'The Apprentice' Star Sebastian Stan Says Fellow Celebs are "Too Afraid" to Talk About Trump

In the weeks and months — and even years — leading up to the 2024 presidential election, many celebrities were outspoken about their feelings toward Donald Trump. Whether positive, like Caitlyn Jenner, or negative, like Dave Bautista, stars weren't shy about their opinions of the businessman-turned-politician.

But following Trump's victory in November, that has changed. According to Sebastian Stan, anyway.

The Marvel actor recently starred as the president-elect in The Apprentice, a '70s-set biographical film that depicts the earlier days of his career which has been slammed by Trump himself. And now that he's going to be president again, with promises to pursue action against his political adversaries, Sebastian has called out his Hollywood colleagues for being "too afraid" to speak up about their politics.

In a recent interview with New York Magazine's The Cut, Sebastian opened up about an unfortunate experience he had following the release of The Apprentice in 2024 — Variety reached out to invite him to participate in their "Actors on Actors" series, but he couldn't find anyone else to appear on the show with him.

"I couldn’t find another actor to do it with me, because they were too afraid to go and talk about this movie," he said, explaining that his team was met with resistance from publicists.

He continued, "That’s when I think we lose the situation. If it really becomes that fear or that discomfort to talk about this, then we’re really going to have a problem.”

His story was confirmed by Variety's co-editor-in-chief, Ramin Setoodeh, in an interview with IndieWire: "Other actors didn’t want to pair with him because they didn’t want to talk about Donald Trump.”

Sebastian, on the other hand, is shamelessly open about his political views, including his disdain for the president-elect. In fact, he even slammed Trump at the U.K. premiere of The Apprentice, calling him "hypocritical" and untrustworthy.

When asked if he thought the release of the film could potentially sway voters, he replied, "I don’t know. But what I do hope is that people, regardless of their opinion, are curious enough to try to dig deeper ... If you have any inkling of interest, go and really ask yourself: Who is this man? Do you really know? Do you really trust this person to lead a country?"

He continued, "He’s been trying to censor this movie, and at the same time, he claims that he acknowledges free speech … I can’t think of anything more hypocritical. So at the end of the day, it’s about him as a character. Forget the politics and just go in there and use your instinct and ask yourself: Do you trust this man? That’s what the movie is about."

While Sebastian didn't publicly endorse Kamala Harris in 2024, he has shown support for her — and President Joe Biden — in the past. After the election in 2020, he posted happily on Instagram, "Congratulations, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris!"