Sebastian Stan

Well, of course. I mean, how could it not? I mean, there were a couple parts to the film that I sort of related to. I mean, one, you know, I struggled with weight when I was a little kid. You know, I had my own, and obviously coming from a different country and trying to learn a new language and fit in, right?

I had my own experiences where I felt alienated or where I felt people acted differently towards me because I was different or I sounded different or whatever, right? There was that piece.

Then there was the piece of which actually I wasn't aware of, which Aaron Schoenberg, the writer, director and Adam Pearson, who also stars in the movie, who has neurofibromatosis, made me aware of, which was this piece about how as a as a recognizable person and recognizable actor on the street, I am sort of public property very much in the same way that somebody with a disability is actually recognized.

And I have experienced that invasion of privacy. I experience it daily when I walk around or if I'm sitting at lunch, someone's filming without my consent or someone's whispering or you feel people look at you or sometimes people come up and they tap you on the shoulder. And so these are all very similar things that Edward or people that have stood out for various reasons deal with all the time.

And the third part of it was... But once I got the prosthetics on, which were incredible by this artist, Mike Marino, I went out on the street and I really walked around New York City and sort of experienced people's reactions firsthand. And I got to see how limited the narratives around disability and disfigurement are.

Well, I mean, it was incredibly informative, obviously, for me as a character in terms of the physicality that I discovered from it. I mean, for one, you know, I could only see out of one eye and hear out of one ear. That affected the way I walked. That affected the distance that I was taking from people, how I stood, how much I saw, you know. But also just looking down. But in terms of the...

I really think this is going to be one of the most exceptional buildings anywhere in the world. And frankly, there's never been anything like it. 68 stories tall, 28 sides, a million square feet. Every unit will have amenities like you wouldn't believe. And the high floors have exceptional views over Central Park. The lobby, the floors will all be marble, pink Paradiso marble from Italy.

level of self-awareness and the powerlessness and the isolation that I experienced, you know, standing on a street on a busy corner in Manhattan. You know, I don't think I ever experienced that in my life. And it was incredibly lonely.

You know, I think I've spoken about this, but a lot of people just either ignored or jumped to this sort of degree of pity that they feel like they owe you sort of something. And the only people that I interacted with very briefly that actually seemed where the connection seemed genuine were kids. You know, I had this this one moment with this little girl.

who seemed fascinated by the way I looked, and it was just curiosity. And it's curiosity that sort of we lack or we're afraid of when we're dealing with sort of these differences.

Yeah, about eight, yeah, until right after the revolution.

Oh, I remember watching the execution on television.

I remember that happening, yeah.

They were shot against the wall. You know, I do remember that because we only had one hour of news a night. That was the TV we had, you know, only one hour of television a day.

With the exception of New Year's Eve, which, you know, had television all night long. And so I have these vivid memories about being able to stay up New Year's Eve and how it was this magical time. But TV was very limited, and propaganda was very specific.

We'll have the largest atrium in the world, a 60-foot waterfall spanned by shops and retail and restaurants. And I think it's going to be something very special. Frankly, there's not been anything. And what are you going to call it?

And there was always a degree of kind of awareness about what you talked about, even sometimes with your neighbors, because your neighbor could go and tell on you and so on and so forth. I mean, that's sort of like what I took from my mom and my grandparents when we were growing up. And it was only until later when I sort of learned a little bit more about

My father who had escaped Romania much earlier and so on and so forth. But I have these images like that on television and then also seeing the flag with a giant hole where the communist symbol had been cut out of flying on this Dacia, which is the only car we were allowed to have. You know, everybody was allowed to have the same car across and these teenagers screaming.

No, no. My father was part of that generation of young people that were really trying to find a way to live... around communism and stand up to communism and and you know he had been in the navy he had he'd you know he'd worked on a cargo ship you know um and he had helped a lot of people escape the country and and there was you know uh he'd

created a lot of attention on him to the point where it was no longer safe for him to be in the country. Um, and, um, there was a degree of that, that we knew, and there's a degree of that, that we didn't know, you know?

Um, but, uh, I think in term, in some ways, and certainly a lot of people that I've spoken to years later about who were his friends and who knew him, um, he was, he was heralded a hero in a way to them.

No, he's no longer alive.

I did, yeah. He passed away recently, but we were able to sort of connect. Later in life, like basically more when I was 17, 18 and he was in California at the time and it was actually, I was very lucky because I was trying to be an actor and I was coming out to LA. I didn't live in LA, I was living in New York. I just graduated from school, but I needed to come out to L.A.

for pilot season and auditions and things like that. And I had no money and I was able to kind of go and live with him and go audition and, you know, use his car. And so that time we really we really connected and I got to know him. And I think by the end of his life, I think we really did become very close. And and that was important for me.

