Sebastian Stan Reveals He Gained 15 Pounds and Studied 130 Videos of Donald Trump to Perfect His Performance of the Politician in 'The Apprentice'

Sebastian Stan schooled himself in Donald Trump lore in order to perfectly portray the businessman in his upcoming movie The Apprentice.

In a new interview, the actor, 42, revealed everything he did to get into character for the film, which follows the now-politician’s rise from aspiring real estate developer to an "established member of the New York celebrity firmament."

“I think he’s a lot smarter than people want to say about him,” Stan claimed, “because he repeats things consistently, and he’s given you a brand.”

The star explained that part of his Trump training included constantly watching clips of the controversial former president to master his movements and speech.

“I had 130 videos on his physicality on my phone,” Stan shared. “And 562 videos that I had pulled with pictures from different time periods — from the ’70s all the way to today — so I could pull out his speech patterns and try to improvise like him.”

The Gossip Girl alum noted that director Ali Abbasi would often urge Stan to ad-lib entire scenes based on the research he had been doing.

“Ali could come in on the second take and say, ‘Why don’t you talk a little bit about the taxes and how you don’t want to pay?’ So I had to know what charities they were going to in 1983. Every night I would go home and try not only to prepare for the day that was coming, but also to prepare for where Ali was going to take this,” Stan recalled.

After a while, the Trump impersonation became second nature for Stan.

“I started to realize that I needed to start speaking with my lips in a different way,” the Fresh alum added. “A lot of that came from the consonants. If I’m talking, I’m moving forward. The consonants naturally forced your lips forward.”

Abbasi chimed in to reflect on Stan’s ability to transform into the father-of-five.

“If he did 10% more of what he did, it would become Saturday Night Live,” Abbasi stated. “If he did 10% less, then he’s not conjuring that person. But here’s the thing about Sebastian: He’s very inspired by reality, by research. And that’s also the way I work; if you want to go to strange places, you need to get your baseline reality covered very well.”

Stan additionally gained 15 pounds in order to really embody the former The Apprentice host.

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Variety reported on Stan and Abbasi's remarks.