With less than a month until the presidential election, Jeremy Strong's new movie, The Apprentice, is causing a stir. The film centers on a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) as he’s trying to establish himself in his father’s business as a real estate developer. Strong plays Roy Cohn , Trump's attorney and mentor.
In May, Trump's attorneys sent a cease and desist letter , trying to block the film's U.S. release.
The Apprentice opens Friday. "No one would touch this movie. The studios were afraid to touch it.
The streamers were afraid to touch it," Strong says. "They were afraid of litigation. And they were afraid of repercussions from a possible Trump administration.
" In a statement to the Associated Press , Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said that the Trump team will file a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.” Strong notes that the move to block the movie seems straight out of Cohn's playbook: "Deny, deflect, delay. .
.. If you do that vociferously and loudly enough, you will make it so.
" In 1954, Cohn served as chief counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Senate investigations into Communist influence in the U.S.
government. Cohn and McCarthy also collaborated on an executive order banning gay people from serving in the federal government. Cohn died in 1986 shortly after being disbarred.
Strong is no stranger to difficult or unlikable characters. He won an Emmy for his portrayal of Kendall Roy in Succession , and .