Long live the king of comedy
Alec Baldwin has always known how to zero in on the funny, writes Bryan Alexander.
When the comedy poop hits the fan, count on Alec Baldwin to come to the rescue. Just ask The Boss Baby director Tom McGrath, who was stuck finding that right expletive while recording the voices for his animated film about a baby with the mind of a sharp businessman. Baldwin, who voices Boss Baby, finally stepped in.
‘‘We had tried all of these exclamations. And Alec just blurted out ‘Fartpoopdoody’. It was just perfect,’’ says McGrath. ‘‘What’s great is Alec knows just where the comedy is.’’
Baldwin, 58, has always shown he can zero in on the funny, But with Boss Baby hitting cinemas in the middle of Baldwin’s run as impersonator-in-chief for President Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live (he hosted for a record 17th time in February), the actor is showing he’s the true comedy boss. It’s a run that surprises even Baldwin.
‘‘There’s a more typical path you’re on when rounding the corner toward 60 with retirement not far away or at least slowing down,’’ says Baldwin. ‘‘But it’s like the old saying, you make plans and life happens.’’
For Baldwin, the comedy resurgence started with his seven- year stint as executive Jack Donaghy on TV’s 30 Rock, making him a natural choice to voice Boss Baby. McGrath even tested his story concept about a businesssavvy baby living in a normal household with a demo featuring Baldwin’s voice from his cutthroat role in 1992’s Glengarry Glen Ross dubbed over an adorable animated baby from Megamind.
DreamWorks Animation jumped on the concept and McGrath immediately signed up the real Baldwin. This was all before Trump was even a presidential candidate and before Baldwin married Hilaria Baldwin in 2012. The arrival of three young children has ensured Baldwin will be happily busy.
‘‘Like anybody who has a career, you want to slow down, whether you are a cop or business owner. But then I went and got married and had three kids,’’ says Baldwin. ‘‘So I’m probably going to retire when I’m 80.’’
However, he says that even in the formidable and famous Baldwin brothers clan, as the oldest – he was the boss.
‘‘I really was pretty clear about how I wanted things to be and how I didn’t want them to be,’’ Baldwin admits. ‘‘My brothers were much more childlike. They would go out and play basketball for six hours all day. And I would go out and cut grass and I had a job making money. I was much more industrious.’’
Now though, Baldwin has given up the Boss Baby throne to his own children with wife Hilaria: daughter Carmen, 3; son Rafael, nearly 2; and 6-month-old Leonardo Angel Charles (daughter Ireland, with ex-wife Kim Basinger, is 21). Carmen, he believes, takes the crown.
‘‘Carmen is very commanding and very decisive,’’ he says. ‘‘And very persistent.’’
Baldwin says he’s pretty much drowned out of the family conversation. ‘‘I am happy that I am getting closer, as they start to speak more, to a world where other people do all the talking and I get to listen,’’ says Baldwin. ‘‘I am there to facilitate. I am there to help things move along. I am there to lift heavy things, load the car and unload the car.’’
His apartment in New York City and house on Long Island have been consumed with children’s toys. It’s hard to find the adult furniture.
‘‘A dear friend of mine came over the other day, and I said, ‘I am so sorry, but we’ll have to find a place for you to sit down’,’’ says Baldwin. ‘‘And she said, ‘Yeah, I get it. When you have kids, your apartment becomes a preschool’.’’
That said, Baldwin confesses he has come to respect the lifestyle, and playstyle, of baby living, especially with his youngest.
‘‘Leo has that (activity jumper) where you sit in and bounce up and down. It plays music and there are rattles attached to it and all kind of knobs and gadgets around the perimeter,’’ he says. ‘‘You’d think as a little baby, he’d be exhausted. But he does it for 30 or 40 minutes. Then he eats and passes out.’’
Though Baldwin insists that his Trump performance will end with SNL’s spring season, he will get a few more comic jabs in. He’s teaming up with satirist Kurt Andersen to write a book as Trump mocking the first 100 days of the presidency, You Can’t Spell America Without Me. Baldwin’s own memoir, Nevertheless, is out now.
His fascination with the president won’t end. When asked to compare Trump to his Boss Baby, Baldwin tees up and lets it fly.
‘‘Obviously, the two characters make a lot of demands on people. They are very self-seeking in that way. They want what they want,’’ says Baldwin. ‘‘But I’m hardpressed to figure out what Trump really wants, that may be the problem. It seems to change every 48 hours what Trump wants.
‘‘Trump is the most frustrating and inscrutable person I have ever seen.’’ – USA Today
❚ The Boss Baby (G) opens in New Zealand cinemas on April 13.