Watch the first clip from “The Apprentice”

The first clip from the Donald Trump biopic that made a surprising, if controversial, impression at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival is finally here.

Ali Abbasi's film The Apprentice Starring Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, the notoriously dogged prosecutor who served as a mentor to the real estate mogul and future president, the film follows their relationship through the 1970s and 1980s and shows how Cohn – a veteran of the McCarthy-era communist witch hunts – helped turn Trump into the bombastic, headline-grabbing, blasphemous master of distraction we know all too well today.

In his review of the film from Cannes Rolling StoneDavid Fear described The Apprentice as a kind of Frankenstein remake, “in which a mad scientist plays Pygmalion and watches his creation transform into a monster.” The new scene released today captures an early moment of that transformation.

In the clip, Trump gives an interview in a limousine via car phone, dismissing a current legal issue and teasing his next big real estate purchase. As he speaks, an increasingly frustrated Cohn tries to direct his delivery. Unhappy with the results, he takes the phone back, hangs up, and when Trump tries to apologize, Cohn shoots him a withering look: “I mean, listen, it's your life. You've got a long way to go, but you're learning.”

The Apprentice is set to hit select theaters on October 11. The film premiered at Cannes in May and, while it received mostly positive reviews, also generated considerable controversy over a scene in which Trump rapes his then-wife Ivana (played by Maria Bakalova). Trump's lawyers also sent a cease-and-desist letter to the film's producers, calling it “pure malicious slander” that “belongs in a dumpster.”

The producers of the project were ready The Apprenticeand called it “a fair and balanced portrait of the former president. We want everyone to see it and then form an opinion.” Abbasi even offered to show Trump the film, saying, “I don't necessarily think he wouldn't like this film. I don't necessarily think he would like it. I think he would be surprised, you know?”