Donald Trump has made more cameo appearances in movies and TV shows than you’d expect the average billionaire to make.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Zoolander, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Two Weeks Notice – that’s a pretty impressive CV for someone who, before he was President, was best known for being orange and shouting at people on The Apprentice.
It turns out that the reason (or one of the reasons, at least) that Trump popped up all over the place is because he simply demanded it, in exchange for permission to film on his property.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Matt Damon was asked if he had ever met Trump. “No,” was the fairly blunt reply, but the actor went on to reveal the surprising (and yet, not surprising at all) fact about Trump.
Matt Damon throwaway answer on Trump is revealing. pic.twitter.com/d1THKaBH7k
— (((tedfrank))) (@tedfrank) September 1, 2017
“The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write him in a part,” Damon said.
“[Director] Martin Brest had to write something in ‘Scent of a Woman’ – and the whole crew was in on it. You have to waste an hour of your day with a bullshit shot: Donald Trump walks in and Al Pacino’s like, ‘Hello, Mr. Trump!’ – you had to call him by name – and then he exits.
“You waste a little time so that you can get the permit, and then you can cut the scene out. But I guess in Home Alone 2 they left it in.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yosAVMB47-Y
If what Damon says is true, there are potentially many more Donald Trump cameos that the public never got to see. Maybe that’s a good thing.