Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, offered an exceptionally positive diagnosis Tuesday for actor Brad Pitt’s imitation of him on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend.
“I think he did a great job,” Fauci said.
“He got the raspiness of my voice right. … He got the hand gestures right,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said during a live-streamed interview Tuesday with The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
Fauci suggested, however, that Pitt could perhaps improve upon one element of his imitation.
“I think he has to work a little bit on the Brooklyn accent,” he said.
Pitt, who on Saturday hosted the second stay-at-home edition of "Saturday Night Live,” used the opportunity to play Fauci. The show opened with Pitt's Fauci as offered a joke-filled interpretation of President Donald Trump's pronouncements on the science of COVID-19.
Regarding the president's claim that a coronavirus vaccine would be developed relatively soon, Pitt’s Fauci said, "Relatively soon is an interesting phrase. Relative to the entire history of Earth, sure, the vaccine is going to come real fast."
Pitt, however, ended the sketch on a serious note, taking off his wig and offering gratitude to health care workers across the country who are putting their lives on the line to combat the pandemic.
The real Fauci — who had joked earlier this month that Pitt should play him on "Saturday Night Live" — lauded that move on Tuesday.
“What he did at the end was a class act, when he took the wig off,” Fauci said.
