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Sebastian Stan to play Donald Trump alongside Succession’s Jeremy Strong in new film

The cast also includes Maria Bakalova as Trump’s first wife Ivana

Kevin E G Perry
Wednesday 29 November 2023 22:17 EST
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Sebastian Stan and Donald Trump
Sebastian Stan and Donald Trump (Getty)

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Sebastian Stan is set to play a young Donald Trump in a new film from Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi.

As Deadline reports, the cast will also include Succession’s Jeremy Strong as Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’s Maria Bakalova as Trump’s first wife, Ivana.

Thought to be titled The Apprentice, Abbasi’s film will deal with Trump’s early years in New York building his real estate business in the 1970s and 1980s. It will also examine his relationship with Cohn, an infamous attorney and political operator.

Stan is no stranger to depicting real-life figures on screen. He received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his portrayal of rocker Tommy Lee opposite Lily James’ Pamela Anderson in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, and recently portrayed Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev in this the GameStop stock movie Dumb Money.

He is probably best known for his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe role as Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier. His most recent appearance as the superhero was on the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and he’s set to reprise the role once again in The Thunderbolts in 2025.

Jeremy Strong is set to play attorney Roy Cohn
Jeremy Strong is set to play attorney Roy Cohn (Getty Images)

As well as Succession, Strong’s other recent credits include appearances in Armageddon Time, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and The Gentlemen. Bakalova recently appeared in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Abbasi’s first feature film was the horror Shelley (2016), while his second film, Border, won the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

His third film, Holy Spider, explored the true story of a serial killer who operated in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad and debuted at Cannes in 2022. He is also known for directing several episodes of HBO’s hit post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us.

Former President Trump is currently embroiled in a civil fraud trial. According to documents released on Wednesday, Deutsche Bank viewed Trump as a “whale” of a client and eagerly cultivated a relationship that grew from $13,000 worth of revenue to $6m in two years.

The bank’s dealings with Trump are a key issue in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, which accuses Trump, his company and some executives of hoodwinking lenders and insurers by presenting them with grossly inflated statements of his asset values.

The defendants deny any wrongdoing. They have sought to show that the bank felt delighted, not deceived, by Trump and courted his business.

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