Alec Baldwin reveals his secret to playing Donald Trump

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYjoSD8bXoQ

Alec Baldwin shared a surprising tidbit with Jimmy Kimmel Wednesday about his popular impression of President Donald Trump: The actor hadn’t even attempted to impersonate Trump until a Saturday Night Live dress rehearsal days before he was scheduled to play the now-commander in chief on the show.

“I had no idea what I was going to do,” Baldwin told Kimmel. “I mean, literally the moment I walked out there, I just said to myself, ‘Eyebrow out.’ I tried to stick my face out, and my mouth out.

“I was in the makeup room, they’re putting my wig on, and it was like a scene from a mental hospital,” Baldwin continued. “I’m getting the wig on me, and I’m sitting there the whole time going, ‘China, China,’ again and again, until you don’t think about it.”

According to Baldwin, the secret to his impression is less matching the president’s appearance or speaking style, but trying to get to the root of who Trump is.

“You can kind of suggest the voice or suggest the way they look, but you’ve got to try to think of who he is,” Baldwin said. “And I’ve said this countless times: To me, Trump was someone who, he’s always searching for a stronger, better word, and he never finds it.”

“So whenever you do Trump, he’ll sit there going, ‘These people, they’re great people, they’re fantastic people, and I just want to say working with them was —’” Baldwin continued, adding in an extended pause for comic effect. “And then he goes, ‘A fantastic experience.’”