Actor says Trump ‘should be grateful’ for controversial film

Studio CanalActor Sebastian Stan portrays Trump in The ApprenticeThe star of a controversial new film about Donald Trump has said the former president "should be grateful" that it provides a "complex, three-dimensional take" on his life.
US actor Sebastian Stan portrays Trump in The Apprentice, which focuses on Trump's younger years as a real estate tycoon in New York.
The former president has threatened to take legal action against producers, describing the film as "fake and classless" and saying he hoped it would "bomb" at the box office.
The film struggled to find a distributor in the US and its director has described the process of making and releasing it as "the most challenging thing I've ever done".
The Apprentice is set in the 1970s and 80s, when Trump was beginning to make his name as a businessman in New York.
It focuses on his relationship with lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn (played by Succession's Jeremy Strong), who instilled certain values in Trump such as never admitting defeat.
Studio CanalSuccession star Jeremy Strong plays Trump's lawyer and mentor Roy CohnSpeaking to the BBC's Lizo Mzimba, Ali Abbasi said making and releasing the film was "by far the most challenging thing I've ever done" and acknowledged the difficulties of finding a distributor following the film's premiere in May.
"When we were at [film festival] Cannes and we got a standing ovation and everyone was so happy and flattering, I was thinking there was going to be a bidding war, do I want to go with Warner or Netflix, who do I want to pick?"
But in contrast to the director's expectations, Abbasi said he then found "it was extremely difficult for us to get a distributor" – likely due in part to Trump's threat to sue.
The Apprentice was eventually released in the US last week, but it has struggled at the box office there so far.
It received its British premiere at the London Film Festival on Tuesday evening ahead of its UK release on Friday.
Getty ImagesBulgarian actress Maria Bakalova plays Trump's first wife Ivana in The ApprenticeMore from the London Film Festival: