The Avengers always had each other's backs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it seems that’s no less true off the screen. Scarlett Johansson just came to the aid of fellow Avenger Sebastian Stan, sharing the way she feels one of his films last year was treated unfairly by Hollywood.
2024 was a great year for Sebastian Stan with two awards caliber roles, one in the drama A Different Man and the other in The Apprentice about the rise of the current President of the United States. Johansson, who is no fan of the sitting President, pointed out in an interview with Vanity Fair that despite the fact that Stan some awards consideration for the film, it was otherwise “buried” by studios. Johasson said…
Here’s where you would go, ‘Okay, you can fight it by making stuff like that.’ But then, what happened with the release? It was buried.
There’s certainly some evidence to back up Scarlett Johansson’s claims that Hollywood "buried" The Apprentice. The film famously found trouble finding distribution. It seemed none of the major studios wanted to be involved in the film. It was eventually picked up by small Briarcliff Entertainment.
The Apprentice reviews were solid and the movie would receive several award nominations, mostly on the strength of the performances of Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong as Donald Trump and Roy Cohn, who both saw Oscar nominations. However, it would fail to win any major awards and would gross less than $20 million worldwide.
While many, if not most, Oscar-worthy dramas are not box office smashes, they usually do better than The Apprentice. Best Picture winner Anora's global box office take is just short of $60 million, which certainly isn’t a lot of money in the grand scheme of Hollywood, but it’s three times what The Apprentice did, and The Apprentice at least had a major name in the lead.
The Apprentice certainly isn’t kind to Donald Trump, and thus Scarlett Johansson thinks the studios were afraid of the movie because if one of them picked it up, they might face repercussions. Nobody knew at the time of the film’s release if Donald Trump would become President again, but the possibility certainly existed.
If that happened, the possibility of some sort of punishment was certainly real. Trump has called out Saturday Night Live for its impression of him before. Even the film's stars tried to downplay the political elements of The Apprentice.
Johansson’s personal politics are certainly opposed to this specific instance of studios being afraid of a movie for political reasons. Still, even if the politics were reversed, the broader point is a valid one. Oftentimes it’s the job of a work of art to challenge authority. If that’s being actively avoided, it’s a problem.
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