Editors on The Apprentice report Trump's image was manufactured in post-production.
CineMontage Magazine (the journal of the union representing Motion Picture Editors) published interviews with the TV editors who worked on the original seasons on the NBC show The Apprentice (2004-07) reported that the image of its star, Donald Trump, was carefully crafted and manufactured in post-production to feature a persona of success, leadership and glamour, despite the raw footage of the reality star that was often “a disaster.”
After last Friday’s release of controversial outtake footage from a 2005 episode of the entertainment series Access Hollywood, intense media speculation is currently swirling about what additional revealing audio and video could exist — including raw footage from The Apprentice tapes. The show’s producer Bill Pruitt tweeted on Saturday: “As Producer on Season 1 & 2 of #theapprentice, I assure you: When it comes to the #trumptapes, there are far worse. #justthebeginning”
Filmmaker Judd Apatow also speculated in a tweet: “Can you imagine what the editors of The Apprenticeare sitting on? It must be hundreds of hours of madness.” There were many moments between shooting, when the cameras were rolling and the microphones were hot, when Trump may have made off-color remarks. Those moments hit the cutting room floor.
“We were told to not show anything that was considered too much of a ‘peak behind the curtain,’” remembered Jonathon Braun, ACE, who worked as the Supervising Editor on the first six seasons of the show, including one as a co-producer. “‘Make Trump look good, make him look wealthy, legitimate.’ That was our objective. But that’s what we do as editors anyway, right?”
In creating the show’s first few episodes in the first season, the editors had little idea they were working on what would become an iconic show, a hit that would help define a style for a generation of reality TV to come, and one that would create a persona for the show’s star — with his catch phrase “You’re fired!” — who would use the show’s success to launch a campaign for president of the United States.
A grand editorial struggle on the show was to make the star’s decisions about which contestant was fired each episode look legitimate. The editors reported that when the boardroom was shot, the producers would offer their observations about who did well in the challenges and deserved to stay, and who was not pulling his or her weight and deserved to go. But invariably, Trump would ignore factual information and instead go with his gut.
“Trump would often make arbitrary decisions which had nothing to do with people’s merit,” confirmed another season one editor who requested anonymity. “He’d make decisions based on whom he liked or disliked personally, whether it be for looks or lifestyle, or keep someone that ‘would make good TV’ [according to Trump].”
Setting up story beats to justify the contestant that Trump ultimately fired required editorial gymnastics, according to the show’s editors. Manipulating footage to invent a story point that did not exist organically is common in reality TV editing, although with The Apprentice, it proved a tremendous feat.
“We’d often be shocked at whomever Trump chose to fire,” Braun explained. “Our first priority on every episode like that was to reverse-engineer the show to make it look like his judgment had some basis in reality. Sometimes it would be very hard to do, because the person he chose did nothing. We had to figure out how to edit the show to make it work, to show the people he chose to fire as looking bad — even if they had done a great job.”
Also, Trump was never good with facts and numbers, the editors said, and they needed to fix his mistakes.
“He would say things like, ‘We had a million applicants and we chose this small group to be contestants on the show,’” Braun recalled. “And I would turn to my producer and say, ‘A million applicants? Really?’ And the producer would shake his head no. Trump would just take numbers and throw them around. I mean, from Season One to Season Two, he said his net worth tripled. One day he said he had a billion dollars and then later it would become three billion; he just made stuff up.”
As for media speculation about what potentially offensive sound or footage of Trump exists in outtakes or between scenes, the editors revealed that they witnessed such occurrences, whether or not these sound bites or clips had been preserved.
“Trump’s favorite word was ‘drill,’” recalled Braun. “He was always saying between takes, ‘I’d like to drill her,’ lewdly referring to female crew members working on set. He couldn’t help himself making comments about women and the way they looked. He also had comments about women he found less attractive. There was no question he took the men a lot more seriously than the women.”
Often Trump would be needed to record a wild line of dialogue to be inserted into the cut to fix a story point. Braun remembered that the star would be coordinating the recording session via telephone with a woman producer hired by the show in New York.
Listening on the line to the recording session at Trump Tower, Braun recalls, “Donald was always telling this woman producer to ‘Go get me a Diet Coke.’ And she would reply, ‘But Donald, I need to be here to help record this dialogue.’ And Trump would reply, ‘No you don’t; go get me a Diet Coke.’ This isn’t that big of a deal, but it struck me as insensitive.”
Clearly the editors did the job they were hired to do and yet they remember what hit the cutting room floor. Their work happened more than a decade ago, though these memories have taken on new meaning today among the fast moving events of a presidential election. In the comments of the editors we can recognize political comparisons: Trump was not bound by the facts; he encouraged “locker room” banter; he rejected diversity; and he was reckless in his decision making process.
