Here Are the Actors Whose Teams Wouldn’t Let Them Talk About Trump

On Thursday, Variety revealed its pairings for its 21st installment of Actors on Actors and I have to hand it to them: they’re pretty damn compelling. Pamela Anderson in conversation with Mikey Madison? It’s a Mother-off. Drew Starkey comparing notes with Harris Dickinson? It’s a Babygirl-off. Ariana Grande earnest-eyebrowing opposite Paul Mescal? It’s a Gracie-Abrams-You-Better-Lace-Up-off. Nicole Kidman and Zendaya? It’s a who-plays-a-better-girlboss-off. Sorry, last one: Daniel Craig being all polite and British against Josh O’Connor? It’s a [redacted]-me-off. You can see the full line-up here.

While I’m excited by these match-ups, I think now is as good a time as any to remember the fact that Sebastian Stan, who portrayed Donald Trump in The Apprentice, was excluded from Actors on Actors because none of the cowards working for these actors wanted their clients to discuss the president-elect. In November, Stan, who starred in not one but two Oscar-bait movies (Another Man, The Apprentice) in 2024, told attendees of a Q&A that though he wanted to participate in the series, he wasn’t able to find a conversation partner.

“The amount of love that I’ve received from some of the biggest, in terms of actors, directors, producers, and writers, who have seen the movie, and they rave about it,” Stan said. “But then, for instance, I had an offer to do Variety Actors on Actors this Friday, and I couldn’t find another actor to do it with me.”

“They were too afraid to go and talk about this movie, so I couldn’t do it,” he went on. “You know, I’ve got to do a lot of great things, and that’s not pointing at anyone specific. It was…we couldn’t get past the publicists or the people representing them, because [they were] too afraid to talk about this movie.” Publicists forbidding their clients to discuss even a movie about Trump for fear of retribution (or potentially revealing some unsavory and unsellable views)? It’s giving early-stage authoritarianism, no?

At the time of Stan’s comments, one could only suspect who the actors in conversation with Stan could’ve been. Now that we know, it feels like such a missed opportunity. Frankly, I genuinely would’ve been interested to watch Stan opposite Kieran Culkin (another actor particularly gifted at playing a morally bankrupt person of unearned wealth), or Colman Domingo, who’s also taken on the difficult task of portraying a real person. Hell, I think even Andrew Garfield would’ve made for an interesting partner. Instead, he was forced to sit down Ryan Reynolds whose only credits this year include Deadpool & Wolverine and re-writing It Ends With Us. 

Shame! Shame! Shame!