Trump card: Can Brendan Gleeson pull off playing Trump in new TV series The Comey Rule?

In early trailers for the controversial new TV mini-series The Comey Rule, Brendan Gleeson looks uncannily like the 45th US President, swaggering around in enormous suits, his skin a day-glow orange, his hair whisked into a gravity-defying quiff.

In early trailers for the controversial new TV mini-series The Comey Rule, Brendan Gleeson looks uncannily like the 45th US President, swaggering around in enormous suits, his skin a day-glow orange, his hair whisked into a gravity-defying quiff.

He’s well-cast as Donald Trump, the same height (6ft 2in), and with a similarly imposing physique. But on the basis of a 10-second trailer, there have already been criticisms of his vocal approach: he delivers lines in a muttering growl, which some have complained is insufficiently Trumpian.

Gleeson is a wily and intelligent actor and, before taking on this role, will have wrestled with a difficult question: how do you play perhaps the most impersonated man on the planet? It started with Alec Baldwin’s clownish turns on Saturday Night Live, and now everyone has a Trump impression. To get beyond the caricature and embody the man himself, Gleeson would have to ditch the well-worn tics and come up with something new. No doubt he has.

The drama, based on former FBI chief James Comey’s memoir and due to be screened in September, is unlikely to be flattering: Comey (who’s played by Jeff Daniels) was fired by Trump in May, 2017 on foot of the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential election; his distaste for his former boss is well known.

Brendan Gleeson transforms into Donald Trump in the first teaser for TV drama The Comey Rule

Brendan Gleeson transforms into Donald Trump in the first teaser for TV drama The Comey Rule

Source: Trump card: Can Brendan Gleeson pull off playing The Donald in new TV series The Comey Rule?

2 thoughts on “Trump card: Can Brendan Gleeson pull off playing Trump in new TV series The Comey Rule?

Leave a Reply