‘It’s Frightening’: Michelle Goldberg Warns Trump Threats Already Intimidating Media Companies To Avoid Critical Film
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg offered a stark warning about the state of freedom of expression on Friday as a film highly critical of Donald Trump is having difficulty finding a company willing to distribute it in the U.S. for fear of retribution should Trump return to the White House.
Goldberg wrote a column on the topic and after highlighting the quality of the movie (titled “The Apprentice”) and its strong performances, she noted, “Unfortunately, you may not get a chance to anytime soon, at least in the United States.”
The film, which stars Jeremy Strong as a young Roy Cohn mentoring Sebastian Stan’s Trump, has been picked up for release in multiple countries overseas and has a significant buzz around it for including a rape scene between Trump and his wife Ivana.
“Negotiations are ongoing, and domestic distribution could still come together,” notes Goldberg, adding:
Yet the possibility that American audiences won’t be able to see “The Apprentice” isn’t just frustrating. It’s frightening, because it suggests that Trump and his supporters have already intimidated some media companies, which seem to be pre-emptively capitulating to him.
She goes on to explain that while political films have not been huge money makers in recent years, the main reason distributors won’t touch it has less to do with “finding an audience than about poking the MAGA bear.”
“The fear seems to be twofold. Few want to end up in the MAGA movement’s crosshairs the way Bud Light and Disney did. And as one distribution executive told Variety, any company that wants to be sold, or to merge with or buy another company, would be hesitant to touch ‘The Apprentice’ because of the possibility that, should Trump be re-elected, his ‘regulators will be punitive,’” Goldberg wrote, adding:
They could go after anyone involved with “The Apprentice” in the same way. In a cease-and-desist letter to the filmmakers, a lawyer for Trump claimed, absurdly, that the movie is “direct foreign interference in America’s elections,” citing the fact that its director, Ali Abbasi, is Iranian Danish and that the movie received funding from Denmark, Ireland and Canada.
Gabriel Sherman, who wrote the film, shared Golberg’s column on Instagram and commented, “Hollywood is terrified of Trump and he’s not even elected yet. Imagine what artists will go through if he actually wins.”
Goldberg ended her column with a warning, noting that should the film not be released in the U.S. it would “be a sign of democratic decay, as well as an augur of greater self-censorship to come. After all, if anxiety about enraging Trump is already shaping what you can and cannot watch, it’s probably bound to get even worse if he actually returns to power.”
