finest building in in the city maybe maybe the country in the world Judy in the world it's going to be the finest building in the world it's going to be spectacular Hotel absolutely spectacular first class and uh that sounds very ambitious where to get the drive still sir young Donald I got I got flare and I'm smart so I I think that's going to make me successful but but I also want to stay humble I uh sorry Judy listen let's do the rest in person and uh bring a photographer okay okay sorry uh no I
mean listen it's your life you got a ways to go but uh you're learning but what did you find interesting about it uh considering 2016 a lot was being talked about with Trump so what about this specifically did you think made for a good movie well I personally was trying to get my head around what had just happened from a cultural place not from a political place I didn't have any wasn't sort of pondering like Republican versus Democrat I was really trying to understand for myself what was it about that campaign and that candidate that
represented something really meaningful to our culture our to our country I felt like this was a story that nobody had really looked at you know we know who Trump is pretty much from his 40s onward when he was a well-known Real Estate Mogul and a television personality and um you know and then a candidate but what we hadn't really ever had access to was who he was as a young man and what his influences were and I think that's a really interesting thing to look at and for me it was about really understanding the underpinnings
of how he became who we know him to be but also as Gabe and I developed it understanding the long shadow that Roy coh still casts on our culture I think was super fascinating because I think there's a whole generation that doesn't even know who Roy Cohen is but he is everywhere in our culture today and Sebastian uh you met with the director on zoom in 2019 correct yeah and so what about playing Donald Trump in this particular era did you find interesting and make you want to take this on I was surprised because I
felt drawn to it in the sense of how I've you know I've had my own Journey with this American Dream coming from Romania and grow you know growing up in America my teenage years and sort of like how I was informed about this dream and the land of opportunity and you have to make something of yourself and then it was interesting to sort of try and figure out who this person was you know I think there was some value in trying to understand how things happened and um how he became what he is today and
Jeremy Roy con is featured so so much in American Theater and film what do you think it is about him that is so captivating to screenwriters directors what about him do you think is so cinematic in a way well I mean he he really is like Suey generous there's no one like Roy con the sort of co-mingling of brutality and tenderness and he has a kind of gleefulness and yet he also was a really um you know absolutely reprehensible person but I do think he's a colorful Vivid archetypal character he's like Yago or something so
I think there's a reason why dramatists have been drawn to him and actors have been drawn to him and it's a sort of the kind of highest degree of difficulty kind of character every great movie is about a relationship and I saw this as a love story we talked about midnight cowboy a lot not a not a erotic or romantic love story but a platonic one and you know Roy considered Donald his best friend they spoke on the phone a dozen times a day for most of their lives together until Donald kind of discarded him
and I feel like our job is to kind of check our judgments at the door and find an empathic way to try and embody any character and try and understand their anguish and their Struggle No one is too odious to to do that for um I think if you if yeah I think you should maybe not play a character if you feel that way about them um because that would I think Eclipse your ability to dimensionally understand them there's something I thought about a lot something I read that young said that where love is absent
power fills the vacuum and I find that this movie is about that in so many ways and Sebastian this this is such a interesting version of trump you're watching it and in the beginning you're like I see it and then by the end you're like oh that that is the Trump that we' see you know on our screens can you talk about your way in how you sort of picked certain mannerisms to adapt early on in the screenplay and then how you expanded upon it by the end Ali and I had talked extensively about sort
of this like um sort of uh this little volume knob that we never really addressed but we would look at each other where it's like where do you turn that a little more or a little less you know but it it did require a bit of the of that kind of technical awareness because again you're fighting projections that you're coming into with us you've seen a million things of him and you and it's already about trying to kind of get you to reintroduce him to to to an audience and there there was always going to
be things about him that even back then are recognizable if you look back but everything here felt like it had to be earned you know because in one second too much and then you're you're out of it that that's the value to me of the film that that we're not getting in the news clips and in the in the algorithms and in the snls you know you're not you're not getting that you know you you you you got to see what he's what he's hiding from everybody Amy as a producer what did you learn about
producing making something that has been this talked about and has had such a long road to getting made this is the hardest thing I've ever done right um it's also the thing I'm the most proud of and um and I I'm not saying this because they're both sitting here I couldn't have dreamed of two better humans and actors to be a part of this I mean it sincerely um they have they have been extraordinary Partners not just people who show up and play a role they have been absolute Partners um a lot has been asked
about the timing of it and why make this movie and I'm very clear on why I wanted to make the movie because I thought there was a really important relationship to explore and um I don't think the movie is a hit piece almost everyone who sees it says it isn't a hitpiece a lot of people are uncomfortable with the empathy they feel for these two people as you talked about it I think that at the end of the day it's really important as a filmmaker whether whether you're an actor or producer director screenwriter um to
stick to your guns and I think that's what I learned the most about this was so many people at so many turns kept saying why why would you make this and I think that the script spoke for itself I think Ali as a filmmaker speaks for himself I think certainly these extraordinary performances speak for themselves and it's a piece of art you know we're telling a story it's not a docu drama it's not a documentary but it's worth putting art like this into the world and that's what I learned about it I know we're out
of time but you know I did feel like Amy was really courageous in shepherding this against such strong headwinds over so so much time and Ali has been really courageous and you know he's he's been courageous before in his other work but he continues to kind of speak truth to power and not be afraid and you know it's I feel so honored to be sitting up here with Sebastian who just I saw every day doing completely Fearless work I mean he had to wear the cape in this movie and like you know as actors the
chance to do work that requires trans information and risk that's sort of all we can ever ask for so yeah it it's um yeah I feel I feel proud to've been part of this so all three of you not scared to do this hard stuff right scared but that doesn't stop you exactly right I think that's the answer I mean if we if we don't persevere what are we doing that's kind of how I felt about it is that I mean as a filmmaker and a producer you don't get a chance to make movies like
this all the time and um that was worth fighting for okay thank you all so much for coming thank you thank you for coming
