I'm Still So Shocked That the Academy Recognized Sebastian Stan's Performance in 'The Apprentice'

Of all the acting nominees announced at this year's Oscars, the one that truly shocked me was Sebastian Stan getting a Best Actor nod for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice. In a year when Stan had two outstanding films on his resume, I had figured that if he were to get nominated, it would be for the less controversial A Different Man, especially after knowing that it got a Makeup and Hairstyling nod. But the Oscars did something bold — for once — and decided to draw attention to a movie that mainstream Hollywood seemed abjectly terrified of. This speaks both to how increasingly international the Oscars' voting body is becoming, and how Stan's performance is one that was impossible to ignore, even under such chaotic circumstances.

Sebastian Stan's Performance in 'The Apprentice' Is an X-Ray Into Donald Trump's Soul

The irony of Stan's uphill battle to get a nomination is how much his performance is the kind that the Oscars are usually quick to fawn over. In creating a full portrait of the evolution of Trump, as he goes from uncertain and ambitious real estate developer to ruthless pop culture mogul, Stan builds a portrait that is far more detailed and compelling than many of the SNL parodies we've had to sit through over the years. It's needless to say that he totally nails all of Trump's signature mannerisms — not just his lip posture and emphatic speech patterns, but even smaller gestures like how he puts his hands on his hips or his body being in a paradoxical state of lackadaisical composure at most times. Framing the story as how Trump was "created" via his mentorship by notorious lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) grants Stan the permission to gradually lean more into the caricature of Trump, turning his life story into one of ghoulish performance art that he's steadily refined as the years go on. It's a risk that pays off, becoming nauseatingly tragic in the irony of us recognizing his humanity the more he willingly divorces himself from it.

Hollywood Was Too Scared To Talk about Sebastian Stan in 'The Apprentice'

It's just a shame that nobody seemed to want to see or talk about Stan's performance, at least here in America. He did get a BAFTA Best Actor nod, but native awards nominations were few and far between, keeping in line with the constant ballyhoo about what headaches acknowledging The Apprentice's existence could bring to Hollywood. This was never more noticeable than when the awards season finally rolled around, and Variety announced their Actors on Actors interview lineup, and Sebastian Stan was nowhere to be found. The Actors on Actors series is now considered an essential part of awards campaigning, and an actor not doing it is severely handicapping their chances of being recognized. It was so egregious an act of quiet censorship that Stan himself took a page from Trump's book and used the media to, in a way, fight back:

"It’s been revealing to see how hesitant people are... I’ve had people come up to me at parties, saying it’s their favorite film of the year, but when it comes to supporting it publicly, there’s silence. That part of it has been tough."

Given the Oscars' still-deserved reputation for being timid in their embrace of anything remotely scary or controversial, plus the fact that the film bombed miserably at the box office, the idea of them bothering to shake things up seemed non-existent. Yet here we are, with Stan being the fifth nominee for Best Actor, in the same group as long-expected nominees like Adrien Brody and Timothée Chalamet.

How Did Sebastian Stan Pull This Controversial Oscar Nomination Off?

If I were to speculate on how Stan managed to pull this off, I have three suggestions. First, he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor for A Different Man, which boosted his profile and gave him a chance to vouch for himself as someone awards voters should keep an eye on, even if he was ultimately not nominated for an Oscar for A Different Man. Winning precursor awards is always a key to guaranteeing future success. Second, the Oscars' voting body has grown increasingly international in recent years, as has been shown with the wins for more eccentric, bold films like Poor Things and Everything Everywhere All At Once, and The Apprentice generally got a slightly warmer reception in other countries compared to America. Plus, the performances of Stan and Jeremy Strong were regularly considered the film's strongest elements, so it makes sense that those would be the two nods that broke through.

Third, and most importantly, Sebastian Stan's performance proved effective for enough Academy voters in private, lack of public affection be damned. Despite A Different Man being an arguably more complex and thorny performance, his work in The Apprentice was more up the Academy's alley — being a transformation into a public figure everyone knows — and it fits in as a continued evolution of Stan's love affair with examining the mental demons that drive toxic masculine ideology. Fittingly enough, Stan broke through the opposition and got the nomination by betting on himself and not taking no for an answer.