Yes and no. But at the same time, you know, I think one of the things I didn't really understand is how much he loved America. How much he loved and how strongly he felt about America, you know. And...

the 80s and Ronald Reagan and what it meant make America great again and and and Really really was proud to have come here and been able to have had an opportunity to to start a life, you know and get his passport and work and earn a living and be free, you know, and These are all things I thought about when I was doing this movie. These are all things I thought about and I

I mean, I had a degree of that that, I mean, it makes me emotional to think about it, but like... I had a degree of that that I always understood about, you know, that I was, when I came to New York and my mom and everything, the amazing opportunity that I was blessed with to be able to come here, you know? I mean, for a kid from this country, there are many people that didn't make it, you know?

And so the message was, what are you going to do with it? You know, what are you going to make out of yourself? You know? And... There was great liberty in that and pressure and also, right, that's the American dream and that's what the movie to me is, The Apprentice.

That was a lot of what I was trying to understand also, but questions I had about, you know, where my father came from, what did he see in this country and what did this country give us and how far you can go. I mean, there's a lot to talk about, but hopefully you know what I mean.

I came when I was officially, we moved in 95 when I was 12. We had visited U.S. a couple times before that, and then we moved in 95, summer of 95.

Oh, yeah, there was none of that. None of that. I remember my first movies in a theater were Jurassic Park and Mrs. Doubtfire. I mean, that like, that was blew my mind, you know, and...

No, it's true. And actually, I was always behind as a result. Like, for instance, with the Beatles or, you know, things that people kind of like just know second nature. I was always discovering them like too late. So I was never a cool kid in high school because of that. You know, I was kind of trailing behind.

Well, I think, you know, the survive mechanism is, like, you don't want to be different, you know? You want to just fit in. I remember being even, like, really insecure about my name, Sebastian, that it was such a different name. Everybody in my high school was, even in middle school, I mean, was named Anthony, Christopher, you know, Sam, whatever. Like, there was all these names.

You're not, Mr. Mayor, because I'm building a 68-story building that's going to employ 5,000 construction workers.

And there was a part of me even wanting to be named different. So I was...

petrified about being different you know um right it was like the late 90s and so you try to wear you know the jeans everybody was wearing i remember these genco jeans or whatever it was like every skater guy had these baggy baggy jeans i wanted to get a pair of that you know i'd cut my hair like in sync or backstreet boys it was like that mushroom haircut that dicaprio had in titan you know like you just you just wanted to be you just want to look like what everybody else is doing

Yeah, no, I, well, I, I think you're right, but I think this is what acting did for me. Acting liberated me from that. I mean, I, it was really around the same time that I, that I found acting, um, basically in high school, kind of when I was 14, something like that, and doing a school play.

And then I went to this Stage Door Manor acting camp, which was a very, pretty well-known acting camp, met friends there. And, and, I just, I don't know. It just, it was the first thing that never, that just allowed me or gave me permission to sort of kind of have more confidence and courage.

And so as a result, I think the work has always been, no matter what it is, you know, no matter how scary it might be or unknown to me it might be, it's always liberated me. It's never hindered me.

And you're being a very unfair guy. Because, frankly, what do you know about me? What do you know about the amount of money that I made on my own... You don't know anything, to be perfectly honest, Mr. Mayor. You don't know me at all. But you will. You'll never forget me after this, because I won't forget what you just did. Trump Tower will be built with or without you. Okay.

Oh, yeah. My mother is, yeah. She was a pianist and is a pianist. I mean, doesn't play concertos anymore, but then also became a piano teacher.

Well, actually, at the time, he was the headmaster of an American international school, AIS, in Vienna.

But I started in German public school and then I went to the American international school where they also spoke English.

Yeah, my mom was teaching piano there, and then they've met, and his name was Anthony, and he also is no longer around. But I think to this day, I mean, I sort of touched about it in the Globe speech. I've always thought of being up there at some point, if I'm ever up there, of learning.

of thanking him because it was not easy, I think, for someone to take on, you know, a single mom with a kid that's not just a kid. He's, like, growing, and he's, you know, 9, 10 at that point, and sort of becoming a father figure. But he was hugely instrumental in my learning English, coming to America. I mean...

Learning what spoon and fork to use like in Titanic, you know, like that was being a gentleman. I mean, there was he was a really, really smart man who spoke five, six languages. He would read every newspaper in every language in different languages every morning. I mean, it was he was a real example of to me.

