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"Saturday Night Live": Alec Baldwin Not "So Done" Playing Trump After All
Well, the calendar didn't have to creep too close to the new season of NBC's Saturday Night Live – in this case, only three days – before Alec Baldwin would have a change of heart about returning to the long-running sketch comedy to play Donald Trump. In an interview with TVLine on Monday, Baldwin admitted that there was one person with the power to have him come back – "The Godfather of SNL":
"I get sick of [appearing as Trump] and I've whined about it regularly, because in the zeitgeist I'm a pretty political person and where I would normally put that energy is in voter registration, to work with MoveOn.org, to get involved in an actual candidacy and get more into that. But Lorne is my dear friend and [SNL] is like another home to me, so if they want me to do it, I probably will."
In an interview with USA Today late last week, Baldwin revealed that he is "so done with" playing Trump and that he was looking to finish up his run in the role. Here's what he had to say about a possible return:
"I can't imagine I would do it again. I just can't. They should find somebody who wants to do it. They're all my dear friends and I love going there, but the other thing is that I'm going to go to work this fall in a way I haven't done in a while. My wife and I had a son a year ago, and since he was born, I've worked minimally because I wanted to be there for my wife and kids. But the party's over this fall and I'll be traveling. SNL just crushes my weekends, and now weekends are going to become much more precious to me because that's time with my kids."
As for who should replace him? Baldwin had some thoughts…
"I don't know. Darrell Hammond did it and is a far better impressionist than I'll ever be. When Anthony Atamanuik (started impersonating Trump on Comedy Central's The President Show), all these people were attacking me, saying, 'Oh, your impression sucks and you suck. Please go away.' It also was something I thought to myself: 'I really don't have a lot invested in my Trump impersonation, so please find someone and convince Lorne (Michaels) to replace me.' I'm completely down with that. Winning the Emmy for that show aside, it was not some career goal of mine."
Since Baldwin was kind enough to give us another opportunity to make our Saturday Night Live pitch, here's who needs to be Trump: