![Alec Baldwin on Donald Trump Impression: ‘I Almost Sprained My Jaw’](http://townsquare.media/site/252/files/2016/10/alec-baldwin-kate-mckinnon-snl-trump-clinton.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Alec Baldwin on Donald Trump Impression: ‘I Almost Sprained My Jaw’
Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump impression for Saturday Night Live will likely go down in television history as one of the show's more accurate and memorable portrayals of a politician -- right alongside Tina Fey's Sarah Palin and Kate McKinnon's Hillary Clinton.
But according to Baldwin -- who was also quick to declare, "I don't hate Trump, but he's not somebody I admire" -- his impression causes him actual physical discomfort.
“You just watch him and try to see him, like a caricaturist who draws...This is an exaggeration. This is an exaggeration of his masticating every word,” the actor said of the part during an interview with WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show via the Hollywood Reporter. "I almost sprained my jaw pushing my lower jaw forward to talk the way he does and say, 'Putin.' Do I sound like him? Kind of. But I think what you get is an essence of him being very feral.”
Baldwin continued, saying it was Tina Fey's idea for him to play the role of Trump -- which he initially opposed when Lorne Michaels first approached him about the idea.
"When [Michaels] asked me, I said no. I thought, 'I don’t want do that. I don’t think I can,'" he said. "But you get lucky, and I think people were ready to take in that version of him, which is so aggressive."
But, the 30 Rock actor says, it was worth it to work alongside Kate McKinnon, who portrays Clinton on the show: "One of my greatest joys is that I got to do it with Kate. She is just this staggering talented woman. And she's smart, because she mixes the sweet and the sour in there."
Listen to Alec Baldwin's full interview on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show above.
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