MCU Star Warns America Is in a ‘Really, Really Bad Place'

Two years ago, Sebastian Stan stepped into a role much different from his Winter Soldier character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Wearing a slick blonde wig and a suit, Stan transformed into Donald Trump in The Apprentice, a film that The New York Times called a "gleefully vulgar fictional dramatization" of the current president.

During a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, Stan slammed Trump and said that what's going on in the United States is "no laughing matter."

"I think we're in a really, really bad place. I really do," Stan said to Variety. "And to be honest with you, when you're looking at what's happening, right now -- if we're talking about the consolidation of the media, censorship, threats, the supposed lawsuits that seemingly never end but don't actually go anywhere. You know, the writing was on the wall."

Reflecting on his time in The Apprentice, Stan recounted the controversy surrounding the film.

"We encountered all that with the movie [The Apprentice] to the point that we were, three days before the festival, unsure if the movie was going to play the festival. So maybe people are paying attention more to that film, I think it will stand the test of time for that. But we went through all of it right before Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and so on. So, I wish it wasn't like that."

The press conference came after Stan received a 10-minute standing ovation for his new family drama, Fjord. Alongside his co-star Renate Reinsve, the two were in tears at the support from the Cannes audience.

Fjord follows a Romanian family who emigrate to a Norwegian village. The story turns nightmarish as their children are stripped from them because of alleged abuse. According to Variety, "The premiere audience gasped and snorted in disbelief as Stan and Reinsve suffer the indignity of an overreaching state - removing teens, tweens and an infant from their loving care."

With Stan's own child on the way with his partner Annabelle Wallis, the actor reflected on the themes of fatherhood in Fjord, and said simply to Deadline, "I want to be a good dad."

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This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 1:41 PM.