Brad Pitt has scored an Emmy nomination for his three-minute performance as Dr. Anthony Fauci on an April broadcast of Saturday Night Live.
Donning a white wig and glasses, Pitt portrayed the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and one of President Trump’s top coronavirus advisers on the April 25 broadcast of the late-night NBC comedy show.
Watch below:
The bit was part of the show’s cold open and featured Pitt saying, “First, I’d like to thank all the older women in America who have sent me supportive, inspiring — and sometimes graphic — emails.” The sketch featured Pitt’s Fauci dissecting some of President Trump’s comments about the coronavirus and the U.S. response to the outbreak.
The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star ended the sketch by removing his glasses and wig and thanked “the real Dr. Fauci.”
“Thank you for your calm and your clarity in this unnerving time. And thank you to the medical workers, first responders, and their families for being on the front line. And now, live — kinda — from all across America, it’s Saturday Night,” Pitt said, ending the set.
Fauci later poured praise on Pitt and the SNL segment.
“I think he did great,” Fauci told Telemundo’s Un Nuevo Dia. “I’m a great fan of Brad Pitt, and that’s the reason why when people ask me who I would like to play me, I mention Brad Pitt. He’s one of my favorite actors. I think he did a great job.”
Fauci also said he appreciated Pitt’s thanks for his efforts. “I think he showed that he is really a classy guy when at the end, he took off his hair and thanked me and all of the health care workers,” Fauci exclaimed. “So, not only is he a really great actor, but he is actually a classy person.”
It may not have been such a surprise that Pitt took the short SNL bit. Several weeks before the airing, Fauci had publicly joked that they should hire Pitt to portray him on the late-night show.
Like most in Hollywood, Pitt has constantly attacked President Trump. Last September, the Oscar-winning actor claimed that Trump presents a “much bigger threat” to America on “serious issues.”
“Unfortunately, it’s almost anecdotal. Trump represents a much bigger threat on such more serious issues,” Pitt said to the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche. The “serious issues” to which he was referring was not clear.
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