'The Apprentice,' the controversial Trump movie, hits theaters after nearly being snubbed by Hollywood

"This movie was very nearly banned essentially from being released in the U.S. which, to me, just makes it more essential viewing," was how actor Jeremy Strong described “The Apprentice,” the controversial film about former president Donald Trump that was rejected by major Hollywood studios and condemned by the Republican candidate's campaign.

Strong, who plays political operative Roy Cohn, one of Trump's mentors, stars alongside Sebastian Stan in this film that will open this weekend in 1,740 theaters. It has so far received very good reception at international festivals just weeks before the 2024 presidential election.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Stan, who plays a young Trump looking to make his way in New York's crusty real estate world, had to cross out the names of all the characters in the script so he could set aside his preconceptions about them. Once he went through this exercise, he realized that the story had significant potential to be told.

"I took a step back from my own opinions and projections about what I thought I knew," Stan said. "I actually found it to be much more relatable than I thought. What this was trying to explore was: What happens to a human being in pursuit of the American dream?"

Strong, who embraced the project after masterfully playing the character of Kendall Roy in “Succession,” has been widely praised for his portrayal of Cohn, even receiving positive feedback from Republican consultant Roger Stone, who is very close to Trump.

"I knew Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn was a friend of mine. The portrayal of Roy Cohn by actor Jeremy Strong in the new movie ‘The Apprentice’ is uncanny in it's accuracy," Stone said on his X profile.

However, the Trump campaign has been very hostile to “The Apprentice,” not only calling it a "lying" portrayal of the former president, but even threatening major studios and the film's directors with cease-and-desist letters.

In fact, a Trump spokesman called the film's content "pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked."

While the Trump campaigns' words are harsh, perhaps the characterization is not entirely misguided, as the film itself makes a caveat that the content is fiction and that much of the script, written by journalist Gabriel Sherman, is based on research, interviews, biographies, legal filings and Trump's own memoirs.

According to critics, the film portrays Trump as a Cohn apprentice who teaches him how to make a living and succeed in a cutthroat world full of sharks. In short, he is a young entrepreneur who wanted to achieve the American dream at all costs.

Some reviews claim that Trump is shown as a polarizing character, but, at the same time, human, something that could provoke harsh criticism among the more progressive press amid a decisive election.

Director Ali Abbasi is aware of this fact and, although he knows that the film could affect Trump’s candidacy, this was never his intention, as he has been working on the film since 2018.

"Some people would say, ‘OK, this is too flattering, this is too good a portrait of him—aren’t you afraid people will go vote for him?’ That’s not my job. Affecting the election is not my job," Abbasi said. "But of course it is important. We’re sort of riding on the back of a dragon here."

Although the film suffered rejection in Hollywood and nearly went without distribution, the likes of Tom Ortenberg, the film's eventual distributor at Briarcliff Entertainment, showed up to lend his support.

"I enjoy taking on pictures that others are afraid of, that others are frankly too cowardly to take on," Ortenberg said in remarks picked up by the WSJ. "I would have expected a bit of a bidding war among distributors, but word was out that the major studios were running away from the picture like their hair was on fire."