Alec Baldwin to co-write satirical book in character of Donald Trump

Extract from The Guardian

The actor, who has played the president on Saturday Night Live, will work with novelist Kurt Andersen on You Can’t Spell America Without Me

‘I think it’s fair to say that Kurt will do most of the writing’ … Alec Baldwin. Photograph: Will Heath/AP

Guardian staff

Thursday 2 March 2017 04.37 AEDT 

After playing him on the most recent season of Saturday Night Live, Alec Baldwin is taking his Donald Trump impression to a new level, co-writing a satirical book in character.

According to the New York Times, the actor will work with novelist Kurt Andersen on You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J Trump. The book will be released by Penguin Press in November and will be accompanied by an audiobook to be read by Baldwin as Trump.
Andersen is also known as the editor of Spy magazine, which often ridiculed the future president back in the 1980s. “I didn’t think this former hobby of mine would return with this ferocity,” he told the New York Times. “I think we’ll be channeling and amplifying the real Trump. Writing for a five- or 10-minute sketch is different than writing a book, which has to be a narrative.”
His previous works include the books True Believers and Heyday.

Alec Baldwin takes on Trump on Saturday Night Live

“I think it’s fair to say that Kurt will do most of the writing,” Baldwin said. “We have that arrangement whereby he doesn’t put on the wig, I don’t open up a Word document.”

The star of films including Beetlejuice and Glengarry Glen Ross, isn’t entirely fresh to the literary scene, however. In 2008 he released a book A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce, and last year he wrote his memoir Nevertheless.

After casting Baldwin as Trump, Saturday Night Live has been experiencing record ratings and memorably aroused the ire of the president himself. Trump has tweeted that Baldwin’s impression “can’t get any worse”. It’s expected that he will return to make an appearance on this Saturday’s episode, hosted by Octavia Spencer.