A sensation in its Cannes premiere last May, the political hot potato “The Apprentice” opens nationwide Friday.

Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump biopic is not, despite the title, about the former president’s star-making TV series but his earlier life, rising from obscurity in his family real estate business in Queens to national attention.

This is more accurately, a spin on the classic “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” where Trump (Sebastian Stan) is mentored and learns from the notorious Roy Cohn (“Succession” star Jeremy Strong), the ultimate wheeler-dealer and fixer.

“Ali has described this film as an ‘American Horror Story’ and,” Stan said in a Zoom interview, “that’s one point of view of the film, certainly, that we’ve taken. But it’s much more complex than that.”

Stan, 42, is best known for playing Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in Marvel’s superhero series.

Were there worries with a warts and all portrait of a man known to be vindictive, vowing revenge on enemies?

“Of course, people had maybe expressed some concern, ‘Is this the right film? Is this the right role?’ For numerous reasons.”

As for pressure playing Trump, “A real person comes with a whole history that, depending on how famous they are, is documented.

“And Donald Trump is not just a real person. This is also one of the most known people on this planet. Everybody knows who he is! Everybody has opinions about him. Everyone has impressions of him. And there’s a lot documented on him. So 100% this was difficult for numerous reasons.

“Because I had to bypass — and maybe I succeeded — a lot of projections that people are throwing on to him before the movie has even started.

“Before you even see the film, you’re going in there with a lot of opinions, projections, baggage, emotions. As an actor that’s what I’m up against as I’m trying to offer perhaps some different point of view about this person that maybe you haven’t seen yet. When you’re talking about the most famous person in the world, who also happens to be the most polarizing person.

“I would say, absolutely, that’s very difficult.”

“Apprentice” begins with a shockingly awkward, low-rent Donald, far removed from the flamboyant figure the world would know.

“Everyone has a beginning — and his is a complicated beginning, because there are many parts to his beginning,” Stan said. “A lot of people didn’t know that one thing he was tasked with doing was going door to door in his father’s Trump Village in Queens, getting the monthly rent.

“He talks about it in ‘The Art of the Deal.’ Oftentimes he had to have a security guard with him, because when people didn’t want to pay, things could get a little bit more violent.”

“The Apprentice” opens Oct. 11

Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in “The Apprentice.” (Photo Pief Weyman)