5 Things We Learned From Alec Baldwin's Memoir

Alec Baldwin's Nevertheless: A Memoir is out this month, and Vanity Fair has an excerpt in which the actor discusses his Saturday Night Live hosting stints, 30 Rock, and, of course, his President Trump impression. Five stories:

1. On his decision to do a TV show: He learned about the schedule for making one from Megan Mullally when he guest-starred on Will & Grace. "Television moves along. On films, you can sit around interminably. You hope the result is worth it. But you also think about all of the weddings, family gatherings, and overall moments of your life that you miss while shooting."
2. On his first impression of Tina Fey: She was the head writer at SNL at the time. "When I first met Tina Fey—beautiful and brunette, smart and funny, by turns smug and diffident and completely uninterested in me or anything I had to say—I had the same reaction that I’m sure many men and women have: I fell in love." He asked the talent coordinator if Fey was single and was pointed in the direction of Fey's husband.

3. On the evolution of the Trump impression: "To me Trump is someone who is always searching for a stronger, better word, but he never finds it. Whenever I play him, I make a long pause to find that word, and then I just repeat the word I started with." (The example he then gives involves "fantastic.")
4. On his first Trump impression: He initially didn't want to do it, but was ultimately persuaded. "When the stage manager took me to my mark for the first dress rehearsal, I had no idea what I was going to do. I mean, literally, the moment I walked out, I just said to myself, 'Eyebrow up,' and I tried to stick my face and my mouth out. ... I didn’t think about it—I just did it. Now I should probably tell people, 'I worked on it for months.'"
5. On the end of 30 Rock: "After Season Five, I wanted to quit. I came back for Season Six, had a great time, and was ready to sign for five more years. But a wise decision was made to shoot a tight 13 episodes and go out head high. As we shot the series finale, on a December night in Lower Manhattan, my building rush of nostalgia for the show hit its peak. ... That night was tough. The best job I ever had, that I will ever have, was over."

Click for the full excerpt. (More Alec Baldwin stories.)