Sebastian Stan says other actors are 'afraid' to interview him for his Donald Trump movie

Sebastian Stan's fellow actors want nothing to do with his controversial Donald Trump movie, he says — at least not publicly.

The "Avengers" star, 42, has revealed he was invited to participate in Variety magazine's "Actors on Actors" series, which pairs two performers together to interview each other. But according to Stan, the appearance didn't happen because no other actor wanted to discuss his role as President-elect Trump in the biopic "The Apprentice."

"I had an offer to do Variety Actor on Actor this Friday, and I couldn't find another actor to do it with me because they were too afraid to go and talk about this movie, so I couldn't do it," Stan said at a screening of the film, according to a video shared on social media.

The "Pam & Tommy" actor noted this stood in contrast to the way actors, directors and others in Hollywood have praised the film in private conversations with him.

But Stan said he did not intend to point fingers at any particular actors and suggested the request may not have made its way through to all of them personally.

Sebastian Stan talks his total Trump-ification for new movie 'The Apprentice'

"We couldn't get past the publicists or the people representing them," he said.

Variety Co-Editor in Chief Ramin Setoodeh confirmed Stan's account in a statement to USA TODAY.

"What Sebastian said is accurate. We invited him to participate in Actors on Actors, the biggest franchise of awards season, but other actors didn’t want to pair with him because they didn't want to talk about Donald Trump."

As the clip went viral on X, one actor volunteered to speak with Stan and make the interview happen. "I'll do it?" wrote "Richard Jewell" star Paul Walter Hauser. According to an X post by Setoodeh, though, the latest "Actors on Actors" season has already wrapped.

Variety's "Actors on Actors" series features a pair of celebrities sitting down for a conversation, usually about a project that has been earning them awards buzz. A-list stars typically participate, with past guests including Robert Downey Jr. and Jennifer Aniston.

Did Donald Trump rape his wife Ivana? What's fact, fiction in 'Apprentice' movie

"The Apprentice," which stars Stan as a young Trump, has been the subject of controversy ever since it premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival. The former president threatened to sue over the biopic, which depicts him raping his then-wife Ivana Trump. Ivana recanted a rape allegation against Trump in 2015.

Director Ali Abbasi shrugged off Trump's threat of a lawsuit in May and said the 45th president should watch the film for himself.

"I don't necessarily think that this is a movie that he would dislike," he said during a Cannes press conference. "I don't necessarily think he would like it. I think he would be surprised. … I would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards."

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly last month, Abbasi said it was a struggle to find a distributor for the movie after its Cannes premiere. "I understand it from the business perspective of not wanting to have trouble, but we're not in the business of ice creams," he said. "We're not selling shoes. So yeah, it was shocking."

In an October post on Truth Social, Trump described the film as a "cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country."

"The Apprentice" ultimately hit theaters in October with little fanfare, grossing less than $5 million at the domestic box office.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump movie has Hollywood actors 'afraid,' Sebastian Stan says