Sebastian Stan became Trump by channeling 'Zoolander,' eating 'a lot of sushi'

Sebastian Stan could have a date with Oscar for playing a young Donald Trump.

But initially, the Marvel star was hesitant about signing on to “The Apprentice” (in theaters Friday), a Frankenstein story about how lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) coached Trump to become a real estate shark and tabloid fixture in the 1980s.

“How do you take on the most famous person in the world? Somebody that people feel so strongly about, and everyone has an impression of?” Stan says. However, after speaking with filmmaker Ali Abbasi, “I was reassured there was something underneath all the noise that was important to explore. Namely, why do people do what they do?”

The movie has not only enraged Trump but also some critics who feel it’s overly sympathetic to the former president and once-again candidate ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

“The whole idea was to humanize these people,” Abbasi says. As a result, “we get both sides: This side thinks it’s too nice to him, this side says it’s too mean. I don’t want to do propaganda for Trump, but I don’t want to do a hit piece, either. I can’t let the politics of the day dictate our artistic agenda.”

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Stan, 42, tells us how he aimed to bring a “subtle” yet “familiar” Trump to life:

As a young man, Donald Trump was more 'coherent' than he is today

Three months before he began filming the movie, Stan started listening to recordings of Trump around the clock: “It became as much of a routine as breathing,” he says. “Whether I was brushing my teeth, making breakfast, or getting in the car, I was listening to him. I was really trying to capture his way of speaking, which was very different back then. He’s much more scattered today.” But in his 1988 Oprah Winfrey interview, “he speaks really quickly and is actually very coherent.”

Knowing some of the film’s dialogue would be improvised, he also memorized many of Trump’s speeches so he had specific words and phrases in his back pocket. “He tried to create an almost muscle memory, like, ‘I don’t know when, exactly, this will come in handy, but it could at some point,’” Abbasi says.

Sebastian Stan channeled 'Zoolander' to nail Trump's mannerisms

Every morning in his makeup chair, Stan would study Trump’s lengthy 1980 interview with entertainment reporter Rona Barrett, conducted when he was 34. “The way he looks off when a new thought comes, or how he shifts in his seat – he didn’t ever look as comfortable as he was trying to sell half the time,” Stan says. “Back in those days, he felt like he was still trying to figure out what his image was.”

Stan also watched newsreels of Trump with his wife Ivana, “the way he would walk into ballrooms and galas and he would be doing this sort of 'Blue Steel' look down the lens of the camera,” he adds, referencing the 2001 Ben Stiller comedy "Zoolander." “This is a very self-conscious person, and that’s what that body language says to me. None of that looked natural to me.”

The Marvel actor lived off sushi and ramen to appear 'more bloated'

Stan shot Marvel's upcoming "Thunderbolts" immediately after playing Trump, meaning he was already in superhero shape when he arrived on the "Apprentice" set. “I was quite a bit more athletic than I would’ve liked to have been” for the role, he says. “Ali was like, ‘Hey, you don’t really look like (Trump). You guys don’t have the same bone structure.’” Stan tried prosthetics, but they appeared slightly off. So he sought a nutritionist’s help.

“I said, ‘How do I get more bloated in the face?’” the actor recalls. “He said, ‘Start eating as many carbohydrates as you can. You should be eating a lot of sushi and ramen with a lot of soy sauce and salt.’ So I tried to do that in hopes of matching what we were going to do prosthetics-wise.”

'The Apprentice' director's No. 1 priority was Trump's hair

“Apprentice” follows the former president over many years, requiring three or four different wigs to track the evolution of his hair. Given that Trump’s sandy, disheveled mane is one of his defining characteristics, Abbasi says he became “unhealthily obsessed” with getting it just right.

“Trump is more vain than other people. He’s like Samson: all his power is in his hair,” Abbasi says. “You can really see his character development” through it. In the 1970s, “it’s a little bit wild and fuzzy, and then in the ’80s, it’s slicker and more gelled. Then when he starts to lose his hair, he finds creative ways to comb it over. It became a conflict with Ivana later on when she told him he’s going bald.”

Ali Abbasi explains how they recreated Trump's suits, self-tanner

When we first meet Trump in the movie, he’s wearing brown- and mustard-colored suits, going door to door collecting rent from impoverished tenants on behalf of his real estate baron father, Fred (Martin Donovan). But as the film jumps from the ‘70s to the ‘80s and Trump gains weight, the fits become looser and the colors “more extreme,” Abbasi says. “One of the first costumes we locked was the so-called ‘Scarface’ costume, with the red shirt and white jacket, which is taken directly” from an old photograph. “And then when he went down to Florida, he had a lighter style that’s a bit more tropical. It really is a journey in clothes.”

His famous bronzer also makes an appearance, as Ivana accuses him of looking too orange. Although he would likely deny it, Trump’s apparent obsession with cosmetics purportedly started decades back: Years ago, a member of the movie’s makeup team once helped the property mogul get ready for an event.

“They were putting on mascara, and he denied to the makeup artist that he already had makeup on,” Abbasi recalls with a laugh. “He was like, ‘Dude, I know you do! I’m here to help!’ But Trump is a character who’s always playing a character.”