Who is Sebastian Stan, the actor who plays Donald Trump in the ‘The Apprentice’ movie?

Sebastian Stan plays a young Donald Trump, out and about, wheeling and dealing in 1980s New York in Ali Abbasi’s new movie The Apprentice. The 41-year-old has Trump down to a T - the overcoat, scowl and brazen swagger. The Apprentice received a glowing reception at this month’s Cannes Film Festival. It’s a film that doesn’t pull any punches, and shows Trump gleaning tips on how to bend the rules by his mentor, the private lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong) and looks and who and what shaped him to be the larger than life personality he is today.

Stan sizzles as Trump in ‘The Apprentice’

As Variety noted: “The Apprentice is sharp and scathing, but it avoids cheap shots. It opens in 1973, when Trump is a 27-year-old playboy who’s vice president of his father’s real-estate company. In the first scene, Donald is seated at Le Club, the members-only restaurant and nightclub on E. 55th St. that he’d recently joined. He’s chatting up a model, but his eyes are fixated on the men in the room, people like Si Newhouse, who have what Trump craves: power”.

The young Trump “seems soft. He’s like a big shaggy overgrown boy, and though he’s got his real-estate ambition, his power-broker dreams, he has no idea how ruthless he’s going to have to be to get them”. We see Cohen give his protégé an invaluable three-point lesson that will turn him into a ruthless wheeler dealer with an estimated $2.6 billion fortune: “admit nothing, deny everything; and no matter how beaten you are, never admit defeat”. Some of the scenes in The Apprentice have not gone down well at all with Trump’s legal advisors who have threaten to file a lawsuit.

As for Sebastian Stan, his portrayal of Trump with doubtlessly catapult him further into the media spotlight. He first came to prominence for his role as as Bucky Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and gained rave reviews for his performance as Tommy Lee in the 2022 mini-series Pam and Tommy. In total, he has starred in 39 feature films and was given roles in 12 television series including Law & Order, Gossip Girl and Kings. Stan has had numerous nominations over the years, picking up his first award in 2017 at the Hollywood Film Awards for I, Tonya. He has since won the Best Duo at the MTV Movie & TV Awards for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival for his role as Edward in A Different Man.

Sebastian Stan from Romania to New York

Born in Constanța, Romania, Sebastian Stan moved to New York with his mother when he was just 12 years old. He discovered a passion for acting while at Rockland County Day School in Congers, New York when he appeared in several school productions including Little Shop of Horrors and West Side Story. He continued his studies at Stagedoor Manor summer camp and graduated with a BFA in Acting from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Like for most actors, it hasn’t always been an easy ride for Stan. He went for a while without getting any acting work and resorted to other ways of earning a living. “My first job was in a movie theater. I worked at Cinema 6 in New City, New York. I was an usher. I sold popcorn. And then I moved into working for H&M,” he told MarketWatch in 2017.

Stan has a healthy lifestyle and strict fitness regime which might surprise some to know that he is also a smoker. He has an apartment in New York and an estimated net worth of $4 million. He is believed to be currently single although he showed up at Cannes with Annabelle Wallis. Previous flames include: Leighton Meester, Jennifer Morrison, Dianna Agron, Margarita Levieva and Alejandra Onieva.