Alec Baldwin Talks Trump Impersonation and His Controversial #MeToo Comments

The actor explained his conflicted feelings about Hollywood's reckoning with sexual abuse.

alec baldwin
Alec Baldwin attends the "The Public" premiere during 2018 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 9, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. Baldwin recently spoke about his Trump impression and his controversial statements about the #MeToo movement. (Photo by GP Images/Getty Images)
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Alec Baldwin has spent the last two years impersonating Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live and has become one of the most visible celebrities in American public life. As he prepares to launch a new talk show, the weekly Alec Baldwin Show on ABC, Baldwin talked about the Trump impression and his often-controversial words about the #MeToo movement.

Baldwin told The Hollywood Reporter that the Trump impression has made him immensely more popular. “All I wanted my Trump to be is mean-spirited and miserable… But then I’ll say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do it anymore,’ and people will go, ‘Don’t you dare give that up, we need you.’ Like I’ve gotten people through something in our nation’s history,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin also recalled a story from last fall in which a woman he’d worked with in the 1980s called and told him that a reporter had called her asking if Baldwin had harassed her on set, a claim, Baldwin says, the woman told the reporter was “ridiculous.” Baldwin told The Hollywood Reporter that he believes reporters sometimes “look” for potential abusers, likening the phenomenon to “a fire that needs fresh wood.” He conversely stated that he does not consider the #MeToo movement at large a witch hunt because, “a witch hunt indicates that there is very little truth, if none at all, and there is a lot of truth here.”

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