Sebastian Stan at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 5, 2025; Donald Trump in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 25, 2024. Photo:
John Nacion/GG2025/Penske Media/Getty ; Anna Moneymaker/Getty
- Sebastian Stan said in the press room at the 2025 Golden Globes that playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice was his “most challenging” role to date
- He also reflected on the “big risk” of his role in A Different Man, and how they relate
- Stan won best performance by a leading actor in a musical or comedy film for A Different Man
Sebastian Stan is reflecting on one of his biggest roles of the year: playing real-life businessman-turned-President Donald Trump in The Apprentice.
After accepting the trophy for best performance by a leading actor in a musical or comedy film for A Different Man at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 5, the 42-year-old star was asked in the press room about his “most challenging” role to date.
“Without a doubt, the man in orange, right? Donald Trump, definitely the hardest,” said Stan, quickly following up with a nod to his work on A Different Man.
“And that is not to diminish why I’m up here right now talking to you,” he went on. “I think this in itself is really difficult. There was a big risk in terms of what it speaks to and trying to walk into somebody else’s shoes who has more -osis, like Adam Pearson. So that had its own challenges as well, and I wanted to do that right.”
Stan continued, “But in terms of when I look back at the nice sleepless nights and the responsibility that I feel I carried and I still feel … it’s about The Apprentice and wanting to do the best that I can to honor out the boss division and to offer further perspective on something that I think we’re all inevitably having to do.”
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Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in The Apprentice (2024). Briarcliff Entertainment
Directed by Ali Abbasi, The Apprentice follows a young Trump, 78, decades before his presidency, during his beginnings as a real-estate mogul in New York City.
During a November 2024 screening of the film in Los Angeles, Stan said that he was invited to participate in Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ series, but couldn’t ultimately take part because he ran into difficulty being matched with another performer, according to Buzzfeed.
“They were too afraid to go and talk about this movie, so I couldn’t do it,” Stan claimed at the Nov. 19 event, the outlet reported. “And it doesn’t matter, that’s OK. It’s not to point a finger at anybody — I’ve got to do a lot of great things.”
He also said there wasn’t “anyone specific,” at fault, adding, “We couldn’t get past the publicists or the people representing them because they were too afraid to talk about this movie.”
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Sebastian Stan at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 5, 2025. CBS
Stan was nominated twice at Sunday’s ceremony: once for The Apprentice and once for A Different Man, the latter of which he nabbed over Jesse Eisenberg, Hugh Grant, Gabriel LaBelle, Jesse Plemons and Glen Powell.
Calling A Different Man “not an easy” movie to make, Stan said in his acceptable speech, “Our ignorance and discomfort around disability and disfigurement has to end now.”
“We have to normalize it and continue to expose ourselves to it and our children encourage acceptance. One way we can do that is by continuing to champion stories that are inclusive,” the actor continued, in part.
The Apprentice and A Different Man are available to rent or buy on demand now.
See PEOPLE’s full coverage of the 82nd annual Golden Globes ceremony, which were broadcast live from The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on CBS and Paramount+.
