Sebastian Stan is up for an Oscar for his portrayal of President Trump early in his career, when Roy Cohn was his lawyer and mentor. Stan says Cohn schooled Trump in "denying reality and reshaping the truth." He spoke with Terry Gross about his childhood in Romania, wearing prosthetics for A Different Man, and his breakthrough role on Law & Order.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. My guest, Sebastian Stan, is nominated for an Oscar for his starring role as Donald Trump in the film The Apprentice. It begins in 1973 when Trump is 27, still working for his father's real estate development company and trying to make a name for himself. The company is being sued for discriminating against black people in its rental units.
Trump convinces his father to hire Roy Cohn as their attorney. Cohn was infamous for being the chief counsel to Senator Joe McCarthy's Senate investigation into suspected communists. Cohn becomes Trump's mentor, teaching him how to admit nothing and deny everything, go on the attack, and intimidate through the threat of lawsuits or through actually filing lawsuits.
Cohn is played by Jeremy Strong, who's also nominated for an Oscar. Last month, Stan won a Golden Globe for his starring role in A Different Man, as a man who's disfigured by a genetic condition that has grown fleshy tumors on his face. The tumors disappear after taking a new drug, and he emerges quite attractive, but remains alienated and withdrawn from other people.
In the film I, Tonya, Sebastian Stan played Tonya Harding's boyfriend, who plots to disable her ice skating competitor Nancy Kerrigan. In the miniseries Pam and Tommy, he played Tommy Lee, Motley Crue's drummer and Pamela Anderson's husband. A lot of Stan's fans know him from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Bucky Barnes, a recurring character in the Captain America films.
Let's start with a scene from The Apprentice. Trump is planning to build Trump Tower and is trying to convince New York City Mayor Ed Koch that it will be so extraordinary, Koch should give him tax breaks. It will be so good for New York. Roy Cohn is also in the room. You'll hear him jumping into the conversation.
I really think this is going to be one of the most exceptional buildings anywhere in the world. And frankly, there's never been anything like it. 68 stories tall, 28 sides, a million square feet. Every unit will have amenities like you wouldn't believe. And the high floors have exceptional views over Central Park. The lobby, the floors will all be marble, pink Paradiso marble from Italy.
We'll have the largest atrium in the world, a 60-foot waterfall spanned by shops and retail and restaurants. And I think it's going to be something very special. Frankly, there's not been anything. And what are you going to call it?
Trump Tower. Trump Tower. Oh, that's interesting.
Look, he has a great track record. So we think this is a very reasonable ask.
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