Melania Trump Documentary Crew Members Don't Even Want Their Names In The Credits
The ego-filled trailer for the "Melania" documentary, which details Melania Trump's life in the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump's second inauguration, dropped in December 2025. And now the world is about to get a chance to see the entire thing. The film opens on January 30 in theaters, and the night before, Melania's documentary will be premiering at the Kennedy Center. There's already been a private pre-screening of the movie at The White House, and Melania shared her thoughts about the debut on X (formerly known as Twitter). She seemed excited about her movie, but she might be one of the few who are. Rolling Stone has reported that approximately two-thirds of the production crew have requested to not have their names in the credits.
And there are reportedly more who wished they had followed suit, and the drama and chaos of Donald's time as president was the reason. "I'm much more alarmed now than I was a year ago," one person involved with the movie told Rolling Stone. Along with the production crew in New York, there was a team in Florida and in Washington, D.C. It's unclear if it was just those on the New York team who asked to remain anonymous.
Melania's documentary was expensive and hard to work on
It also sounds like "Melania" was a hard film to make. "It was very difficult because of the chaos that was around everything," one crew member told Rolling Stone. "Usually [for a documentary] it's like, 'Oh, follow the subject,' Well, it's Melania Trump. With the first lady and Secret Service, you can't just do things you usually do." Sounds like a complicated shoot combined with a controversial presidency made for the perfect storm of "nope" for some crew members.
It wasn't just dealing with security issues that made filming "Melania" a hard shoot. Controversial director Brett Ratner apparently didn't make things easy. Ratner was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, according to the LA Times. There aren't similar accusations coming out over his time on "Melania," but some on the crew didn't seem happy with how he treated them during the shoot nor pleased that he was at the helm of the production.
The movie is being released by Amazon MGM Studios, which reportedly paid almost a whopping $40 million for the rights. Some have theorized that the studio, which is a part of Jeff Bezos's Amazon, paid that much for the documentary to stay on Donald Trump's good side. And the massive payment has led to jokes on social media and on late-night TV. Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" said, "Love the tagline to the movie: 'Melania, the inspiring true story of how an online shopping billionaire paid millions to curry favor with the president.'"
'Melania' is reportedly boring and ticket sales are low
The official line as to why Amazon MGM Studios bought the rights to "Melania" is, of course, far more positive. "We licensed the film for one reason and one reason only — because we think customers are going to love it," an Amazon MGM Studios spokesperson told CNN.
But not all the crew seem to think that. As one person explained to Rolling Stone, "Some people are boring. Some people also never let their guard down." It seems pretty clear they meant Melania Trump. A documentary crew should ostensibly be capturing the good, the bad, and the ugly of a subject; however, our guess is that Melania stayed focused on appearing polished and in control.
Along with the six figures to distribute the film, Amazon MGM Studios spent $35 million in marketing. Yet, despite all that money and Donald's claim on X that the movie is "selling out, FAST," Melania's movie is actually facing dismal pre-sales. There are some crew members who will be happy with fewer eyes on the film, even after all the hard work it took to make it. One "Melania" production staffer told Rolling Stone: "unfortunately, if it does flop. I would really feel great about it."