NBC / SNL
Alec Baldwin has been an A-List actor for most of his life, but he’s been receiving an inordinate amount of attention in recent months after rolling out his amazing impression of President Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live. Lorne Michaels’ SNL always sees a bump in the ratings during election years but we’re living in that rare situation where the show is able to keep that momentum going after the election. Currently, Saturday Night Live is pulling in its highest ratings in over 20 years. We saw this with Will Ferrell’s impression of President George W. Bush, and we’re seeing it again now with SNL fans clamoring for Alec Baldwin‘s impression of Trump. It could all be over soon, though.
In a recent interview, Alec Baldwin said that he’ll soon be quitting his Donald Trump impression. I assumed his reason would be that fans of Saturday Night Live would grow tired of the impression week after week, but that’s not the primary reason Alec Baldwin gave:
“His policies aside, which you can hate, I thought he would have just relaxed,” Baldwin told “Extra’s” Mario Lopez. “The maliciousness of this White House has people worried, which is why I’m not going to do it much longer, the impersonation, I don’t know how much more people can take it.”
Baldwin also explained that Trump “just overwhelmingly lacks any sportsmanship,” called him “bitter, and angry,” and added, “you just want to look at him and go, ‘You won!’”
When asked if he would fill in for Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, for which the president will be absent, he said it wasn’t likely.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Baldwin replied. “I honestly don’t think that they want that. I think that for their prestige and their integrity … I think a lot of people are thinking that if Trump himself doesn’t come and face the music, as it were, I don’t know what kind of program they’re going to have. If they wanted me to do it, I would probably do it, but I’m not quite sure they’ll do. I think they may have a whole other idea.” (via PageSix)
Kind of sounds like a cop-out to me. I love Alec Baldwin. His character Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock with Tina Fey is one of my all-time favorite TV characters. I’ve tuned into SNL recently, but I’ve only caught maybe 1/3rd of the Donald Trump impressions, and I have to admit that even I’m already a little tired of them.
Fans watching (or hate watching) Saturday Night Live every week have to be tired as hell at this point. Just like Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer impression, it was such an overnight success that it came to be expected every week and the magic began to fizzle quickly.
I wouldn’t expect Alec Baldwin to say ever anything like that in an interview, but the real reason he’s dropping his Donald Trump interview has to be because they’ve overdone it, right?