Sebastian Stan immersed himself in archival footage of Donald Trump “24/7” to prepare to play him in The Apprentice.

In the new biographical drama, the Marvel star plays Trump when he was a property mogul in the New York in 1970s and 1980s.

To gear up for portraying such a well-known public figure, Stan underwent a “24/7 immersion process” in which he spent most of his days listening to the man who would become U.S. President.

“It was sort of a 24/7 immersion process of basically, I guess, living with him to some extent, in my headphones, on my phone, and YouTube, everywhere I was going and walking, whatever I was doing, if I was in the bathroom, I was listening to him,” he explained during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival. “I don’t know how else to do it except 100% and that’s what I tried to do in the limited time that we had.”

However, the Avengers: Endgame star noted that he steered well clear of modern Trump footage so he could stay focused on the relevant time period.

“I had to distance myself from a lot of the stuff from today and really go back to – we were lucky in the sense that there’s a lot out there to see and watch and read, a lot of interviews that he gave in that time… it was a huge help,” Stan explained.

Trump’s campaign team denounced the film after it premiered in Cannes on Monday night, calling it “garbage” and “pure fiction”. They claimed they would be filing a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers”.

Director Ali Abbasi responded to the statement on Tuesday, saying he would be willing to meet with Trump, screen the film and have a chat with him about it afterwards.

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