To tie-in with the recent controversies surrounding The Apprentice (2024), we take a look at some other fact-based films and TV which drew ire due to their portrayal real-life figures…

Changing the facts to suit the narrative is common practice in screen stories based on real-life events. However, issues can arise when changing the facts means presenting real people in a less-than-flattering light to serve the narrative, as these examples highlight.

The Lost King (2022)

The Lost King reveals the story of how the remains of King Richard III (1452-1485) were unearthed in 2012 under a car park in Leicester. The protagonist is Philippa Langley, the amateur historian whose struggle to carry out her work in the face of resistance from the establishment – i.e. academia – forms the spine of the film.

The controversy: Several of the other real-life people involved in the discovery were irked at their portrayal in the film, not least academic Richard Taylor, who was presented – in his own words – as the “villain of the piece”. So offended was he that he sued the producers.

Selma (2014)

Selma dramatizes several months in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr and his voting rights campaign, with the events centred on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. As well as the “on the ground” activism, King fought to get legislation passed (which eventually became the Voting Rights Act of 1965).

The controversy: In the film, US President Lyndon B. Johnson is presented as a roadblock to the equal voting rights law. From a dramatic perspective, he becomes a necessary foe for the protagonist. However, historians, academics, and even a former aide to LBJ asserted that the president was, in fact, a driving force behind getting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.

Green Book (2018)

Green Book tells the story of an unlikely friendship which develops when tough Italian-American New Yorker Tony ‘Tony Lip’ Vallelonga is hired to drive refined black classical pianist Dr. Donald Shirley around the Deep South on a concert tour in 1962. Tony Lip’s son Nick Vallelonga was a co-writer on the film, which is billed as “inspired by a true friendship”.

The controversy: While the film was a firm favourite among critics, members of the Shirley family weren’t so enamoured. In fact, Dr. Shirley’s sibling was quoted as saying, “My brother never considered Tony to be his ‘friend’; he was an employee”.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of Queen and its frontman Freddie Mercury. It takes in his early years and the formation of the band, as well as its rise to success and Mercury’s solo career. This is balanced with Mercury’s struggle with his sexuality and his battle with AIDS.

The controversy: While the filmmakers went to great lengths of present an accurate version of Mercury, people who knew him criticised aspects of the portrayal, including its handling of his sexuality and relationships.

Blonde (2022)

Blonde tells of the life of Hollywood icon Marylyn Monroe, from her traumatic early life as Norma Jeane Baker to her untimely death via a series of doomed love affairs, broken marriages, and drug dependency. The film is based on a novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates (which tells us the film is going to be a heavily fictionalised version of history).

The controversy: As well as questioning the casting Cuban actress Ana de Armas in the lead (mostly due to complaints about her native accent), critics spoke out against the exploitation of Monroe. They called out the focus on her traumas and on the invention of certain events, like her rape by producer Darryl F. Zanuck. And the less said about the talking foetus, the better…