The 2024 Cannes Film Festival has skilled its justifiable share of criticism over the newly premiered The Apprentice film, however none as contemptuous because the complaints from these in Donald Trump‘s camp.
The Apprentice, a fictionalized retelling of the previous U.S. president’s actual property profession all through the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, contains a scene that sees Trump (performed by Sebastian Stan) rape his first spouse Ivana (performed by Maria Bakalova). The scene is in reference to a 1989 incident detailed within the real-life divorce trial of Trump and Ivana.
Though the movie opens with a disclaimer that the occasions are primarily based on a real story, the Trump marketing campaign on Monday introduced they are going to be “filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”
Trump marketing campaign’s chief spokesperson Steven Cheung advised Variety the movie is “pure malicious defamation.”
“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” he mentioned. “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.”
Cheung added that The Apprentice film “should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store.”
“It belongs in a dumpster fire,” the Trump marketing campaign concluded.
Sebastian Stan, Ali Abbasi and Maria Bakalova attend the ‘The Apprentice’ crimson carpet on the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 20, 2024, in Cannes, France.
Daniele Venturelli/WireImage
The movie’s director Ali Abbasi appeared altogether unconcerned with the authorized threats from the Trump marketing campaign.
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“Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people — they don’t talk about his success rate though, you know?” Abbasi advised Variety.
He mentioned he supplied to display the film for Trump and to debate its context with the Trump marketing campaign.
“I don’t necessarily think that this is a movie he would dislike,” Abbasi added. “I don’t necessarily think he would like it. I think he would be surprised.”
The scene of non-consensual intercourse in The Apprentice reportedly made a number of viewers members squirm and drew criticism for its vulgar depiction. In the movie, Ivana insults Trump’s look earlier than he forces her to the ground in an assault.
During their real-life divorce trial, Ivana accused Trump of rape in her deposition, not in contrast to that of the fictionalized depiction.
She later modified her allegations towards Trump and mentioned in a 1993 assertion that they’d “marital relations in which he behaved very differently towards me than he had during our marriage.” In acknowledging her earlier declare of rape, Ivana mentioned, “I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”
Ivana once more denied the rape in 2015.
For his half, Trump has all the time denied any wrongdoing.
As effectively as a rapist, The Apprentice paints Trump in a lot of different unflattering lights, with scenes together with Trump getting liposuction, present process a scalp-reduction surgical procedure for hair loss and growing an habit to fat burners.
Alongside the Trump marketing campaign, Variety reported that one of many movie’s traders, Dan Snyder, has additionally threatened authorized motion and has demanded a re-cut of the film. The outlet reported that Snyder thought the portrayal of Trump could be in a way more optimistic mild.
The Apprentice earned an eight-minute standing ovation after it premiered on the Grand Theatre Lumiere on Monday.
The movie additionally stars Jeremy Strong as Trump’s lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn.
The Apprentice doesn’t but have a launch date — although Abbasi joked that “a promotional event coming up called U.S. Election that is going to help us with the movie.”
“The second debate is going to be Sept. 15, something like that, so that’s a good release date I would say,” he mentioned.
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