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Ali Abbasi, the director of the film hit back at the brutal assessment of his film by Trump during an interview with LBC. The director was not hesitant to make a few quips as he responded to Trump’s outburst. Trump slammed The Apprentice a film which explored the early years of his life when he was a young businessman and not the former president of the United States. He termed the film as “fake” and “classless” in a post on the Truth Social platform at midnight on October 14.
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Ali Abbasi claps back at Trump
The former president criticised the film as he called it a “pile of garbage”, “scum” and “cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job” in his recent post. Abbasi responded to Trump in an interview on LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr show.
He fired back as he claimed that it was interesting that his film was being considered a flop when the“weekly ratings for the movie combined are bigger than all the people who went to Trump’s rallies this week”.
In the film, Trump’s former lawyer, Roy Cohn, who acted as a mentor for him in his early days mentioned that there are three to achieve success in life– attack, attack, attack – admit nothing, deny everything – and always claim victory. Referring to the scene, Abbasi indicated that Trump is still following this advice.
The director said, “That’s the part of deny everything, admit nothing. The first part, ‘you’re scum, blah, blah, blah’ was attack, attack… It’s the third rule [of Roy Cohn] now playing. No matter how f****d you are, always claim victory,” as reported by Daily Express US.
Talking to host Amarr, Abassi felt that the former president “got under his own skin” and that he should be thankful to the film’s crew who spent six years “trying to understand him on a human level”.
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Trump promoted the film more than anyone
Abbasi revealed his initial response to Trump’s post was “I wish I could retain him for our marketing team, but I know he’s busy”.The film had a weak opening as it garnered just a bit over $1.5 million and secured tenth position at the box office, as reported by Forbes.
However, the film earned praise from critics as it received a 78% score and an 86% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The man behind the best picture winner Spotlight, Tom Ortenberg who is also chief of Briarcliff believed the movie will grow steadily. The opening weekend will not decide the film’s fate yet, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The director urged on the show that he is ready to meet the presidential nominee anytime and anywhere, and offer to talk to him and explain whatever he wants to know” regarding the film. He also revealed how he thought that it was Cohn who taught Trump the art of “fabricating reality as you see fit for your own purpose,” adding “And he was very good at it.”
He further said that believes Cohn was a “PR genius” as “he was one of the few people who understood when you want to talk to talk to people, you have to talk on their level, to their language, and not this sort of elevated media talk that was at the time…”
Netizens react to The Apprentice controversy
Netizens were divided over the film after Abbasi’s response to Trump as some believed that the film was propaganda while others felt some of the film must be true given Trump’s reaction to the movie. A user wrote on X, “Makes me want to buy a ticket even if I don’t go see it in the theater.” A second user wrote, “It must be a true inappropriate accounting of Donald Trump in order to trigger this response. He only gets heated when the truth is exposed.” A third user wrote, “All they have to do is turn his post into a billboard and the marketing for this movie is complete.”
Others who believed the movie to be propaganda wrote, “For sure, this is another attempt to stop the movement. Democrats are using all they can to harm President Trump. It won’t be successful, that’s for sure.” Another user wrote, “WE ALL KNOW IT WAS A HATCHET JOB. We got your back, Mr. President.”
