James Austin Johnson broke down what it takes to portray Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live.
The secret to his flailing, alluring, and “absurdist” impression, the four-year SNL star said, is to lean into the president’s mass appeal.
“His charm and popularity are extremely clear to me and always have been very clear to me,” Johnson said on Vulture‘s Good One podcast Thursday. “I’ve leaned more into his charm, because I think he’s a hilarious and charming person.”
Johnson, 36, whose viral social media Trump impressions helped propel him to a position on SNL, said that many comics’ failure to acknowledge Trump’s popularity held them back.
“He’s a popular politician, and I think that was an element of Trump comedy that maybe was missing for a while,” the SNL impressionist said. “I do find him to be an irresistible personality, so I’ve leaned into that for sure.”
Johnson took over the Trump gig on SNL after five years of Alec Baldwin’s Emmy-winning portrayal of the first-term president. He is the sixth comedian to take on the role.
Trump himself has hosted the show twice, in 2004 and 2015—one year before his election night win.
While Darrel Hammond’s 16-year impression focused on Trump’s early reality TV bravado, and Baldwin channeled a liberal caricature of the president, no one has captured Trump’s entertainment value quite as well as Johnson.
“He’s Kendrick Lamar, or something. No one else can talk this way and say these words this way; that’s what makes it so entertaining,” Johnson said of the president’s idiosyncratic and undeniably entertaining speech patterns.
For Johnson, his Trump impression is just like any other character he plays on the show.
“I am not focused on converting anyone or teaching anyone, because I really can’t say anything about the character Donald Trump or his fitness for any of the roles he’s played in our lives that he hasn’t already said himself,” Johnson said. “What more can I say in the negative about Donald Trump that he has not celebrated with fanfare and trumpets?”
SNL, which will air its 1000th episode later this month, is set to return from its holiday break on Saturday. Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard is hosting alongside musical guest A$AP Rocky.
