Yahoo Movies How The Apprentice explores Donald Trump's rise to power
The controversial biopic stars Sebastian Stan as the former President early in his career
The Apprentice explores how Donald Trump came to be the man he is today, whether people like its portrayal of him or not.
Starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, Ali Abassi's film has led to some controversy around its depiction of the former President, who is currently standing for re-election. His campaign team has argued the movie is "pure fiction" and Trump called The Apprentice a "fake and classless movie" in a rant on social media platform Truth Social, to which Abassi responded to say he's "available to talk further".
But while viewers are wondering how much of the movie is true and what has been fictionalised, there is something it does do well — explain the origins of the man himself and his startling rise to power.
The Apprentice charts Trump's fruitful relationship with Roy Cohn, the lawyer and political fixer who became his mentor during the early stages of his career and whose teachings he still uses today. Abassi's film follows Trump from the beginning of his relationship with Cohn to the building of Trump Tower, up until the writing of his 1987 book The Art of the Deal.
Read more:
How The Apprentice's Sebastian Stan transformed into Donald Trump
Trump Campaign Threatens Lawsuit Over ‘The Apprentice’ Film (Rolling Stone, 2-min read)
Trump and Cohn began working together when the lawyer represented him and his family after they were sued by the federal government for racial discrimination of renters. After that Cohn came to shape Trump in several ways, but largely through one life lesson per The Washington Post — attack, counterattack and never apologise.
Cohn used aggressiveness and fear to his benefit, as a way of exuding power when he was at the height of his, and this is a tactic that Trump has since used in his professional life. Without Cohn there would be no Trump, thats what The Apprentice would have you believe anyway.
Trump himself argues that Cohn didn't have as much influence on him as he is said to have had, saying in an interview with The Washington Post in 2016: "I don’t think I got that from Roy at all. I think I’ve had a natural instinct for that."
Cohn has become a boogeyman figure of sorts in popular culture, inspiring villains in The Simpsons, Angels in America, and Fellow Travellers to name a few.
Fellow Travellers author Thomas Mallon reflected on Cohn's lasting impact with the BBC, saying: "One surprise — not evident when I was starting the novel 20 years ago — is that Cohn would have a vampiric afterlife even well beyond something like Angels in America. And of course he owes that to Trump.
"Insofar as he personally affected Trump's thinking and behaviour, one realises that Cohn has had an impact on the republic, albeit at intervals, for 70 years."
It is hard not to see how Cohn impacted Trump, there is a lot of similarities between their tactics and approach to getting their way. It certainly seems believable that Trump's rise to power can be attributed to his mentorship under Cohn, which is why The Apprentice puts such emphasis on it.
The Apprentice premieres in cinemas on Friday, 18 October
