“Vice” director Adam McKay said in a new interview published Tuesday that he decided to cut a cameo featuring President Donald Trump from his 2010 comedy, “The Other Guys,” and would’ve felt “gross” every time he watched it had he left it in.
“I would have felt gross every time I watched it,” McKay said of the Trump cameo.
The film opens with a chase scene that culminates in Samuel L. Jackson launching his car through the front doors of Trump Tower in a giant fireball explosion. But in order to feature the building, McKay said that Trump demanded a cameo in any movie that featured his properties, as well as licensing fees and that the name of the building was clearly visible. McKay said the scene Trump filmed involved him commenting on TV later on in the film, but it was ultimately cut.
“No joke, I remember watching it going, this is too cheeseball having this guy in the movie, cut this out,” McKay told The Daily Beast.
Trump has made cameos in several films, including “Home Alone 2,” “Zoolander,” and the HBO show “Sex and the City.” But he’s reportedly also been cut from other films, with Matt Damon telling THR that Trump was cut from “Scent of a Woman.”
McKay also said that the decision to include Trump Tower in the film was a way of making a small commentary about Wall Street excess.
“That it was these guys shooting and destroying New York City over a small amount of drugs,” McKay said. “It’s a gold building. And they’re heroes, but what have they really accomplished? So that was where it came from.”
McKay’s “Vice” opens Dec. 25.
Read The Daily Beast interview with McKay here.