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30th Sep 2020

The Brendan Gleeson-as-Donald Trump mini-series is now available to watch in Ireland

Rory Cashin

The Irish actor has been getting some incredible reviews for his role in The Comey Rule.

There has been a lot of interest around the Brendan Gleeson-as-Donald Trump mini-series The Comey Rule since it was first announced that the Irish actor would be taking on the role.

The mini-series follows FBI director James Comey (Jeff Daniels) in the run-up to the 2016 election, and later in the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, based on the bestselling book by Comey himself, and the impressive list of co-stars include Holly Hunter, Michael Kelly, Jennifer Ehle, Scoot McNairy, Peter Coyote, and Jonathan Banks.

Timed to perfection for release in the States, pretty much airing right alongside Tuesday night’s attention-grabbing first election debate between Trump and Joe Biden, and the American critics have had some very interesting things to say about Gleeson in the role:

The Detroit News – “Actors will no doubt be biting into the role of Trump for years to come, but to top Gleeson they’ll have to do a a heck of a lot of chewing.”

The Hollywood Reporter – “Gleeson’s accent and intonations waver, yet he captures an interiority the real Trump rarely exposes. It’s a mediocre impression and possibly a great performance.”

RogerEbert.com – “Donald Trump, played by Brendan Gleeson, skillfully avoiding caricature, a challenge for a real-life character of excesses and exaggerations.”

Collider – “Gleeson absolutely delivers in an unexpected way. Trump is a man who is beyond parody, so Gleeson and [show creator, Billy] Ray make the appropriate decision to do a straightforward imitation. Gleeson faithfully recreates Trump’s speech and mannerisms without going over the top (at least, no more over the top than the real-life Trump actually is). By eschewing the urge to try and humiliate or mock the man, Gleeson’s performance hones in on an aspect of Trump’s personality that is typically overlooked – he is legitimately scary.”

Split across four episodes, they are all now available to watch for a limited time on Sky Atlantic and Now TV. Check out the trailer for the mini-series right here:

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