it's gonna be yuge

Lorne Michaels Says It Was Tina Fey’s Idea to Make Alec Baldwin SNL’s New Donald Trump

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

To be fair, once you work with Alec Baldwin, you probably suggest him for everything: “Oh, you need someone to play Chewbacca Mom? To KonMari your apartment? To father your child? Get Alec to do it.” In a new Hollywood Reporter interview, Lorne Michaels reveals that it was Tina Fey who suggested Alec Baldwin take over for Darrell Hammond as  Saturday Night Live’s Donald Trump. “We were talking about who should do it. And she said, ‘Well, the person that should really play it is Alec.’ And I went, ‘Yeah.’ A light went on,” he says. Despite a recent film commitment and the birth of his son Leo, the erstwhile 30 Rock star was game for the role. Says Michaels, “There were a lot of obstacles in the way to working it out. But I just thought he’d be brilliant doing it and I thought he and Kate [McKinnon, who plays Hillary Clinton] would be a match.” While other late-night shows are grappling with the social ramifications of a Trump candidacy, the SNL creator has no regrets about having the former Apprentice star host the show last November, a move some have claimed normalized Trump to voters. “I don’t want to rehash those things. He is the nominee of the Republican Party. We’ve always tried to be non-partisan. I think that he’s one of the most controversial candidates that’s ever happened. But you’ll see what we do this week,” Michaels said, hopefully alluding to a down-and-out street fight between the real Donald Trump and an enraged Baldwin in a guinea-pig wig.

Tina Fey Suggested Alec Baldwin Be SNL’s Trump