Director of ‘Apprentice’ Film — Containing Trump Rape Scene — Taunts Trump Over Lawsuit Threat At Global Presser

Director Ali Abbasi taunted ex-President Donald Trump at a press conference for his film The Apprentice — which contains a Trump rape scene — over the Trump campaign’s threat to sue over the film.

The Apprentice stars Marvel Cinematic Universe star Sebastian Stan as a young Trump in a film written by Gabe Sherman, who is best known for his long history of Fox News hit pieces but has also done extensive reporting on Trump.

The film has drawn a lawsuit threat from the Trump campaign:

“We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked. As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.”

The film includes a depiction of the rape allegation that Trump’s now-deceased first wife Ivana Trump made and later retracted.

After receiving an 8-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival premiere, the film’s stars and creators took questions at a press conference in Cannes.

Gunnar Rhelin of Variety asked Abbasi about the threat, and the director drew laughter and applause with by zinging Trump, but then insisted Trump wouldn’t dislike the film if he saw it:

GUNNAR REHLIN: Fantastic. Thank you. Just. Yes. In the front. Hi, Gunnar Rhelin from Sweden. I am, it’s all over the news today that the Trump Organization is threatening with a lawsuit against the film. Could anyone comment on that?

ALI ABBASI: I mean, it’s with you. You’re news. I’m the filmmaker.

GUNNAR REHLIN: Are you scared of that?

ALI ABBASI: I mean, everybody talks about, him suing a lot of people. They don’t talk about his success rate though, you know. (laughter and applause)

GABE SHERMAN: We encourage them to actually see the film. Clearly they haven’t yet.

ALI ABBASI: And also I think it is — if I was him, I would be sitting in, New Jersey, Florida or wherever he is now, or New York, and I would thinking, “Oh, this like crazy random guy and some like, liberal cunts in Cannes. They gathered and they, they did this movie and it’s like fucked up and, you know, it’s like, you know, the meaning and it’s a conspiracy.”

But, as you say, I really think that — I don’t necessarily think that this is a movie that, you know, he would dislike.

I don’t necessarily think he would like it. I think that he — I think he would be surprised. You know, and I, you know, like I said before, like I would be happy —

I would offer him to go and meet him wherever he wants and then talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards. You know, if if that’s, interesting for anyone you know, of Trump campaign people here.

Watch above via Festival de Cannes.

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