Well, again, it was interesting, right, because I sort of felt socially it was awkward for me because I couldn't, you know, nobody wanted to go hang out at the headmaster's kid's house over the weekend. So not to mention with the crazy European mother that cooked weird meals.

Yes, that's all I was in at the beginning. Yeah, I did Grease, Sweet Charity.

You're about to be sued, Mr. Mayor.

Yeah, and West Side Story was another one. But really a big, again, another definitive moment for me was this camp, Stage Door Manor. I remember I called the owner at the time, it was like Carl Samuelson, and he got on the phone with me. He didn't know anything about me. He just wanted to know, why do you want to be an actor? Because it was expensive and I couldn't really afford to go there.

But you could talk to him, and he decided to give me a scholarship to go there, basically. You would go there for two weeks at a time, but you would do and work on a play or a musical. And he listened to me and somehow realized that, okay, I'm passionate about acting. I went there over the summer.

And that summer really changed my life because I got out of the cocoon of the little private school and I could be away from my headmaster, stepdad and my mom. And I was with kids from LaGuardia in New York City and kids that were, you know, really well trained and doing musicals. And that's where I did Grease. And also that's also where...

I met my manager, who I'm still with for 27 years at this point, who came scouting that one summer and sort of saw me and told me to go meet with her.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Well, that they did it together. It was actually based on a real father-son shooters.

What is she talking about? Your real father. Herman Capshaw is my real father.

Justin, I... I don't know why you brought me here.

Oh, God, that was kind of hard to listen to.

Oh, so much acting. It just reminds me of the James Dean School of Acting that you go to when you're 18, 19, 20. But it's interesting. I hadn't heard or seen that scene in a long time, and everything was very, very charged.

Well, I mean, I would say that Trump did not sound like Trump when he was in his mid to late 30s, which is when that was sort of happening. And I think that I did make some conscious choices very carefully with the voice, not only just to honor the age and what he sounded like at the time, which to me sounded very different than today, but also...

It was hard. It's really not until recently that I've gotten okay with watching myself. In those earlier years and up until recently, it was very, very difficult. I was very critical. I've always been very, very critical of myself, which is in part why I can sort of take criticism very well.

When people write horrible things about you online, I'm always like, well, it's nowhere near what I've said about myself, so... But I remember feeling also this weird instinct that I was doing something right for myself and I should keep going. It was never hindering in a way.

Don't push anything, don't work for something. I mean, it's funny because when I hear that scene, what I think about is the fact that The scene was written and designed for a certain result. And I'm reacting to that, working for a certain result, rather than going in there, not focusing on the result, right?

And going, let's see what happens based on the work that I've done, which is how I approach it now. The result being, oh, I have to have this massive breakdown where I'm showing emotion and I'm, you know...

making it there is a part of that that always feels subconscious and as we know in life that stuff doesn't come that way but again you're also looking at the format of that show in one hour you know they've got to hit certain notes it was tv it was right there's there's things that also the tone of the thing you're working on but i generally what i would say is you know i i can spot when choices are result oriented now

Oh, absolutely. I think so. I mean, you know, my mother is coming with me to the Oscars. You know, she's my date. I think she's very proud, you know, and I'm so insanely grateful to her for supporting me. You know, I had a supporting parent with acting. A lot of kids do not have supportive parents like that. So I felt like...

She did her best, maybe more than her best, and she made tough choices in her life, but certainly gave me an opportunity in my life. So this whole experience has been all about being able to thank her and my stepdad.

Oh, my God. I mean, listen, I, like I was telling you, I mean, the impossible has already happened. You know, as somebody told me early on when they said, you know, if you think this is going to be a thankless job, like you're not... If you think you're going to do this movie and someone's going to... First of all, you're going to piss off everybody.

No one's going to... Not one person's going to... Whether they care for him or they hate him, they're all going to be pissed. No one's going to see anything in this or any value in this. And then sort of... I just keep pinching myself going like... I remember that, you know, the season, the cis letter, and then it was the sort of, you know, no one wanted to buy the film.

And then it's like, is it going to come out? And then, Oh, we have no money. There's no billboard on sunset. There's no, you know, and, and, and now here, here's Jeremy and I kind of go into this thing. And so I, you know, it's a funny moment when you're watching that, of course, you and me, we've all seen Oscars and you kind of go, what's going on through everybody's mind. But it's,

to not lean into it as much as it's become popular to do. Because a big challenge with this role was obviously to avoid falling into caricature and into sort of the version of a cartoon that he's somewhat become, one would argue even willingly on his own part. whether he's aware of that or not.

I feel the win has already happened here, you know, for me. And it's, it's, um, I will be grateful in that moment no matter what, um, at this point. I know that's like what everybody says, but I, I think for me genuinely, I, I, it's just been so surreal with this thing. I never, that it's, it's impossible, I think, for me to have any more expectations at this point.

It's been lovely. Thank you for having me, and I really appreciate your questions and taking the time.

Because the voice, along with mannerisms and other physical characteristics that he has that we've become so...

accustomed to and we've been so oversaturated with really had to be kind of very I had to very carefully select and maneuver them and kind of earn them over the period of time of the movie very much like he did as he grew into what we see today but in part because I needed to bring audience in on this journey as opposed to alienating them from the beginning with what they've already sort of know and expect

That whole clip actually was improvised. Yes. The scene in the script, as it was written, it started out with, you know, it just said Donald finishes introducing Trump Tower and he sits down and he goes, well, what do you think, Mr. Mayor? And he goes, oh, very fascinating. What do you call it?

So but in the in the manner that we had been shooting by the time we got to the scene, I was already prepared to. sort of have something ready because our director was always encouraging. And really, the script was asking for this. You know, it was always asking for...

For the beginning and the end of the scenes, which weren't there, you know, we had a lot of the middle of the bulk of what we needed, right? That was written, but there were many times where we needed to kind of like find out about what surrounded it. And, you know, that was part of what I did to prepare many times the night before with this scene and other scenes where...

I would very kind of surgically construct an improvisation in his way of speaking that I would get from various interviews that I'd collected over time and things that he had said to Barbara Walters and Larry King and many things that he had said to Ed Koch and all kinds of footage that I'd placed together.

Well, that's a really great question, and it's one where there's no real clear answer that I can give you. It's a mixed bag. It's a mixed bag. I mean, in a lot of ways, a lot of things look very predictable to me, especially having studied him for this film. The victimhood, blaming, the revenge tactics, all that we go in-depth in the film that he had... absorbed from Roy Cohn.

You really do see, I think even if you look at the inauguration, I mean, and even at the debate, right, with Kamala Harris, I mean, you really see what we talk about in the movie of these sort of ways he's learned to flip it around on the other person and kind of just always just be denying reality and reshaping the truth as long as it fits his narrative. And the complete, utter lack of

Lack of acceptance for any criticism or any wrongdoing or anything whatsoever. So it's eerily familiar. It's predictable. It's also, I may say, tragic because I guess for me...

I also feel like I saw a version of this overweight kid that was paranoid and insecure and desperate for attention that was made to pay a big price at daddy's big betrayal, sending him off to military school where he had to kind of... you know, whatever happened there that dehumanized him further and the revenge that he's been enacting out, you know.

And at the same time, it's hard not to sort of find some of it upsetting as well because I do feel so much of it is rage and anger that's been suppressed and undealt with that we're all having to kind of just, you know, deal with and pay a price for.

Well, I think as an actor, you have to kind of go through a process where you look at what are the things here that I feel that are useful for me to do this in the right way that it's asking of me. And what are the things that I feel that are going to work against me? And then you have to sort of become an investigator. And you have to, in a way, be a bodyguard to the character you're playing.

And I've wrestled with a degree of powerlessness as a child that I felt growing up as a result of A lot of change that happened very quickly in formative years where I didn't feel safe and changing countries and changing schools and changing homes and caretakers coming and going and so on. And that's affected my life in a certain way.

But I would argue nowhere near the degree of powerlessness that I feel today. He must have gone through in order to create such an ulterior ego to the extent that he has because that's what I really see it's about with him. It's always power and mistrust and paranoia and everything is transactional. That's how he operates.

Well, when the letter came in, it was about an hour after the movie had finished premiering at Cannes. And we were in such a place of exhilaration to have even gotten to Cannes and actually finally premiere the movie to... What many who have witnessed standing ovations at Cannes told me was a really genuine seven to eight minute standing ovation.

You know, we were in such a... We were such relief and just joy of even having gotten there with many obstacles coming that when this letter came in, you know, it was almost pretty much on target, right? For what we were all expecting. I mean, no one that did the movie expected him not to... You know, behave that way.

I mean, tremendous work by lawyers and fact checkers and everything were done on on preparing for that. And so it was like, OK, well, here's this next sort of hurdle. Let's see if the movie will come out. Maybe it won't.

No, definitely not.

Again, it's like... It's so... Right? It's in line with the recent White House sort of little boy stomping their feet into the playground kind of crying wolf response about the film getting the nominations. I mean... So I think it's important to look at that and ask oneself if the movie is really just... sort of so irrelevant, then why warrant that reaction from him to begin with?

And second of all, I mean, it might be because the truth hurts and there is something truthful to the movie, one of them probably being that he doesn't like anyone else taking credit for the way he is. Um, but I think it's also, it's very, it was very difficult to kind of minimize it also. Right. Because you're talking about the language and the words being used, human scum.

I mean, that's, that's something, you know, our writer received a lot of death threats, a lot of antisemitic remarks, a lot of things, right. As a result of that, um, usage of words which are not dissimilar from words that have been used by dictators, right? So there's that.

Um, yeah, I think there's a degree of fear or I would argue. And, and I, I thought, I think also as we've experienced it, some degree of confusion about how to feel and how to deal with his sort of him being president again, which, which is not a wrong response. It's a human response. I, I just, I guess as we see it, um,

As long as fear, indifference, or ignorance is not what's driving things, where they become sort of accepted as it pertains to art, then you should have whatever emotions you need to have.

I really think this is gonna be one of the most exceptional buildings anywhere in the world, and frankly, there's never been anything like it. 68 stories tall, 28 sides, a million square feet. Every unit will have amenities like you wouldn't believe, and the high floors have exceptional views over Central Park. The lobby, the floors will all be marble, pink Paradiso marble from Italy.

We'll have the largest atrium in the world, a 60-foot waterfall spanned by shops and retail and restaurants, and I think it's gonna be something very special. Frankly, there's not been anything. And what are you going to call it?

Well, Mr. Mayor, I mean, first of all... Look, Mr. Mayor, my client is... Well, you're not. You're not, Mr. Mayor, because I'm building a 68-story building that's going to employ 5,000 construction workers.

And you're being a very unfair guy. Because, frankly, what do you know about me? What do you know about the amount of money that I made on my own... You don't know anything, to be perfectly honest, Mr. Mayor. You don't know me at all, but you will. You'll never forget me after this because I won't forget what you just did. Trump Tower will be built with or without you. OK.

You're about to be sued, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Well, I mean, I would say that Trump did not sound like Trump when he was in his mid to late 30s, which is when that was sort of happening. And I think that I did make some conscious choices very carefully with the voice, not only just to honor the age and what he sounded like at the time, which to me sounded very different than today, but also...

to not lean into it as much as it's become popular to do. Because a big challenge with this role was obviously to avoid falling into caricature and into sort of the version of a cartoon that he's somewhat become. One would argue even more.

Willingly on his own part, whether he's aware of that or not, because the voice, along with mannerisms and other physical characteristics that he has that we've become so familiar

accustomed to and we've been so oversaturated with, really had to be kind of very, I had to very carefully select and maneuver them and kind of earn them over the period of time of the movie, very much like he did as he grew into what we see today.

But in part because I needed to bring audience in on this journey as opposed to alienating them from the beginning with what they've already sort of know and expect from

Well, that's a really... great question. And it's a, it's, it's one where there's no real clear answer that I can give you. It's, it's, it's a mixed bag. It's a mixed bag. I mean, a lot of ways, a lot of things look very predictable to me, especially having studied him for this film. Um, the victimhood, uh, blaming the revenge tactics, all that we go in depth, uh, in the film that he had

absorbed from Roy Cohn, you really do see, I think even if you look at the inauguration, I mean, and even at the debate, right, with Kamala Harris, I mean, you really see what we talk about in the movie of these sort of ways he's learned to flip it around on the other person and kind of just always just be denying reality and reshaping the truth as long as it fits his narrative.

And the complete, utter lack of Lack of acceptance for any criticism or any wrongdoing or anything whatsoever. So it's eerily familiar. It's predictable. It's also, I may say, tragic because I guess for me...

I also feel like I saw a version of this overweight kid that was paranoid and insecure and desperate for attention that was made to pay a big price at daddy's big betrayal, sending him off to military school where he had to kind of... you know, whatever happened there that dehumanized him further and the revenge that he's been enacting out, you know.

And at the same time, it's hard not to sort of find some of it upsetting as well because I do feel so much of it is rage and anger that's been suppressed and undealt with that we're all having to kind of just, you know, deal with and pay a price for.

Well, I think as an actor, you have to kind of go through a process where you look at what are the things here that I feel that are useful for me to do this in the right way that it's asking of me. And what are the things that I feel that are going to work against me? And then you have to sort of become an investigator. And you have to, in a way, be a bodyguard to the character you're playing.

