Sebastian Stan has likened playing Donald Trump to "riding a psychotic horse through a blazing stable".

The 42-year-old star portrays the former US president in Ali Abbasi's movie 'The Apprentice', which delves into his early years as a real estate businessman in New York, and confessed that it was daunting to take on the part of such a polarising figure.

In an interview with Empire magazine, Sebastian said: "Working on it with Ali was like riding a psychotic horse through a blazing stable.

"We're talking about somebody that everyone has an opinion about, that everyone has an impression of, that everyone has strong feelings for."

The 'Fresh' actor explained how he watched plenty of material featuring Trump and others impersonating the controversial politician but didn't want his portrayal to have too much outside influence.

He said: "I watched everything. I watched stuff that impersonators did. All the things. But I also just had to go towards the collaboration and the vision that I was sharing with Ali."

'The Apprentice' explores how Trump became the figure he is today through the guidance of New York attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and Stan declared that the flick "normalises" the former White House chief to an extent.

He explained: "The film normalises him. To some degree.

"There's a preference to speak about him in a very selective, sort of distanced way. Like he's this separate entity from the rest of us humans here on Earth.

"He's either God, in the skies, blessed by everything, or he's like Satan incarnate into the depths of Earth. And the truth is, he's a human being."

Sebastian added: "The movie shows there is much more here to relate and understand than I think we're willing to admit. And to me, there's a journey of watching a man turn to stone over a process of time."