Hello, Mr. (and Ms.) President! Celebrities have tackled the tough task of portraying presidents — real and fictional — on film and television over the years.
Alec Baldwin began portraying Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live during the 2016 presidential election. The character quickly became a fan favorite, but the actor admitted in October 2019 that he told producers he wanted to retire his Trump persona.
“I said to them — and it was not with any malice or any lack of affection for them — I said, ‘I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to do the Trump thing again. I’m gonna stop,’” he said during his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Baldwin added that show creator Lorne Michaels convinced him to stay on board despite his reservations.
“He called me the Friday before the show — the day before the show — and he’s like, ‘I don’t think you understand,’” he recalled. “And I go, ‘What don’t I understand? I’ve been thinking about it all summer. Every day, it’s all I think about.’”
The Beetlejuice star said that Michaels asked for Baldwin to trust that his Trump character was an important part of Saturday Night Live.
“Lorne starts with one very powerful premise, which is, ‘I hired you, didn’t I? So, my judgment is flawless, right? I gave you your biggest job, didn’t I?’ And you’re like, ‘Yeah, you got a point. You hired me, so I really shouldn’t doubt you,’” Baldwin said. “So, he said to me, ‘You should come do it. Your audience demands it,’ or something like that. So, I came, and I did it, and I’m going to do it a few times.”
In May 2019, Baldwin told The Hollywood Reporter that it was difficult for him to maintain SNL’s busy filming schedule while still trying to make time for his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, and their children.
“The Trump thing is going to end very soon. I can’t do it any longer. I’m right there,” he said at the time. “During the past year, I worked a little bit, things here and there, but nothing major. And I could afford on those Saturdays to do the show here and there. This season, I probably will have done eight of them. Now I’m going to go back to work a lot in the fall, and therefore the weekends will be much more precious to me with my wife and kids.”
Will Ferrell also took on the role of a living president — George W. Bush — on Saturday Night Live in 2000. The comedian became known for using the word “strategery” during a skit, but Bush wasn’t offended by Ferrell’s joke. The former president even quipped that he was the one who came up with the made-up word instead of the SNL writers.
“I said, ‘Wait a minute, I said strategery!’” Bush said during Jimmy Kimmel Live! in March 2017. “I said, ‘I damn sure said strategery!’”
Scroll down to see the stars who’ve portrayed presidents in film and television.
The Ace Ventura: Pet Detective star began playing Biden during the 2020 presidential election and continued his run after the politician became president-elect.
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Wright’s character Claire Underwood became the lead — and the president — on House of Cards after Kevin Spacey exited the Netflix show.
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Davis took on the groundbreaking role of fictional President Mackenzie Allen, the first female president of the United States, in 2005 on the short-lived ABC series Commander-in-Chief.
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The actor told Vanity Fair in September 2012 that he didn’t overthink his role as Franklin D. Roosevelt in the film Hyde Park on Hudson. “I hate to give away my secrets,” he joked. “I do almost nothing. I did a lot of reading. I studied the accent of the area. I worked with a fellow in sound.”
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The actor portrayed George W. Bush in the 2008 film W. “Everyone said, ‘Why would you want to do that?’ And most of my friends continued to ask ‘why’ until it came out,” he told MTV News in November 2009. “I don’t know how we’re getting the praise and accolades we’re getting. It’s amazing to me. It was the ultimate risk, and it’s the ultimate reward”
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Making his directing debut, Rock starred as Mays Gilliam, an alderman, who is chosen as the party candidate for the presidency in 2003’s Head of State. “The way the guy runs is not really black; it’s just alternative. It’s black. It’s white. It’s gay. It’s straight. You know what I mean? He goes everywhere . . . He’s got the women with the babies,” Rock told Hollywood.com in March 2003. “I mean, he’s working it, working all the angles.”
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“How could anyone conceive of being the president of the United States and think that every single thing that you say or do can become a part of the public record? It just seems so stupid to me,” the actor, who portrayed the president in the 2003 comedy, Mars Attacks!, told Esquire in December 2003. “A man needs a private life. With no ability to have a private life, one thing leads to another, and before you know it we have Bill and Monica. We need to get real about things. Humans are humans. Why should we expect more?”
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Freeman took on the challenging role of being president of the United States as a comet was heading to collide with Earth in the 1998 action film, Deep Impact. In a July 2012 interview with NPR, the actor said of President Barack Obama, “He’s not America’s first black president — he’s America’s first mixed-race president.”
