Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison and the 'Boogie Nights' soundtrack make up 'The Apprentice' stars Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan's ultimate record collection. But how did Stan nearly end up in the most disastrous stage adaptation of all time?
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Admit nothing. Deny everything.
00:05You think you can beat the US government?
00:08Rule three.
00:09No matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat.
00:14I record everything in case I need it.
00:16Well, that's illegal.
00:17You have to be willing to do anything to anyone to win.
00:21Hi, I'm Alex from NME and today I'm joined by the stars of new film The Apprentice.
00:25It's Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan. How are we doing?
00:27Good, how are you?
00:29I'm going to list a couple of films and I want to see if you can work out what they have in common.
00:35The Last Temptation of Christ, A Clockwork Orange, Monty Python's Life of Brian and John Waters' Pink Flamingos.
00:42What do they have in common?
00:43Yeah. At some point they've all been banned in the United States of America.
00:48Oh, wow. Interesting.
00:49And of course your film wasn't banned, but at any point did you think that maybe people might not get to see it?
00:57Yeah, I mean it came very close to being blocked and not allowed to be shown in America, which was really unsettling and troubling.
01:08And even though we sort of narrowly escaped the jaws of censorship, it almost tipped the other way and I find that very dark.
01:19Is it possible though that more people might see the film now because of that controversy?
01:23I think so. I mean, an interesting thing about the opening weekend that we had in the US, which we learned about, was that actually the numbers from Friday to Sunday grew.
01:34Usually it's the other way around. You have a Friday spike and then Saturdays a little less than Sundays, but with ours it sort of grew.
01:41And I think thanks to Donald Trump yesterday, you know, more people will get to see it.
01:49Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Trump.
01:51You know, the thing about being censored, I guess I would say I do think more people will see it given the controversy.
01:59But I think people should see it not because of the controversy, but because I think it's essential if you care about this election or the United States or, for that matter, the world right now.
02:13I think there are things in this film that are essential to understanding who Donald Trump is and how he was made.
02:18And the fact that he felt compelled to call us human scum and denounce the film, to me, means there's something in it that he finds threatening.
02:30And that's all the more reason for everyone to see it.
02:32So do you think if he didn't find it threatening?
02:35I think he just would not comment on it. But something about the film has provoked him.
02:40Now, that's not what we set out to do. We're not trying to defame him or vilify him.
02:45We're trying to tell an accurate story of these historical figures.
02:52And it's based on historical record and written by a journalist.
02:56So, you know, I think it's a pretty responsible and even humanizing portrait of Donald Trump and Roy Cohn.
03:06One second, listen, because I'm rich, I'm handsome, I have a great family, I'm going to be the number one builder in New York.
03:13Listen to me. You're going to have a life you can't even dream of, Ivana, with me. I love you.
03:19Are you two the kind of actors who make playlists for your characters for a film?
03:24I had a lot of Donna Summer.
03:26Oh, really?
03:27I had the La Caja Fall original cast album, among other things.
03:33Yeah.
03:34Yeah, music is... I always listen to certain music around character.
03:42I play the Rocky theme quite often, weirdly.
03:46Oh, really?
03:47Which I can see him doing.
03:49That's great.
03:50It was just on repeat. It's just you're always in the arena, you know.
03:54But one question we ask everyone we interview is, what's an album you always go back to?
04:00I don't know. I like instrumental music. I feel like it's good. I like... But I can't think.
04:08I think the Boogie Nights soundtrack is pretty good, actually, if you think about an album.
04:15Astral Weeks.
04:17Van Morrison?
04:18Yeah, probably.
04:19Do you remember when you first heard that album? What did it do to you?
04:22A long time ago.
04:23You know, it's transportive and it's a pretty perfect album.
04:26Yeah.
04:27Nebraska. Springsteen's Nebraska.
04:29Yeah. Which is interesting as well, because there are rumours that you were maybe going to join that new biopic.
04:34Yeah, I am. But I'd always felt that way about that album.
04:37Why that album and not maybe one of the other albums?
04:40Something about Nebraska just always spoke to me. There's a melancholy to it. There's a narrative to it.
04:47It comes from a very deep place in him and you can feel that.
04:52Have either of you run across any of those artists that you really admire?
04:56I actually auditioned, never got it, for the Spider-Man musical that Bono wrote the music for.
05:06Yeah, I did a workshop and at one point they were workshopping it. It doesn't mean you have the part or whatever.
05:14And at one point they were like, oh, Bono's going to be watching it.
05:17So anyway, that was as close as I got, but he clearly didn't get that part.
05:23Thanks so much for chatting to me, guys. It's been an absolute pleasure.
05:27We have a brand new campaign slogan. Let's make America great again.
05:32Hmm. Well, I like the again part.
05:43Yeah.