'Not safe': Sebastian Stan was warned against taking Donald Trump role

Sebastian Stan was warned playing Donald Trump was not "safe".

The 42-year-old star portrays the former US president in Ali Abbasi's movie The Apprentice, which delves into his early years as a real estate businessman in New York, and he admitted he was initially hesitant to take on the project after being warned against it.

He told Entertainment Weekly magazine: "My initial reaction is, 'Wow, how the hell am I going to do this.'

"I had people tell me not to do it. I had people tell me I don't look like him. I had people tell me that it's not safe for me to do it. I had people say that I shouldn't try to alienate half the country."

But ultimately, Sebastian found the concerns "weirdly motivating" because of his "very interesting relationship with fear."

Despite Trump being such a divisive figure, the actor believes there is a lot about him that people can relate to, with him connecting to the Republican's "innate need to succeed".

He said: "I understood that drive to rise, to overcome at whatever cost, and to win. I understood that simply from my own very, very small, humble beginnings with the American dream.

"We love a winner in this country. It's a fact that, to me, felt relatable in many ways."

Sebastian stars in the film opposite Jeremy Strong as Trump's notorious mentor Roy Cohn but the pair didn't get to know one another properly under filming ended because they were so committed to their characters.

He said: "I never saw him out of costume, and he never saw me out of costume. We never really met or spoke outside of the scenes or when we were on set."

Once filming had stopped, the Fresh actor went to see his co-star's Tony award-winning performance of An Enemy of the People on Broadway and called in on the Succession star's dressing room afterwards.

Jeremy said: "I felt like I was meeting him for the first time."

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