Sebastian Stan studied 700 videos to play Donald Trump

Sebastian Stan studied around 700 videos of Donald Trump to play him in new movie 'The Apprentice'.

The 'Gossip Girl' star takes on the role of the former US President in the new drama directed by Ali Abbasi and Sebastian, 42, has admitted he saved hundreds of clips on his phone dating back to the 1970s so he could study Trump's speech and body language.

He told Variety: "I had 130 videos on his physicality on my phone. And 562 videos that I had pulled with pictures from different time periods - from the ’70s all the way to today - so I could pull out his speech patterns and try to improvise like him."

After studying the way Trump speaks, Sebastian realised he would have to change the way he moved his lips. He explained: "I started to realise that I needed to start speaking with my lips in a different way.

"A lot of that came from the consonants. If I’m talking, I’m moving forward ... The consonants naturally forced your lips forward."

Director Abbasi told the publication that his leading man had to find the correct balance when playing Trump so it didn't stray into the realms of impersonation.

He added: "If he did 10 per cent more of what he did, it would become ‘Saturday Night Live'. If he did 10 per cent less, then he’s not conjuring that person.

"But here’s the thing about Sebastian: He’s very inspired by reality, by research. And that’s also the way I work; if you want to go to strange places, you need to get your baseline reality covered very well.”"

The film covers Trump's rise from real estate developer to a household name in the 1980s and is set before he became the star of his own reality TV show 'The Apprentice' which gives the movie its name.

'The Apprentice' is due for release in October.