Baldwin shows when it comes to upping comical stakes, he’s the boss, baby

Boss HAVE we Baldwin?

The man who honed his satiric con man of a boss during the seven-year run of NBC’s 30 Rock seems to be omnipresent these days by playing comical honchos.

On Saturday, Alec Baldwin reprised his President Donald Trump character and then unveiled his Bill O’Reilly impression on Saturday Night Live. reached peak

Then, on Sunday, his Fox/ DreamWorks Animation film The Boss Baby reprised its role as the No 1 film in the land.

Boss Baby grossed $26.3 million in its second weekend to top the domestic box office, according to studio estimates, edging out Disney powerhouse Beauty and the Beast ($25m) for the second straight weekend.

A central selling point of Boss Baby, says director Tom McGrath, is the familiar, colourful delivery of Baldwin, who plays the title briefcase-toting infant.

Baldwin has long played authority figures on screen, including military men who have Hawaiian ties (chewing out Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbor, for example, or Aloha), wise life advisers (To Rome With Love), high-finance wheeler-dealers (Blue Jasmine) and (The law-enforcement Departed).

Yet now, Baldwin is upping the comical tone on his takes, playing and voicing characters who are depicted as throwing around sly glances beneath shifting eyebrows as they aim to fast-talk their way out of tight spots and hot accusations.

Baldwin’s two-for-one sketch as both O’Reilly and Trump sparks leaders the question of which big bosses he might play or spoof next. Could a Murdoch or Musk be in his near-future?

Meanwhile, if anything, the success of Boss Baby might just spur a sequel. The film has grossed nearly $200m worldwide.

And perhaps equally important, Baldwin appears to have a tireless comic metabolism right now. – Washington Post