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The actor portrayed President Roosevelt in the 2001 action drama, Pearl Harbor. “With Howard Cosell (Ali) or Roosevelt or other guys that I’ve played, you have to pay attention to how they behave, the detail of how they movie and talk,” Voight explained to Rogue Cinema in July 2006.
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Keaton played the president of the United States, Margaret Colin played the First Lady, and Katie Holmes starred as their daughter in the 2004 romantic comedy, First Daughter.
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As president of the United States, Harmon has to track down his 18-year-old daughter (Mandy Moore), who runs away in the 2004 romantic comedy, Chasing Liberty.
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The actor starred in the comedy drama The American President about a widowed U.S. president and lobbyist who fall in love. He is set to play the president again in the upcoming film, Reykjavik, as Ronald Reagan.
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Travolta put on a few pounds and went gray to play Jack Stanton, a charismatic presidential candidate (reminiscent of Bill Clinton) in the 1998 comedy, Primary Colors.
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Hopkins portrayed Richard Nixon in the 1995 biographical film. Director Oliver Stone told The Daily Beast in December 1995, “The isolation of Tony is what struck me. The loneliness. I felt that was the quality that always marked Nixon. He played repression perfectly in Remains of the Day, and there was a lot of Nixon in that, too.”
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Ford played the president in 1997’s action adventure film, Air Force One, who fights airplane hijackers. During an interview with Jimmy Kimmel in July 2011, the actor joked, “Air Force One… Two? That’s good. And they take over the plane again? Great! I love it, as long as I can make the deal.”
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Jewel thief Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood) witnesses the president of the United States (Hackman) commit a terrible crime in the 1997 thriller, Absolute Power.
Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
The actor stars as the reigning president, who feuds with two former presidents in the 1996 comedy, My Fellow Americans.
Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection
“I’ll give you anything you ask for, as long as it’s not something I don’t want to give,” Thornton, playing the president in the 2003 romantic comedy, Love Actually, tells Hugh Grant, who stars as the British Prime Minister.
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The comedian portrayed Theodore Roosevelt in the 2006 comedy Night at the Museum. Williams also starred as Dwight D. Eisenhower in the drama The Butler.
20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection
Giamatti starred as the titular character, John Adams, in the 2008 HBO miniseries. The actor later starred as King John in 2011 Ironclad and told Time Out Boston in March 2011, “That’s what I look for — crappy world rulers. They were both really bad at their jobs. So I’m not sure, I think John Adams is a step down from King John, actually.”
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The actor portrayed John F. Kennedy in the 2011 Reelz Channel miniseries, The Kennedys. “I was very surprised,” Kinnear told Access Hollywood of earning an Emmy nomination for the role. “For me, personally, it was a chance to play a president whom I deeply admired.”
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Goldywn stars as President Fitzgerald Grant on ABC’s drama series, Scandals. “I’ve done a lot of research about the presidency and about the White House for past projects because I’ve played the chief of staff at the White House in The Pelican Brief,” the actor told TV Equals in May 2012. “I played a press secretary to President Carter in another project. I’ve played an advisor to Harry Truman in an HBO movie. I’ve done a lot of stuff in and around the White House . . .”
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The actor transforms himself into President Abraham Lincoln for director Steven Spielberg‘s film, Lincoln. “I never, ever felt that depth of love for another human being that I never met,” he told 60 Minutes Overtime in October 2012 of portraying Lincoln.
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The actor took on the role of Frank Underwood, a Democrat from South Carolina who after being passed over for Secretary of State, conspires with his wife to become president in Netflix’s House of Cards.
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The funnyman has been perfectly portraying George W. Bush since 2000, when SNL creator Lorne Michaels asked Ferrell if he wanted to attempt taking on the 43rd president. In 2009, Ferrell starred in HBO comedy You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush.
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The Frasier actor pulled off presidential smugness to a tee while playing fictional president Andrew Carington Boone alongside Kevin Costner, who starred as a lovable loser who finds himself at the center of the presidential election in 2008’s Swing Vote.
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The Cheers alum portrayed Richard Nixon in Dick, a comedy parodying Nixon’s 1970s Watergate scandal that ultimately led to his resignation as the 37th president.
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Foxx played fictional president James Sawyer alongside Channing Tatum in 2013’s action flick White House Down. Together, the duo fought off a terrorist attack on the White House.
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The funnyman is so good at impersonating President Barack Obama on Saturday Night Live, it’s sometimes hard to differentiate the two.
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