Trump campaign threatens legal action over ‘garbage’ biopic that depicts him as a rapist
A Trump campaign spokesperson labelled The Apprentice, which earned an eight-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival, ‘pure fiction which sensationalises lies that have been long debunked’.
The Trump campaign is threatening legal action against the biopic The Apprentice, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and portrays a fictionalised account of former US President Donald Trump raping his first wife, Ivana.
In a statement given to Variety on Monday following the world premiere of the Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi’s film, which earned an eight-minute standing ovation at Cannes, the Trump campaign’s chief spokesman, Steven Cheung, said they would take legal action
“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalises lies that have been long debunked,” Cheung said. “As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.”
Abbasi’s film, starring Sebastian Stan as Trump, opens with a disclaimer that the events depicted are fictionalised. It tracks Trump’s rise to power in the 1970s and 80s under the tutelage of his lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, played by Succession’s Jeremy Strong.
The audience at the festival reportedly gasped at several unflattering scenes, including Trump getting liposuction, taking amphetamine pills, undergoing surgery to remove his bald spot, and, most contentiously, a scene in which he pushes his then wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) to the ground and assaults her.
Ivana, who died in 2022, accused Trump of rape during their divorce deposition in 1990. She stated, at the time, “On one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage.
“As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited towards me, was absent. I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”
She walked back on the claim in 1993.
The scene is a fictionalised account of a 1989 incident. In the film, Trump rejects his wife when she tries to seduce him, confessing that he’s no longer attracted to her. Ivana reacts furiously, disparaging his physical appearance: “You have a face like a f...ing orange,” she tells him. “You’re getting fat, you’re getting ugly, and you’re getting bald.” Trump is then shown forcing his wife to the floor and raping her. “Did I find your G-spot?” he reportedly asks in the film.
The storm is coming, it’s time to make movies political again says director of ‘The Apprentice’ Ali Abbasi #Cannespic.twitter.com/mEUVdXV8Dp
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 20, 2024
Following the film’s premiere Abbasi, best known for his serial killer drama Holy Spider, said that he was interested in using his work to explore the politics of now.
“In the time of turmoil, there’s this tendency to look inwards, to bury your head deep in the sand … and hope for the best, hope for the storm to get away,” he said. “The storm is not going away, the storm is coming, actually. The worst times are to come.”
Gabriel Sherman, whose bestselling novel The Loudest Voice in the Room inspired Showtime’s miniseries The Loudest Voice, which starred Russell Crowe as Fox News founding president Roger Ailes, wrote The Apprentice script.
The film, one of 22 in competition for the festival’s top prize Palme d’Or, has not yet found a distributor.
More Coverage
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout