“Hollywood Passed On ‘The Apprentice’ For Fear Of Repercussions,” Says Star Jeremy Strong

Jeremy Strong has ignited Oscar chat with his performance in The Apprentice as Roy Cohn, Donald Trump’s mentor and lawyer during his hinterland as a property developer in Manhattan, but he’s revealed that every studio initially passed on the project. 

Strong told The Times of London that the film, co-starring Sebastian Stan as Trump, did not find US distribution for months.

He said: “I found it profoundly disturbing and a dark harbinger of things to come. Frankly, everyone in Hollywood passed on it because they were afraid of litigation or repercussions. I don’t think Hollywood has ever been a bastion of bravery, but that was disappointing.”

The film lays out Trump’s life in the 1970s, when he took over the family property business and began his empire-building under the tutelage of Cohn. 

Strong calls it a “Frankeinstein movie” saying: “They told us not to frame it like that, but let’s be honest. Cohn’s malign legacy is one of denial and that is what he passed on to Trump: this detestation of the world and a need to punish and act out with hatred.”