Alec Baldwin has impersonated Donald Trump on SNL nearly 40 (!) times. He has no plans on exiting the show, but it’s something that’s on his mind. And has been a while, considering the 30 Rock star once called pretending to be president “agony” and that he’s not sure “how much more people can take it.” The curious thing about Baldwin’s constant cameos in the cold opens is: his mugging turn as Trump hasn’t improved. Even he thinks it’s “mediocre.”
During an appearance on The Tonight Show, Baldwin told host Jimmy Fallon, “It’s not like we’re going to pause and do a Steven Soderbergh movie where I’m playing Trump. We gotta kind of drive it and make it brassy and loud and fast, so I do my world famous mediocre Trump impersonation that sort of fits into the show.” He also said “I don’t know” when asked how much longer he’ll mimic the president, echoing comments he made in a recent interview with IndieWire:
“We did it like once a month, this season. Last season, I did it a bunch, and the season before that — the first season — I did it almost every show. I think I did it every show. And I think people are, uh, they want a little bit less of that. And whether I do it much longer, remains to be seen.”
Baldwin also used the same Soderbergh comparison, saying that SNL isn’t “doing a David Fincher movie here, or a Soderbergh movie, where we’re gonna etch some finely rendered impersonation of Trump. I made him as two-dimensional as I believe he deserves to be made. And we’ve certainly vulgarized it from time to time, beyond certain limitations. But it’s essentially us repeating back what he says, and just holding up a mirror to what he says and does.”
For what it’s worth, Fallon did not tousle Baldwin’s hair.
(Via IndieWire)
