Sebastian Stan couldn't shake off the Donald Trump mannerisms he learned for 'The Apprentice' when he started shooting ‘Thunderbolts*'.
The 42-year-old actor plays the former US President and real estate tycoon in Ali Abbasi's upcoming biographical drama, and he found that Trump’s characteristics started to find their way into his performance as Bucky Barnes, also known as The Winter Soldier, in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster.
Speaking to the British edition of GQ magazine, Stan said: “I went off to Marvel after [‘The Apprentice’]. And we were doing scenes, and I would do something, a thing or two, and be like, ‘F***! This is still living somewhere.’”
The ‘Captain America: Civil War’ star also admitted it was hard to shift the weight he gained to play Trump by drinking cans of Coca-Cola and eating plenty of peanut butter and jam sandwiches.
He quipped: “I’m 41. I just worked pretty hard to get in shape here!”
‘The Apprentice’ - which also stars Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova - follows Trump’s rise to fame in the late 1970s as he went from a New York real estate mogul to a man synonymous with wealth and power.
Sebastian says the Republican presidential candidate began to “take over [his] life”, and as part of his research he would listen to Trump speak for hours on end.
Even so, Stan emphasised he didn’t want to simply imitate Trump in the movie.
He explained: “It’s a balance between having the familiarity without it becoming sort of a schtick.
“There is a small window of time where you are going through the impersonation phase, because you’ve got to get through that in order to come out the other end.
“There is a mechanical, technical piece to it, and that comes from actually studying a person.”
