Ali Abbasi, the director of the controversial Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice,” has checked himself into the Trump International Hotel & Tower for the film’s New York City premiere.
“I feel like this is Trump International, and I’m International, and I did a Trump movie. So I think this is a marriage made in heaven,” the Iranian-Danish filmmaker said with a laugh Monday afternoon during a Zoom video call from his hotel room. “Also, I was curious. I wanted to sort of experience the Trump luxury, but it’s not. It’s not as luxurious as you would think.”
Abbasi gives a quick tour of the room. He points to a basic white floor lamp. “It’s not really a Trump lamp,” he said. “It’s very basic. The floor is not super clean. The outlets are a bit dirty. This is not very impressive for an executive suite. By my education, I’m an architect and this is not the kind of thing you expect from Trump.”
Abbasi realizes that his hotel stay could be viewed as a publicity stunt more than anything else. “I’m thinking it should be whatever helps the movie,” he said. “If I need to scale up the building, I’ll do it. But I have to say there is this strange pleasure of sitting under his name and writing on a piece of paper with his name on it.”
Variety has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
The film, starring Sebastian Stan as the former president during his younger years as a real estate developer in New York City and Maria Bakalova as his first wife Ivanka, premiered at the Cannes film festival in May. At the same time, the Trump campaign threatened legal action over the movie with a spokesman blasting the film as “garbage” and “fiction.”
Trump lawyers also sent a cease and desist letter warning the team behind the movie not to pursue a distribution deal.
“The Apprentice” includes depictions of Trump popping amphetamine pills, getting liposuction, having surgery to remove his bald spot and a scene in which he violently throws Ivanka to the ground and proceeds to have nonconsensual sex with her.
Abbasi has maintained that he’d welcome the chance to screen the movie for Trump as well as talk to him about the project. “I feel like if I was in a fight with Sid Vicious, I wouldn’t want to go and talk to his lawyers,” Abbasi said. “I would want to go and throw a cake in his face because it’s punk rock. I want to answer punk rock with punk rock. I don’t want to go down the boring way.”
Abbasi said he has not extended an invitation to the premiere to Trump or his children.
The film’s New York premiere takes place Oct. 8. Along with Abbasi, Stan, and Bakalova, Jeremy Strong, who plays Trump mentor Roy Cohn, is expected to be in attendance.
“The Apprentice” is in theaters only on Oct. 11.
