Impersonating a celebrity, especially on a show as popular as Saturday Night Live, is always a tricky thing. While some famous faces take the parodies with good humor, there are plenty, however, who make it clear they’re not happy about being the butt of the joke. As you can imagine, it can be emotionally complicated trying to figure out how mean to be, and it can be especially complicated when you’re impersonating the President of The United States.
Just a handful of people in Saturday Night Live’s history understand that unique burden, and right now, that heaviness is weighing on James Austin Johnson’s shoulders. After Alec Baldwin was replaced following President Trump’s defeat in 2020, Johnson went in a very different direction with his take. His version is still biting but feels like more of a fully realized human than Baldwin’s more aggressively mean-spirited caricature. That was an intentional decision, and according to Johnson, it’s one he thinks is a lot more sustainable.
