Alec Baldwin, in His Own Words, on Playing Trump
How exactly did Alec Baldwin construct his mischievously exaggerated, hyper-gesticulating, searingly funny portrayal of Donald J. Trump on “Saturday Night Live”?
In the latest episode of “The Run-Up,” he explains at length, switching in and out of the president-elect’s character as he describes his comedic craft.
Here, he recalls his anxious, improvised debut as Mr. Trump:
BALDWIN: The stage manager took me to the edge of the stage ... and I stood there and I go, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I mean, we’re about to do it. And I just remember, eyebrow down, eyebrow up ... masticate the words as much as you can. And get your mouth out as far. And really, really masticate the words ... and then the hands … wax-on, wax-off. And you put together like three or four beats and then that’s it.
I spoke with Sarah Maslin Nir, my colleague who conducted (and, thankfully, recorded) the original conversation with Mr. Baldwin, his first interview about the comedic role.
The liberal Mr. Baldwin concedes that he holds the president-elect in low regard. But that has not stopped him from becoming a close student of Mr. Trump’s every physical quirk and verbal tic — he is particularly taken with Mr. Trump’s tendencies to pause “and then what he comes to is something that you didn’t really have to pause to come up with that.”
BALDWIN: You just pick these three or four beats physically, and to me, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what’s going on inside him ... I see a guy who seems to pause, to dig for the more precise and better language that he wants to use and never finds it.
But is the performance an act for the sake of comedy or an act of political rebellion?
“I’m here doing a show,” Mr. Baldwin says. “I’m a performer, an actor that’s here doing a show. It’s a great part.” That said, he isn’t shy about where he stands. “I don’t hate him. I want him to enjoy his life. I just want him to not be the president of the United States — as quickly as possible.”
As a satirical version of Mr. Trump, Mr. Baldwin now deals with an unexpected dilemma, for him, anyway: Is his portrayal making the new president more human, and thus, more sympathetic? Ms. Nir asked him about that, too.
That’s the fake Mr. Trump. The real Mr. Trump had a busy and consequential week, grappling with fast-moving global affairs in Germany, Turkey, Russia and Syria that are challenging a presidency focused on domestic economic revival.
What did we learn about his interest and influence over international events? I put that question to the White House reporters Maggie Haberman and Mark Landler.
President-elects almost always remain silent on foreign policy until their inauguration, to avoid confusing the world about who, exactly, is commander in chief. On this, Mr. Landler and Ms. Haberman agree: Mr. Trump, and his very active Twitter account, have no interest in abiding by that practice.
“He doesn’t subscribe to the old idea that the country has one president at a time,” Mr. Landler says.
Ms. Haberman questions how much we can deduce about his policy once in office from his current behavior. “When it is not Trump triangulating against Obama and Trump actually having to be the only president, I don’t know what we’re going to see in terms of foreign policy. It’s a little easier for him to do this right now.”
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P.C: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/podcasts/alec-baldwin-in-his-own-words-on-playing-trump.html
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