Sebastian Stan's stint in the MCU as Bucky Barnes began with Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011 and his most recent appearance was the Disney+ miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in 2021. Stan is also set to star in the MCU's Thunderbolts movie, releasing in May 2025.
Outside the safe confines of the MCU, Stan has recently begun branching out with some bold and daring roles. In 2022, he played a charming cannibal in the movie Fresh and starred as the Mötley Crüe drummer and subject of a sex tape scandal in the Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy, which earned him an Emmy nomination. In 2024, Stan starred in A24's A Different Man as an actor with a disfiguring facial condition, and played a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice, with both performances earning him Golden Globe nominations.
Sebastian Stan Had Panic Attacks Because Of The Apprentice
The Film Was Shrouded In Controversy
Sebastian Stan recalls having panic attacks while preparing for his controversial role in The Apprentice, which was almost played by a woman. Directed by Ali Abbasi, with a script written by Gabriel Sherman, the film follows the early years of Donald Trump's career as a real estate businessman in New York during the 1970s and 1980s under the mentorship of the equally controversial Roy Cohn. Sebastian Stan leads The Apprentice cast as Donald Trump alongside Succession's Jeremy Strong, Martin Donovan, and Maria Bakalova.
During a recent appearance on The Hollywood Reporter's annual Actor Roundtable alongside Daniel Craig, Paul Mescal, Colman Domingo, and Adrien Brody, Sebastian Stan recalled having panic attacks while preparing for The Apprentice since "there was not enough time to gain weight, and the prosthetics test failed badly." The actor also revealed that two weeks before filming began, director Ali Abbasi told him he was originally going to cast a woman to play Trump. Read Stan's full comments below:
I was having panic attacks every night. There was not enough time to gain weight, and the prosthetics test failed badly, so I was fucked. And not only that, but the director, two weeks out, goes, “Originally, I was going to cast a woman to play Trump.” ... Why are you fucking telling me this two weeks before?! I’m going to die.
What Sebastian Stan's Comments Mean For The Apprentice
Production Was Even More Troubled
Because of its occasionally unflattering and controversial portrayal of Donald Trump, The Apprentice was involved in numerous controversies from producer Dan Snyder pulling his to Trump's legal team attempting to block its release. In turn, the film struggled to find an American distributor, and despite an eventual limited release from Briarcliff Entertainment, the film struggled to reach its full financial potential, making only $12 million at the box office against its $16 million budget.
The Apprentice Review: Sebastian Stan’s Uncanny Trump Performance Is Award-Winning In Striking Biopic
While the film is exactly what you'd expect, it comes with stunning performances and an exciting script that enchants you with its drama.
On top of that, there were also some struggles behind-the-scenes, as Sebastian Stan reveals, involving the restrictions of their shooting schedule and the failure of their prosthetics. Despite these struggles, Stan turned in a surprisingly humanizing performance as Donald Trump in a film that provides a fair and balanced portrayal of the former and future president. Casting a woman, which Sebastian Stan reveals was a possibility, wouldn't have worked since it would likely have resulted in an SNL-like parody.
Source: THR
