You know how celebrities are always talking about how they don't eat anything special or work out like crazy, they just have great metabolism? Well I don't buy it. Nor have I ever bought it when any of them say that filming sex scenes surrounded by cameras, crew, and a director shouting instructions could be anything but uncomfortable.
But time and again we hear about how professional it all is, how it's just part of the job. Well newbie Alex O'Loughlin, who co-stars with Jennifer Lopez in The Back-up Plan, has slipped up and admitted what we all knew: It's freaking awkward.
O'Loughlin told an Australian news site: "Really, it's awful and anyone who thinks filming sex scenes is hot would be wrong."
Before you come rushing to J.Lo's defense, he has no complaints about his co-star, saying that getting along so well actually made it harder to film love scenes. (Her husband being on set probably didn't help, either).
O'Loughlin went on (and he really shouldn't have) to explain with the worst word-choice ever: "There's so many reasons why it is weird. You just kind of plow through it."
Not the most flattering words for his co-star, but I wouldn't worry too much. The Internet might hate him for it, but Marc Anthony's not much to worry about. The man must weigh 90 pounds, and if all else fails, Alex, wear garlic.
Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice.
Before he was elected president, Donald Trump was a New York businessman who transitioned into a reality TV show host that played upon his bombastic personality. His effect on American politics over the past eight years would not have been possible without his early experiences, some of which are explored in the new film whose title cheekily references that reality show, The Apprentice.
It introduces viewers who may not know the entire history of Trump (Sebastian Stan) to his relationship with lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who was known for using all sorts of sleazy tactics to win cases. The film shows Trump meeting Cohn in the early 1970s, right when the Trump Corporation, then led by Donald's father Fred Trump (Martin Donovan), was being sued for violating the Fair Housing Act for not renting to Black people.
Cohn’s success at limiting the damage in that case leads Trump to fall in love with the way Cohn approaches life, and he proceeds to call upon him for advice and help in many aspects of his own life. These include trying to strong-arm New York City officials into giving Trump a big tax break on his first hotel, setting up an odious prenuptial agreement with Trump’s soon-to-be bride, Ivana (Maria Bakalova), and more.
Directed by Ali Abbasi and written by Gabriel Sherman, the film is both crystal clear in how it wants Trump to be portrayed and yet somewhat subtle in the way it goes about it. Opening with Richard Nixon’s infamous “I am not a crook” speech, the parallels between that fallen president and one who would go on to be indicted for many crimes while president aren’t at all difficult to parse. And yet, the filmmakers do a good job of methodically building their case for how Trump became the person he is today.
This includes showing the young(er) Trump as somewhat awkward and out of his depth, literally going door-to-door to collect rent at Trump Village apartments and still having family dinner with the whole Trump clan. Learning at the heels of Cohn builds his confidence, especially after Cohn reveals three rules that he lives by: 1) Attack, attack, attack, 2) Admit nothing, deny everything, and 3) Claim victory, and never admit defeat.
Because it’s a two-hour film, the truth of what it’s depicting likely falls somewhere on the spectrum of another thing Cohn tells Trump: “There is no truth.” Still, there are factual bases for much of what the film dramatizes, and even the sequences that might be made up completely fall right in line with the type of man who still refuses to admit that he lost the 2020 election. When Trump and Cohn essentially switch roles as the bully and the wimp when the film moves from the ‘70s to the ‘80s, it comes as no surprise.
Stan, in his second starring role in two weeks, does a fantastic job of evolving the character of Trump. He eases into the verbal and physical traits for which Trump is now known, and the slow build helps him tremendously. Cohn is easy to hate as a real person, but love as a movie character, and Strong bursts off the screen with his performance. He is an early favorite for Best Supporting Actor, utterly transforming into a despicable person from which you want to hear every horrible syllable.
Because of Trump’s overwhelming recent influence on American society, The Apprentice is next-to-impossible to view in an unbiased manner. And the filmmakers likely don’t want you to, as they are obviously trying to demonstrate how Trump has long been this way, and it took him becoming president for the whole world to see it.