And I've wrestled with a degree of powerlessness as a child that I felt growing up as a result of A lot of change that happened very quickly in formative years where I didn't feel safe and changing countries and changing schools and changing homes and caretakers coming and going and so on. And that's affected my life in a certain way.

But I would argue nowhere near the degree of powerlessness that I feel today. He must have gone through in order to create such an ulterior ego to the extent that he has because that's what I really see it's about with him. It's always power and mistrust and paranoia and everything is transactional. That's how he operates.

Well, of course. I mean, how could it not? I mean, there were a couple parts to the film that I sort of related to. I mean, one, you know, I struggled with weight when I was a little kid. You know, I had my own. And obviously, coming from a different country and trying to learn a new language and fit in, right?

I had my own experiences where I felt alienated or where I felt people acted differently towards me because I was different or I sounded different or whatever. There was that piece.

Then there was the piece of, which actually I wasn't aware of, which Aaron Schoenberg, the writer, director, and Adam Pearson, who also stars in the movie, who has neurofibromatosis, made me aware of, which was this piece about how as a recognizable person, recognizable actor on the street, I am sort of public property very much in the same way that somebody with a disability is, actually.

And I have experienced that invasion of privacy. I experience it daily when I walk around or if I'm sitting at lunch, someone's filming without my consent or someone's whispering or you feel people look at you or sometimes people come up and they tap you on the shoulder. And so these are all very similar things that Edward or people that have stood out for various reasons deal with all the time.

And the third part of it was But once I got the prosthetics on, which were incredible by this artist, Mike Marino, I went out on the street and I really walked around New York City and sort of experienced people's reactions firsthand. And I got to see how limited the narratives around disability and disfigurement are.

Well, I mean, it was incredibly informative, obviously, for me as a character in terms of the physicality that I discovered from it. I mean, for one, you know, I could only see out of one eye and hear out of one ear. That affected the way I walked, that affected the distance that I was taking from people, how I stood, how much I saw, you know, but also just looking down and...

But in terms of the level of self-awareness and the powerlessness and the isolation that I experienced, you know, standing on a street on a busy corner in Manhattan, I don't think I ever experienced that in my life. And it was incredibly lonely.

I think I've spoken about this, but a lot of people just either ignored or jumped to this sort of degree of pity that they feel like they owe you sort of something. And the only people that I interacted with very briefly that actually seemed where the connection seemed genuine were kids. You know, I had this this one moment with this little girl who,

who seemed fascinated by the way I looked, and it was just curiosity. And it's curiosity that sort of we lack or we're afraid of when we're dealing with sort of these differences.

Yeah, about eight, yeah, until right after the revolution.

Oh, I remember watching the execution on television.

I remember that happening, yeah.

They were shot against the wall. you know, I do remember that because we only had one hour of news a night. That was the TV we had, you know, only one hour of television a day.

With the exception of New Year's Eve, which, you know, had television all night long. And so I have these vivid memories about being able to stay up New Year's Eve and how it was this magical time. But But TV was very limited and propaganda was very specific.

And there was always a degree of kind of awareness about what you talked about, even sometimes with your neighbors, because your neighbor could go and tell on you and so on and so forth. I mean, that's sort of like what I took from my mom and my grandparents, you know, when we were growing up. And it was only until later when I sort of learned a little bit more about

My father, who had escaped Romania much earlier, and so on and so forth. But I have these images like that on television, and then also seeing the flag with a giant hole where the communist symbol had been cut out of, flying on this Dacia, which is the only car we were allowed to have. You know, everybody was allowed to have the same car across, and these teenagers screaming.

No, no. My father was part of that generation of young people that were really trying to find a way to live... around communism and stand up to communism. And, and, you know, he had been in the Navy. He had, he'd, you know, he'd worked on a cargo ship and he had helped a lot of people escape the country. And, and there was, you know, uh, he'd been,

created a lot of attention on him to the point where it was no longer safe for him to be in the country um and um there was a degree of that that we knew and there's a degree of that that we didn't know you know but uh i think in term in some ways and certainly a lot of people that i've spoken to years later about who were his friends and who knew him um he was he was heralded a hero in a way to them is he still alive

No, he's no longer alive, no.

I did. Yeah. Yeah. He he passed away recently. But we we've had we were able to sort of connect later in life, like basically more when I was 17, 18. And and he was in California at the time. And it was actually I was very lucky because I was trying to be an actor and I was coming out to L.A. I didn't live in L.A. I was living in New York.

I just graduated from school, but I needed to come out to L.A. for pilot season and auditions and things like that. And I had no money and I was able to kind of go and live with him and go audition and, you know, use his car. And so that time we really we really connected and I got to know him. And I think by the end of his life, I think we really did become very close.

And and that was important for me.

Ah, yes and no. But at the same time, you know, I think one of the things I didn't really understand is how much he loved America. How much he loved and how strongly he felt about America, you know, and the 80s and Ronald Reagan and what it meant to make America great again. And really, really was proud to have come here and been able to have had an opportunity to...

To start a life, you know, and get his passport and work and earn a living and be free, you know. And these are all things I thought about when I was doing this movie. These are all things I thought about. And, I mean, I had a degree of that that, I mean, it makes me emotional to think about it, but like...

I had a degree of that that I always understood about, you know, that I was... When I came to New York and my mom and everything, the amazing opportunity that I was blessed with to be able to come here, you know? I mean, for a kid from this country, there are many people that didn't make it, you know? And so the message was, what are you going to do with it, you know?

What are you going to make out of yourself, you know? And... There was great liberty in that and pressure. And also, right, that's the American dream. And that's what the movie to me is, The Apprentice. That was a lot of what I was trying to understand also.

But questions I had about, you know, where my father came from, what did he see in this country and what did this country give us and how far you can go? I mean, there's a lot to talk about, but hopefully you know what I mean. Yeah.

I came when I was officially, we moved in 95 when I was 12. We had visited U.S. a couple times before that, and then we moved in 95, summer of 95.

Oh, yeah, there was none of that.

I remember my first movies in a theater were Jurassic Park and Mrs. Doubtfire. I mean, that like that was blew my mind, you know, and.

No, it's true. And actually, I was always behind as a result. Like, for instance, with the Beatles or, you know, things that people kind of like just know second nature. I was always discovering them like too late. So I was never a cool kid in high school because of that. You know, I was kind of trailing behind.

Well, I think, you know, the survive mechanism is like... You don't want to be different, you know, you want to just fit in. I remember being even like really insecure about my name, Sebastian, that it was such a different name. Everybody in my high school was, even in middle school, I mean, was named Anthony, Christopher, you know, Sam, whatever.

Like there was all these names and there was a part of me even wanting to be named different. So I was...

petrified about being different you know um right it was like the late 90s and so you try to wear you know the jeans everybody was wearing i remember these genco jeans or whatever it was like every skater guy had these baggy baggy jeans i wanted to get a pair of that you know i'd cut my hair like in sync or backstreet boys it was like that mushroom haircut that dicaprio had in titan you know like you just you just wanted to be you just want to look like what everybody else is doing

Yeah, no, well, I think you're right. But I think this is what acting did for me. Acting liberated me from that. I mean, it was really around the same time that I found acting. Basically in high school, kind of when I was 14, something like that, and doing a school play, and then I went to the Stage Door Manor acting camp, which was a pretty well-known acting camp. Met friends there, and...

I just, I don't know. It just, it was the first thing that never, that just allowed me or gave me permission to sort of kind of have more confidence and courage. And so as a result, I think the work has always been, no matter what it is, you know, no matter how scary it might be or unknown to me it might be, it's always liberated me. It's never hindered me.

Oh, absolutely. I think so. I mean, you know, my mother is coming with me to the Oscars. You know, she's my date. I think she's very proud, you know, and I'm so insanely grateful to her for supporting me. You know, I had a supporting parent with acting. A lot of kids do not have supportive parents like that. So I felt like...

She did her best, maybe more than her best, and she made tough choices in her life, but certainly gave me an opportunity in her life. So this whole experience has been all about being able to thank her and my stepdad.

Oh, my God. The impossible has already happened. You know, as somebody told me early on when they said, you know, if you think this is going to be a thankless job, like you're not – You know, if you think you're going to do this movie and someone's going to... First of all, you're going to piss off everybody.

No one's going to... Not one person's going to... Whether they care for him or they hate him, they're all going to be pissed. No one's going to see anything in this or any value in this. So I just keep pinching myself going like, I remember that, you know, the season, the cis letter. And then, you know, no one wanted to buy the film. And then... It's like, is it going to come out?

And then, oh, we have no money. There's no billboard on Sunset. And now here's Jeremy and I kind of going to this thing. And so I, you know, it's a funny moment when you're watching that. Of course, you and me, we've all seen Oscars and you kind of go, what's going on through everybody's mind? But... I feel the win has already happened here, you know, for me.

And I will be grateful in that moment no matter what at this point. I know that's like what everybody says, but I think for me genuinely, it's just been so surreal. It's impossible, I think, for me to have any more expectations at this point.

It's been lovely. Thank you for having me, and I really appreciate your questions and taking the time.

Human scum. You know, our writer received a lot of death threats, a lot of anti-Semitic remarks as a result of that usage of words.

For the beginning and the end of the scenes, which weren't there, you know, we had a lot of the middle of the bulk of what we needed, right? That was written, but there were many times where we needed to kind of like find out about what surrounded it. And, you know, that was part of what I did to prepare many times the night before with this scene and other scenes where...

I would very kind of surgically construct an improvisation in his way of speaking that I would get from various interviews that I'd collected over time and things that he had said to Barbara Walters and Larry King and many things that he had said to Ed Koch and all kinds of footage that I'd placed together.

Well, that's a really great question, and it's one where there's no real clear answer that I can give you. It's a mixed bag. It's a mixed bag. I mean, in a lot of ways, a lot of things look very predictable to me, especially having studied him for this film. The victimhood, blaming, the revenge tactics, all that we go in-depth in the film that he had...

absorbed from Roy Cohn, you really do see, I think even if you look at the inauguration, I mean, and even at the debate, right, with Kamala Harris, I mean, you really see what we talk about in the movie of these sort of ways he's learned to flip it around on the other person and kind of just always just be denying reality and reshaping the truth as long as it fits his narrative.

And the complete, utter lack of Lack of acceptance for any criticism or any wrongdoing or anything whatsoever. So it's eerily familiar. It's predictable. It's...

Also, I may say tragic because I guess for me, you know, I also feel like I saw a version of this overweight kid that was paranoid and insecure and desperate for attention that was made to pay a big price at daddy's big betrayal, sending him off to military school where he had to kind of

you know, whatever happened there that dehumanized him further and the revenge that he's been enacting out, you know. And at the same time, it's hard not to sort of find some of it upsetting as well because I do feel so much of it is rage and anger that's been suppressed and undealt with that we're all having to kind of just, you know, deal with and pay a price for.

Well, I think as an actor, you have to kind of go through a process where you look at what are the things here that I feel that are useful for me to do this in the right way that it's asking of me. And what are the things that I feel that are going to work against me? And then you have to sort of become an investigator. And you have to, in a way, be a bodyguard to the character you're playing.

And I've wrestled with a degree of powerlessness as a child that I felt growing up as a result of A lot of change that happened very quickly in formative years where I didn't feel safe and changing countries and changing schools and changing homes and caretakers coming and going and so on. And that's affected my life in a certain way.

But I would argue nowhere near the degree of powerlessness that I feel today. He must have gone through in order to create such an ulterior ego to the extent that he has because that's what I really see it's about with him. It's always power and mistrust and paranoia and everything is transactional. That's how he operates.

68 stories tall, 28 sides, a million square feet. Every unit will have amenities like you wouldn't believe, and the high floors have exceptional views over Central Park. The lobby, the floors will all be marble, pink Paradiso marble from Italy.

It will have the largest atrium in the world, a 60-foot waterfall spanned by shops and retail and restaurants, and I think it's gonna be something very special.

You're not, Mr. Mayor, because I'm building a 68-story building that's going to employ 5,000 construction workers.

And you're being a very unfair guy. Because, frankly, what do you know about me? What do you know about the amount of money that I made on my own? You don't know anything, to be perfectly honest, Mr. Mayor. You don't know me at all. But you will. You'll never forget me after this, because I won't forget what you just did.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Well, I mean, I would say that Trump did not sound like Trump when he was in his mid to late 30s, which is when that was sort of happening. And I think that I did make some conscious choices very carefully with the voice, not only just to honor the age and what he sounded like at the time, which to me sounded very different than today, but also...

to not lean into it as much as it's become popular to do. Um, because a big challenge with this role, um, was obviously to avoid falling into caricature and into sort of the version, um, of a cartoon that he's somewhat become. Um, one would argue even willingly on his own part. whether he's aware of that or not.

Because the voice along with mannerisms and other physical characteristics that he has that we've become so

accustomed to and we've been so oversaturated with, really had to be kind of very, I had to very carefully select and maneuver them and kind of earn them over the period of time of the movie, very much like he did as he grew into what we see today, but in part because I needed to bring audience in on this journey as opposed to alienating them from the beginning with what they've already sort of know and expect.

That whole clip actually was improvised, yes. The scene in the script, as it was written, it started out with, you know, it just said, Donald finishes introducing Trump Tower, and he sits down and he goes, well, what do you think, Mr. Mayor? And he goes, oh, very fascinating, what do you call it?

But in the manner that we had been shooting, by the time we got to the scene, I was already prepared to... sort of have something ready because our director was always encouraging. And really, the script was asking for this. You know, it was always asking for...