As a seasoned movie critic with a penchant for biographical dramas, I must say that “The Apprentice” is a masterful piece of cinematic artistry. The transformation of Sebastian Stan into Donald Trump is nothing short of extraordinary. The attention to detail, from his physical appearance to his mannerisms, is simply astounding.
In the movie “The Apprentice,” directed by Ali Abbasi, a scene occurs in which the character portrayed by Sebastian Stan, who represents Donald Trump, undergoes a hair restoration procedure to cover a bald patch and also receives liposuction for a sleeker appearance.
The movie chronicles Trump’s journey from a local property magnate in the 1970s to a prominent figure on the national stage in the 1980s. Mentored by Roy Cohn, a relentless and pleasure-seeking political mastermind, he learns the intricacies of power politics. Michelle Cote, head of hair department, together with prosthetics specialists Sean Sansom and Brandi Boulet, were the talented craftspeople who metamorphosed Stan into Trump and made the transformation convincing.
Over time, Donald Trump experiences hair loss and significant weight gain. In an attempt to combat this, he resorts to taking amphetamines, yet these efforts fail to yield the desired results.
Stan gained 15 pounds for the role to reflect Trump’s body transformation; the costume department also made a padded suit with a prosthetic belly. “Any of the scenes where his shirt was off or his robe was open, we’d put the fake piece on him,” says Boulet. The team used the prosthetic abdomen for a look they nicknamed “Pills Donny.”
Boulet explains that they created a false stomach for Sebastian as part of his ‘Pills Donny’ appearance, which was his preferred look to style because Sebastian was often portrayed as red, blotchy, constantly eating, sweating, and slightly untidy.
In the movie, Trump opted for plastic surgery, particularly a hair transplant, due to his baldness and weight increase. As depicted by Sansom, they utilized a fake head’s top with a synthetic scalp for this procedure. Michelle wore a wig, and a section was excised from it where the scalp would be extracted. The individual hairs were meticulously inserted one at a time into the scalp replica, which was equipped with a blood supply system. Additionally, the scalpel used also had a similar bloodline. Remarkably, this entire scene was filmed in just one day.
Initially, when audiences meet Trump, he’s significantly younger, so Boulet employed lift pieces on Stan’s face using prosthetics. As Boulet describes, “We stretched his cheeks and eyes to make him appear younger, tightening his overall facial features.” Additionally, he mentions that “for a more youthful skin tone, we made him slightly lighter than the deep orange hue he later became known for.
Cote even gave Stan a blonder wig with medium sideburns for that early phase of Trump. But it was an evolving look, with his eyebrows, hair and skin tone all changing as time passed. “When he’s younger, his hair was golden because he was outside more and had some natural highlights,” Cote explains. “As he got older, he lost his highlights and [his hair] became darker.”
To portray Trump’s aging process, Boulet decided to adjust Stan’s lift supports. Subsequently, cheek augmentations were incorporated to conceal the actor’s sharp facial features and prominent cheekbones. Samson clarifies, “He had an upper dental plate that didn’t cover his teeth completely. These protrusions beneath his lips enlarged the mouth area, making it appear flatter.” Furthermore, these prosthetics were inserted into the lower lip to achieve Trump’s distinctive facial appearance from his nose downwards.
One issue the team faced was dealing with Stan’s beard growth during our long shooting hours. As Stan’s facial hair would begin to grow after just a few hours of shaving, regular touch-ups became essential. “His shadow appears at five o’clock as soon as he starts shaving,” we said, “so we had to adapt by concealing it and blending the prosthetic.
Colin Penman, the makeup artist, shares his fascination as he watched Stan and Maria Bakalova (portraying Ivana Trump) reenact the 1988 Oprah Winfrey interview on screen. “I could sense we were onto something special,” he notes, “as there’s a delicate balance we aimed to maintain – avoiding parody, instead striving for authenticity.
Beyond his weight increase, Stan arrived well-equipped for the role and aimed to embody the spirit of the past president. “The production team had set aside a substantial collection of reference videos and images that everyone was utilizing,” notes Sansom. “Our goal was to recreate and replicate those images as accurately as possible.
Boulet notes, “Sebastian possessed an abundance of resources. His phone was jam-packed with studies, and he’d often start his day engrossed in reading materials or watching educational videos.
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2024-10-12 00:18