Sebastian Stan, who starred as Donald Trump in the 2024 biographical drama “The Apprentice,” has offered his blunt assessment of the president since his return to office.The actor, in remarks to reporters in Cannes on Tuesday, shook his head for several seconds after The Hollywood Reporter’s Jada Yuan asked him how his understanding of Trump has “evolved” since the film premiered at the city’s renowned festival two years ago.“It’s just not a laughing matter, to be honest. It isn’t,” said Stan after media members chuckled over his non-verbal response to the question.“I think we’re in a really, really bad place. I really do.”Stan revealed that those involved with “The Apprentice” were unsure if the film would play at Cannes just three days before the 2024 festival.“To be honest with you, when you’re looking at what’s happening, which is... the consolidation of the media, censorship, the threats, the supposed lawsuits that seemingly never end but don’t actually go anywhere,” he said of the current Trump administration.“You know, the writing was on the wall. We encountered all that with the movie.”Stan, who returned to Cannes to promote his upcoming film “Fjord,” said he’s “still purging” himself from his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Trump.“The Apprentice,” directed by Ali Abbasi, depicts Trump’s time as a real estate developer in the 1970s and ’80s as well as his relationship with his late lawyer Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong).Trump didn’t appear to be a fan of the movie and used his Truth Social platform to whine that it was “a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job.”Those behind the film, which dropped amid Trump’s 2024 campaign, were hit with a cease-and-desist letter from the then-former president’s attorneys.A campaign spokesperson also threatened to sue over the film, although his legal team hasn’t filed one in the two years since.Sebastian Stan says what's happening in America under Donald Trump is "not a laughing matter.""I think we’re in a really, really bad place. I really do. And to be honest with you, when you’re looking at what’s happening, right now -- if we’re talking about the consolidation of… pic.twitter.com/xQJnDaWBUF— Variety (@Variety) May 19, 2026Stan himself was apparently met with pushback, as well.The actor has claimed that an unnamed Hollywood executive advised him against taking the role and revealed that he wasn’t invited to participate in Variety’s “Actors on Actors” interview series in 2024. On Tuesday, Stan wondered whether people are paying “more attention” to the 2024 movie now, before arguing that it could “stand the test of time” due to the pushback around its release.“We went through all of it, way before Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and so on,” said Stan in a nod to the Trump administration’s war on late-night TV.“So — wish it wasn’t like that.”Close