The early Trump, whom Stan encountered in hours and hours of television interviews and documentaries he consumed while preparing for the role, really was rather different than the man who has dominated our national life for the last decade, Stan argued. “There is a dreamer there,” he said. “There is some idealism about America and New York and what it could be.”
As the ’70s turns to the 1980s, the movie’s Trump becomes far less sympathetic. Having disburdened himself of his need for a connected father-figure, he betrays Cohn, a gay man dying of AIDS. He rapes his wife, Ivana (who detailed an assault by Trump under oath but later clarified, “I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense”).
“What I’ve always seen in his journey, and certainly what we were exploring in the film,” Stan added, “was the solidifying of a person into stone, the loss of humanity.”
When Stan received the offer to play Trump three years ago, he had already branched out beyond Bucky Barnes with the roles of Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband to Tonya Harding who plotted the violent attack on Nancy Kerrigan, in “I, Tonya,” and Tommy Lee, of Mötley Crüe and sex-tape fame, in the Hulu limited series “Pam & Tommy” — in other words, real people who dominated tabloid pages in the 1990s (and probably shared a few with Trump).
“The Marvel of it all,” Stan said, has contributed to his willingness to take on riskier roles. Bucky Barnes “allowed me to, one, have the opportunity to survive,” he explained. “But coming back to that character over time and getting to do certain things with that character allowed me to look for its core opposite.”
Even so, he said he took seriously the several people he polled for advice — a studio executive, a casting director — who advised him to say no to playing Trump. But ultimately he accepted the part, betting on artistic growth.
Content Source: www.nytimes.com