Back at the early days of the Trump madness — in the middle of his term — back when we thought our world had gone pretty much as bonkers as it could get, I wrote a post called “Trumpocalypse: The Movie”. I smile now at my charming naivete — to think that the Trump madness could be contained within one measly feature film. Re-thinkiing “Trumpocalypse” as a mini-series also threatens to be too small a vehicle to contain the “Trumpocalypse” story but the thing about a mini series is it has an end point. After the last episode, it’s done. If we do this right, there should be no more — no sequels, no spin offs, nothing. Whereas, if we made “Trumpocalypse” an on-going series with no end date in sight… You see what I mean? We NEED this show to be finite because this can’t be our only show. There’s great stuff – important stuff — on other channels that we need to get to and quickly.
Not only has the “Trumpocalypse” mini series got way more storylines in it, it’s got way more characters. How do we organize our casting process so that, when we get to “the day”, we have not only a great cast but a great cast that will complement each other?
I’d like to start by casting first the Trump family. Then those immediately around it — the “inner circle” if you will. Then, I would begin to cast the mini-series — going chronologically — major story by major story. As this is going to be an ongoing project that’s changing on the fly, I’ve no doubt some stories will demand to be cast in the right here, right now. Hey — welcome to life in a casting office! Things change all the time. Actors drop out and new characters and whole storylines suddenly get added. If ya can’t stand the heat…
So, without any further ado, please welcome to our Casting Office! You’ll see where I’ve left the casting door open for everyone else to bring their suggestions and their casting notes…
CHARACTER
DONALD J. TRUMP
ALEC BALDWIN as Trump…
NOTES: Baldwin’s is probably the most familiar Trump. It’s an excellent caricature. And, considering that Trump IS a caricature of a human. playing Trump as a caricature makes a certain kind of sense. I wonder if there’s not a way to “multiple-cast” Trump since he worked in so many different ways on our psyche. Just a thought for later discussion…
BRENDAN GLEASON as Trump…
NOTES: Gleeson played Trump in “The Comey Rule” on Showtime.
WOODY HARRELSON as Trump
NOTES: I’ve always liked Woody Harrelson’s “interior” range. It’s amazing and we’re going to need an actor with incredible emotional range to play a character with VIRTUALLY NONE. It’s like getting an actor to sing off key. The ones who can actually sing will automatically do it better. They even know where off-key is.
IVANKA TRUMP
SCARLET JOHANSSON as Ivanka Trump
NOTES: There’s a kind of irony in an actress great at playing Black Widow to play the part of a woman who acts like an actual black widow spider.
AMANDA SEYFRIED as Ivanka
NOTES: Some things just seem so natural…
DONALD TRUMP, JR
MIKEY DAY as Donald Trump, Jr
NOTES: Presently, the actor who’s gotten closest to nailing Don Jr’s unctuousness is an actor satirizing him. That’s probably not a coincidence. Still — we need some competition here. I’ll put my mind to it if you will…
ERIC TRUMP
Alex Moffat as Eric Trump
NOTES: As with Mikey Day’s Junior, SNL’s version of Eric — and I love Alex Moffat’s Eric — stands for the moment as “the” Eric. Competition’s good for everyone — Trump’s included.
MELANIA TRUMP
CASTING OPEN!
Awaiting Picture, so here’s the real Melania — in the one photo I can find of her smiling like she means it. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Melania’s smiling this way at Putin. Not cos Melania respects international relationships but because she worked the whole damned time as Donald’s handler on Vlad’s behalf. Hey, how do you say “I don’t care, do you?” in Russian?
VLADIMIR PUTIN
MADS MIKKELSON as Vladimir Putin
NOTES: Mads played the Bond Villain Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. By all accounts, Vlad Putin is the Bond Villain America fully deserves.
RUDY GIULIANI
KATE McKINNON as Rudy Giuliani
NOTES: Personally, I’m not sure a human can play the entirely humanoid Rudy but my mind’s open. Kate McKinnon can do anything. I bet she could do a fully deep dive into Rudy and actually pull off an amazing, lifelike (without being cartoonish) characterization. But still — for the moment, the part’s wide open.
MORE CHARACTERS TO COME!!!!!