Donald Trump biopic director says 'he'd like former president for film’s marketing team' after scathing attack
14 October 2024, 19:34
The director of a film about Donald Trump has told LBC he would like to have the former president onboard to help market the project after he gave a scathing review on social media.
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Ali Abbasi, the director of the Apprentice film about Mr Trump's early business career, said the biopic was "very fair, very balanced" despite the 2024 presidential hopeful's claim it was a "disgusting hatchet job".
The film, which came out last week, has faced several hurdles - including an attempt by Mr Trump to have its release legally blocked.
Mr Trump said on his social media site Truth Social that the film was "cheap" and "defamatory", and constituted an attempt to swing the presidential election, to be held in under a month.
Mr Abbasi joked that when he first saw Mr Trump's post he told himself: "I wish I could retain him for our marketing team, but I know he's busy."
Read more: Nigel Farage insists Trump will be 'proven right' about migrants eating pet cats and dogs
He added that Mr Trump had "got under his own skin".
"Frankly, I think he should be thankful to us and the team. We spent six years of our lives trying to understand him on a human level. I think we've been very fair, very balanced," Mr Abbasi said.
"I think we have really delivered on a humanistic approach. And we've had so many venues to take a cheap shot at this guy, and his family and his relatives and everything which we didn't. So, I'm really proud of what we did."
Mr Abbasi told Andrew that he would be open to meeting Mr Trump for a discussion of the film - despite not sharing his politics.
"Do I disagree with a lot of his politics? Absolutely. Do I think that calling people eating cats and dogs is loony and crazy? [a reference to Mr Trump's claim that some migrants are eating people's pets] Yes.
"But as a courtesy, as someone who has actually ethical principles that I adhere to, if I do a movie about a guy who is a living person, I need to be available. I need to be responsible and responsive.
"And anytime and anywhere, I would offer to talk to him and explain whatever he wants to know."
The Apprentice stars Sebastian Stan as Mr Trump, Jeremy Strong as his lawyer Roy Cohn and Maria Bakalova as his first wife Ivana.
