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Alec Baldwin Slammed For Comments About Black People During ‘Hollywood Reporter’ Interview

By Patricia Grannum
Published on: 16:51 PST, Oct 10, 2018

Alec Baldwin is taking some heat for comments he made about black people in a profile done by the Hollywood Reporter. During the interview, he spoke about the glowing praise he gets from African Americans because of his impersonation of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live.

“I don’t know how to say this and I don’t want to get it wrong either, because everything is a minefield of bombs going off. But ever since I played Trump, black people love me,” Baldwin said. “I think it’s because they’re most afraid of Trump.”

The 60-year-old 30 Rock alum went on to say that he didn’t want “to paint every African-American person with the same brush” but still added that he believes a decent amount of African Americans think that President Donald Trump’s administration is bad for the black community.

The Hollywood Reporter tweeted the quote and the reactions ranged from bemusement to disgust. While his comments don’t seem negative at face value, some took issue with them because Baldwin spoke for a community that he’s not a part of.

Many wrote that they had no recollection of speaking to another black person about the actor’s impersonation of the president.

“Black people going crazy over Alec Baldwin is news to me,” tweeted Phillip Lewis, front page editor at HuffPo.

“Its been hours and I’m still unsure of where to begin the list of ways Alec Baldwin got us f***ed up,” wrote Sylvia Obell, entertainment reporter at BuzzFeed News.

Others pointed out that “black people love me” is a very “Trumpian” thing to say and wondered if Baldwin was in character when he said it.

But the responses to his statement weren’t all negative. Some seemed to understand why African Americans would plausibly be more appreciative of Baldwin’s hilarious Donald Trump impersonation.

“We hate him more than most groups of people I think,” wrote Twitter user @hollyonthemove. “We’ve always seen the con and are confused by those who don’t or who are just seeing it now. We also realize we are affected more by his policies but we are used to that cuz America. It’s not fear though.”

Based on the article in the Hollywood Reporter, Baldwin’s comments stemmed from an interaction he had with an African-American man which the reporter witnessed. While they were walking the streets of Manhattan, a man named Tyrone shouted compliments on the Trump impersonation to Baldwin. The actor called him over “and the two begin cracking each other up.” Baldwin went on to say that he attracts this type of reaction “incessantly”

“And it’s wild because it’s just this dopey thing I do that took off,” he said.

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