Simply shy of a month into Donald Trump’s second presidency, Jeremy Sturdy is seeing “The Apprentice” in a brand new gentle.
In a brand new cowl story with GQ, Sturdy spoke about how the themes of Ali Abbasi’s Trump origin story — for which he’s nominated for Greatest Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Trump mentor Roy Cohn — have taken on elevated relevance to him, as he sees Trump’s habits in workplace as a pure extension of the teachings that Cohn taught him within the Eighties.
“The movie has develop into, to me, extra of a horror film. It takes on a distinct resonance, and is harrowing to see now. I actually did really feel like I might really feel Roy Cohn hovering over the Capitol Rotunda just a few Mondays in the past, fist pumping,” Sturdy stated. “So the film has develop into scarier to me. Roy Cohn stated, and I say it within the film, ‘It is a nation of males, not legal guidelines.’ And so I feel what’s occurring proper now’s we’re stress testing that thesis in actual time.”
“The Apprentice” premiered on the 2024 Cannes Movie Competition, however struggled to search out U.S. distribution. It finally acquired a small launch from Briarcliff Leisure in October 2024, however Sturdy thinks historical past might have performed out in another way if extra individuals noticed the movie.
“I’ve considered this so much. I imply, I’m somebody who was deeply affected by watching sure films once I was rising up, and in plenty of methods, they knowledgeable plenty of my worldview. I keep in mind films like ‘Mississippi Burning’ or ‘The Killing Fields’, or ‘Midnight Specific,’” he stated. “These varieties of flicks had a huge effect on me. So I feel definitely for lots of the youthful individuals who didn’t vote, it could have moved the needle.”
Sturdy has lengthy been crucial of what he noticed as insufficient trade assist for “The Apprentice.” In a separate interview with Selection tied to his Dunkin’ Donuts Tremendous Bowl advert, Sturdy criticized the studios and distributors who handed on the movie over a concern of “repercussions.”
“It’s disheartening that the studios who ought to have launched this film — I received’t title them, however you already know who they’re — didn’t,” he stated. “It’s not as a result of the film isn’t good. It’s as a result of they had been afraid of repercussions, and doubtless have individuals on their boards who simply stated ‘no.’ The entire thing was scary. It felt like a harbinger of darker issues to come back, this type of insidious, quiet blacklisting. The enterprise of Hollywood didn’t present plenty of braveness.”