Director: Trump told Roger Stone not to cooperate with the Netflix documentary about him
But Trump may have had second thoughts about sitting down with the film's directors.
Speaking before the premiere of their film on Sunday, co-director Dylan Bank said after conducting an interview with Trump, the then-real-estate mogul called Stone to tell him not to cooperate with the directors.
"Roger, after the interview with Trump, told us that Trump called him and said, 'I don't think you should do this movie, this is a hit piece, these guys are asking a bunch of tough questions,'" Bank said. "So I bet he'll love the movie."
The film, which will be released on Netflix on May 12, traces Stone's arc from minor campaign aide to President Richard Nixon to part of Trump's inner circle, detailing his role in the rise of negative campaigning and lobbying as a political action committee founder and bomb-thrower.
Stone remained wary of the film's directors throughout the process, despite signing a release allowing them access to film his life.
Co-director Morgan Pehme told Business Insider that Stone jokingly threatened to have the directors killed "many times" over the five years they followed Stone, calling them "liberal, New York Times-reading, pinko-commies."
Still, the directors said they didn't really believe Stone wouldn't enjoy the film.
"It's a film about Roger, so he's going to love it," executive producer Blair Foster said before the premiere.
Despite the president's warnings and Stone's joking threat to bring a libel lawyer to the film's premiere, the longtime political operative publicly didn't seem to mind the dark portrait it cast of him.
"I liked what I saw," Stone said, noting he arrived a half hour late to the screening because of traffic. "Handsome guy, that Roger Stone."
Watch the clip below: