Why Trump biopic The Apprentice was censored in Hong Kong
The controversial movie starring Sebastian Stan that chronicles Donald Trump’s rise to power was cut for its Hong Kong cinema release
Controversial Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice began showing in Hong Kong cinemas on Thursday – despite an official release date of November 28 – but the film had not escaped local censors beforehand.
Directed by Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider), The Apprentice stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and chronicles his rise to power as a property tycoon in New York during the 1970s and ’80s, up until the publication of his ghostwritten book The Art of the Deal in 1987.
Trump’s fraught relationships with his father (played by Martin Donovan), older brother Fred Jnr (Charlie Carrick) and first wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) are featured in some detail, but the primary focus of the narrative is his mentorship by the contentious prosecutor Roy Cohn, played on-screen by Succession star Jeremy Strong.
It was Cohn who schooled Trump in his bullish negotiation tactics: to always attack opponents, never admit to being wrong and to always claim victory.
Beyond Trump’s questionable business practices, The Apprentice does not shy away from his personal misgivings either, openly detailing his infidelities, impotence and racial prejudices, as well as his liposuction and scalp-reduction surgeries, the latter of which led to his infamously bizarre hairstyle.
