Why Did Alex Baldwin Not Reprise His Role As Trump On ‘SNL’ After The Election?
Alec Baldwin revealed why he was a no-show as Donald Trump in the latest episode of Saturday Night Live, the Us Magazine is reporting.
Appearing on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, the 58-year-old said he was “trying to shed the Donald Trump cloak.” The two-time Emmy winner admitted that he was not a fan of the Manhattan billionaire, so he lacked the motivation to reprise the role of the president-elect again and again.
“I’m not an impressionist per se, but if you do any kind of comedy and they ask you to do that, most of the time there’s some degree of appreciation… I don’t hate Trump, but he’s not somebody I admire, so it was more difficult.”
Saturday Night Live began its 42nd season with 16-time host Alec Baldwin prepped to play Donald Trump. Baldwin was the star in a presidential debate spoof against Kate McKinnon who played Hillary Clinton. The 30 Rock star was almost a dead ringer with his tanned skin, feathery hair, and pouty face.
Baldwin first played Donald Trump in October, drawing plenty of viewers with his pursed lips and raspy voice. His humorous combination with Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton got many people glued to their television screens and helped improve the show’s ratings.
In one of the funny skits, when McKinnon’s Hillary accused her Republican Party rival of not releasing his tax returns because he was not that rich or charitable and that he hadn’t paid his taxes, Baldwin’s Trump interjected the first two reasons with a “wrong” and responded with “warmer” for the third accusation.
Baldwin confessed that he almost sprained his jaw when he was trying to perfect his impersonation of the 70-year-old politician. Despite not appearing on SNL Saturday, the Emmy winner still managed a Trump impression at a marketing conference in Boston on Friday. The 58-year-old poked fun at how Trump would function as president of the United States.
“I think that Trump is going to be someone who is not going to be that involved, he’s going to be going into rooms with trusted advisers and they’re going to say, ‘we did this, this and this,’ and he’s going to say ‘Sounds good, that sounds good. I like it. I like it a lot. That’s great, great, fantastic, really top-shelf, super gold-plated, platinum, frequent –flyer situation you’ve got going on.”
Stephen Baldwin can't find the funny in brother Alec Baldwin's "SNL' Trump impression https://t.co/PZTgQCvOW9 pic.twitter.com/3eOc9VCEbe
— HuffPost Ent (@HuffPostEnt) October 24, 2016
Stephen Baldwin did not find his brother’s impersonation of Donald Trump funny. The younger brother, who is a Donald Trump supporter, said Alec’s Saturday Night Live impressions of the GOP presidential candidate were not funny even though they had garnered plenty of traction of the Web.
“I don’t want to be a party pooper here, but I don’t think it’s very funny. I don’t think there’s anything funny about this election.”
When William Baldwin took Alec’s side, Stephen told Fox Business that it was pitiful his brothers, like many other Americans, did not see the large-scale corruption politicians were using to feeding off the country.
The 50-year-old fired tweets at his brothers saying that if their father was alive, he would have been ashamed and disgusted at media unfairness and manipulation. His 53-year-old brother, Billy, fired back in a tweet saying if their father was alive, he would smack him for supporting Donald Trump.
“If our father were alive today… he’d smack you in the side of the head for supporting Donald Trump.”
Viewers were expecting plenty of satire from Saturday Night Live post-election. However, it surprisingly started on a somber note with Kate McKinnon in Hillary Clinton attire launching into rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” The legendary songwriter died earlier in the week. McKinnon ended her performance with a brief but serious message to Americans telling them not to lose heart.
'SNL' opens post-election episode with 'Hallelujah' pic.twitter.com/oeJjHc5rso
— CNN (@CNN) November 13, 2016
“I’m not giving up neither should you and live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”
[Featured Image by Evans Agostini/AP Images]
