Edward Norton is currently racking up all sorts of accolades for his supporting turn in A Complete Unknown — for his portrayal of Pete Seeger in the Bob Dylan blockbuster, he was nominated for a Golden Globe, is nominated for Critics Choice and SAG awards and is likely to be nominated for an Academy Award — but during a recording of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast this week, he was just as happy to spend time complimenting another contender which has longer odds: The Apprentice.
In the context of discussing how the 1999 film Fight Club, in which Norton starred, was not appreciated upon its release — in fact, it was booed at its Venice Film Festival premiere and flopped at the box office — but has since come to be regarded as a classic, Norton volunteered: “I saw The Apprentice, and I can’t say enough good about that film.”
He elaborated, “[Director] Ali Abbasi I already thought was [fantastic]. I think [Abbasi’s 2018 film] Border is one of the unappreciated masterpieces of the last 10 years. It is an absolute masterpiece, that film. And I was like, ‘What’s this guy going to do next?’” The answer was 2022’s Holy Spider, and then, in 2024, the Donald Trump “origin story” The Apprentice, which explores the relationship between Trump (Sebastian Stan) and his conniving mentor Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).
“The Apprentice is being so under-discussed,” Norton argued. “That is such a brilliantly directed film, and those two performances are so off the hook. Sebastian Stan? That is a monumentally difficult and impressive performance. And Jeremy’s equally electrifying. Because they actually make you care. You actually empathize with Donald Trump and Roy Cohn; you really empathize with them! You really feel the human roots of the thing.”
Norton said he has expressed his admiration directly to the two actors, and that they confessed disappointment to him that it wasn’t being more widely seen. “And I told those guys, I was like, ‘I can tell you that it’s taking some time, but I’m already starting to hear, filmmaker to filmmaker, people going, ‘Have you seen that movie? It is absolutely fantastic!’ And the word begins to creep.”
