James Austin Johnson discusses the challenges of playing Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, how he differs from Alec Baldwin's portrayal, and his approach to improvising the character.
star James Austin Johnson revealed the biggest challenges he faced as he took over Alec Baldwin ’s role as President Donald Trump . Johnson has been the show’s go-to guy to portray Trump ever since he joined the sketch comedy series as a cast member in fall 2021.
Before him, the role had been played for five seasons by frequentdirector Josh Greenbaum. Johnson explained that one of the biggest obstacles to creating a memorable Trump impression was that, by 2021, many Americans had long grown sick of the guy.
“I get why people hate him so much that they don’t even want to think about the normal things that an actor would think about to get into a character,” Johnson said. He added, “I think that’s definitely made it hard for people to find the way in with Donald Trump. And he’s also been around for a billion years. ”star’s impression was mean and openly aggressive, Johnson’s parody of Trump is a bit more subtle.
“I think I play his charm a little bit more maybe than Alec did,” Johnson said. “I think I play the secret weapon that ’s deployed, which is that he’s funny, intentionally and unintentionally... That’s not really something I’m looking for when it’s time to vote for somebody, but it’s been extremely powerful. ” Another key to capturing Trump, Johnson explained, is that he plays the president as a guy who “never finishes a thought.
”Johnson performed several riffs of his version of Trump for the Tribeca Film Festival audience, emphasizing how he depicts the president’s infamous tendency to Johnson revealed he often improvises his Trump impression in the live show, although he tries not to do it too much, as it risks having later sketches cut from the episode.
“It wouldn’t feel like Trump if there wasn’t this queasy feeling in the audience of, ‘What is he going to say? Is he going to say something crazy? ’” Johnson said. He continued, “So I have to improvise for the character, to kind of come alive, so I’m throwing in stuff.
”Johnson particularly leaned on improv in the cold opens where Trump rambles while the rest of the cast stays frozen in place behind him.
“I’m doing stuff that’s not on the cards because I want Mikey Day or Marcelo to giggle,” Johnson said. Later in the panel, an audience member asked Johnson if he ever feels afraid of receiving any backlash from the president.
“Am I fearful of the crazy person who wields the military and all that stuff all the time, that seems to target individuals? Yeah,” said Johnson, although he noted that Trump has so far seemed too hung up on Baldwin’s impression to direct his anger at Johnson’s new portrayal.
Johnson explained further, “I’m doing a version of that I feel is sustainable, because I do think that there is a little bit of a game of Operation that all of comedy is playing right now. And I just don’t think we’ve seen a president who’s so willing to target private citizens and ruin their lives. ”for financial reasons, critics have speculated that pressure from the Trump administration may have played a role in CBS’s decision.
The documentary also included interviews with Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers, both of whom expressed concerns that Trump might successfully get their shows taken off the air one day.
“Sometimes I thought we did a little too much political stuff on the show,” Downey said. He noted that in the ’70s the cold opens were political “about a third of the time at most,” but things shifted in the mid-’80s.
“It was after we started to get a lot of attention for the politics in the mid-’80s that Lorne felt it was almost like we were a daily newspaper, and we had an obligation to the public to put something political up front,” Downey said. Smigel declared that he doesn’t mind the show’s growing political focus. In fact, he argued that the show might not be political enough.
“It feels like there are a lot of people that people have opinions about that the show is not getting to,” Smigel said. He cited Jeff Bezos as someone he’d likeJohnson also noted another major challenge that comes with playing the president: Trump has so many controversies that the show’s cold opens keep needing to be rewritten at the last minute.
“There’s tons of new bulls--- every day,” Johnson said. “You can’t follow a single story ever. It all expires immediately and turns over. ”Johnson lamented, “I was really excited about that State of the Union . I really wanted to do that. ”
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