EXCLUSIVEThe Apprentice director says he thought about casting a WOMAN to play Trump in the film
The director of the forthcoming Sebastian Stan movie about young Donald Trump said he considered casting a woman in the lead role.
Director Ali Abbasi was in Washington, D.C. Sunday night to debut his film The Apprentice: An American Horror Story.
Despite legal threats from Trump's team, the film opens nationwide on Friday.
'There was a time before I started talking to Sebastian I thought that maybe it should be an actress playing Trump,' Abbasi revealed at the D.C. screening. 'Because I thought there was something awkward and off about his body language and I wanted to have that. I wanted to sort of play with that. And we tried it.'
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Abbasi wouldn't reveal which actresses he spoke to about portraying Trump on the big screen, though he did say that he reached out to Cate Blanchett for advice, as she did a 'great job' playing Bob Dylan.
The Apprentice director Ali Abbasi (right) speaks with Deadline's Ted Johnson (left) at a Washington, D.C. screening of the film that focuses on a young Donald Trump, who is played by Sebastian Stan
'I did talk to a few people about that and I was serious about it,' Abbasi said in an interview Monday.
'I did also overlays of young Donald's face and different actresses that I was considering,' he continued. 'I talked to my prosthetics person and tried to figure out how we could solve it if someone had the good proportions or not.'
Abbasi told DailyMail.com that he also conducted a voice test using a woman.
'And in the end, I think, I just felt like the whole thing became too gimmicky,' he said.
'It would go contrary to my goal, which was humanizing and, you know, capturing complexity. And it would become a movie about how you did that stunt,' the director said.
It also would have likely angered Trump even more than Stan's performance.
In 2017, on the heels of Melissa McCarthy dressing in drag and portraying White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live, the fact that McCarthy was a woman was the 'most problematic' part of the skit in the president's eyes, Politico reported.
A movie poster for the film, which will be released Friday, shows actor Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump. Director Ali Abbasi said he thought about casting a woman in the lead Trump role
Actor Sebastian Stan (right) plays a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice. He's opposite Maria Bakalova (left), who plays the Republican nominee's late first wife, Ivana Trump, in the film
Cast member Kate McKinnon also played Trump's first Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top Trump ally, and former New York City Rudy Giuliani, who became Trump's personal lawyer.
Aidy Bryant played Trump's second Attorney General Bill Barr.
Abbasi said he wasn't aware that Trump had been angered by women playing his top aides on the comedy show.
'We talk about it like it's a negative thing, but it doesn't need to be a negative thing,' Abbasi said of gender-bending performances. 'But I wasn't aware, I wasn't aware of this,' he said of Trump's anger related to women playing his aides and allies.
In the end, the pick of Stan for Trump felt right.
'I think one important thing with Sebastian is, he - and I've said that before - he's almost specialized in bringing sleazebags and douchebags to life,' Abbasi said. 'And give them like humanity and give them sort of, you feel for him. You feel for these characters. Without them being necessarily ridiculed.'
'And its' a very interesting talent, you know, it's not easy,' the director said.
