In this file photo, actor and author Alec Baldwin appears at Barnes & Noble Union Square to sign copies of his new book, “Nevertheless: A Memoir,” in New York. Baldwin welcomes the chance to share the screen with President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live.” “I think if he came it would be a great show,” Baldwin said in an interview Wednesday, May 3, 2017. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP, File)
BEVERLY HILLS— Alec Baldwin welcomes the chance to share the screen with President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live.”
“I think if he came it would be a great show,” Baldwin said in an interview Wednesday. “I think it would be better for everybody. It’s always fun to defuse some of the tensions and unpleasantness of all this because we are mocking him — by no means with more frequency or more maliciousness, if you will, than other people.”
But he will have to wait. The actor, whose Trump impersonations became a staple this season and helped propel “SNL” to its best ratings in years, said the president recently turned down an invitation to appear on the NBC show.
“We invited him to come when I hosted recently, but he refused to come, which is fine,” Baldwin said. “I’m hoping ‘SNL’ was the one thing he chose to ignore so he could actually do his job.”
Trump has repeatedly bashed “SNL” and Baldwin’s impersonations on Twitter, but the actor said his performance is driven by Trump’s words and actions.
“Trump himself is responsible for nearly all of the content,” he said. “Trump is the head writer at ‘SNL.’ Nearly everything, every consonant and every vowel is something that Trump himself has rendered in some way. So I think Trump is even more frustrated because he has only himself to blame for that.”
He also praised Jimmy Kimmel, who on Monday night detailed how his son was born last month with a heart defect and required surgery. Kimmel’s tearful monologue included a plea for all families to have access to life-saving medical care.
“Good for him to get real about that,” said Baldwin, who’s a father of four. “I’d love to see this country turn in a direction where it makes things easier for moms and dads.”
Baldwin said he has reached out to Kimmel, who was his co-star in the animated film “The Boss Baby.”
“I can’t imagine any time in your life when you buckle down more and kind of batten down the hatches more than when you’re going through that with your wife,” Baldwin said. “That’s just mind blowing. Mind blowing. And I hope everything is great for his son.”
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