. SEBASTIAN STAN. i call this the elvis effect because of when i saw elvis in theaters and could not tell the difference between elvis and austin butler afterwards, but i think it needs to be renamed the trump effect. with such a well known figure like donald trump i feel like it is so easy to fall into the trap of just replicating what you see every day in the media. but sebastian stan DID NOT. what was so incredibly beautiful about his performance was that he eased into it. at the beginning of the movie we didn’t view him as donald trump. we viewed him as a regular guy trying to succeed. but gradually and i mean GRADUALLY as the movie progressed we saw more and more of the trump we all know and hate. this gradual change left us as audience members in the same place as ivana and roy, wondering what happened to the man from before, which was just absolutely beautiful to experience. sebastian stan truly embodied trump, in…the best way possible to embody one of the most evil men alive right now.
it is very obvious that this movie was not made by people who are supporters of these people or their actions, but it was quite moving how present their dedication was to showing the humanity in these people that we view as killers. amazing movie overall.
“you have to be a killer. you’re not a killer” - logan roy