In less than a week, the American people will go to the polls, and this embarrassing election season will finally be over. But there’s still time to highlight the madness that is Donald Trump and his campaign. Donald Mohammed Trump is a short film starring none other than Asim Chaudhry, aka People Just Do Nothing’s Chabuddy G (aka The Mayor of Hounslow aka Alan Brown Sugar aka The Off-White Bruce Forstyh aka 50 Shades of Brown). The ten minute film is set just before Trump is due to go on stage at a rally, in front of rowdy crowd, but there’s a hitch: Trump has mysteriously turned into an Asian Muslim. You can watch the whole thing above.
We spoke to Chaudhry, in a rare out-of-character interview (yup, we’re breaking kayfabe here), about the film.
How did the film come about?
The director’s name is Darragh Mortell, he’s an award winning young writer and director. Weird bit of trivia is that he used to play Crash in Tracy Beaker, he was a child actor. I got the script through a few months ago, I saw the title and thought: “Fucking hell, this is mental”. I really loved it. It was kind of humanising Trump, in a weird way, that you kind of feel a bit of empathy for him. And it was just a challenge for me, as I haven’t done anything like this before. My main thing is comedy, but this is a bit of a dark comedy. I was definitely out of my comfort zone. But how many times does anyone get the opportunity to play Trump, let alone an Asian Muslim actor? Come on!
Is there a message behind it? What do want people to take form it?
I people will enjoy it. I think it’s got a message without being preachy. Some people will find it funny, but some people will find it disturbing. It’s open to interpretation and I liked that. With a short film I think that is its purpose, to give you a little taste, and lead you to your own conclusion.
It’s got that West Wing look down on a low budget — I take it you didn’t go to the US to shoot…
Darragh is Welsh, so it was actually shot in Newport, in a theatre, so they did really well. I think the way we filmed it we got away with it, you just need a stage, and a backstage, and some curtains and lights.
How did you go about getting the American accent right?
So ok, to begin with, I watched a lot of Trump stuff. For a few hours every night I’d be watching Trump and practicing it. At first I was doing a real straight impression of it {does a really over-the-top Trump impression, which I’m sure you can imagine what that sounds like}. But then a few days before we shot, Darragh said “Look, you’ve got the impression down. But what I don’t really want is an impression. I want a human. I want something human and natural”. So I let it go a bit and I think my own interpretation of it came out. Obvious it’s Donald Trump, but it’s also Donald Mohammed Trump, they {campaign team}make him up to be Trump, that’s the whole point.
Was it a big deal shaving your beard off for this?
It was a big deal, I look like a turtle without it. But I do the same thing for People Just Do Nothing - for series one and two it was my own mustasche, but for series three I had a fake mustache, so I had to be clean shaven for that.
Really? You’re breaking illusion, you’re ruining it for anyone…
Ok, don’t put that bit in! But it’s just because it feels weird having a mustache all the time because then I’m just Chabuddy everywhere I go. It’s nice to leave Chabuddy alone for a bit and just be myself. The show is getting bigger and bigger, and I’m getting recognised more and more. I’ve also stopped wearing leather jackets!
I’ve been at events when you guys have been there, and you stay completely in character, and also in every interview I’ve seen you do — is it hard keeping up being this sleazy dude everywhere you go?
It’s a strange thing, I don’t normally do out of character interviews, and I quite like people just enjoying the character. I think it helps the believability as well, so when people watch the show they think we’re really like that. And sometimes when people meet us they think it’s a bit of a let down when we’re just normal guys! I take it as a compliment, as it means it’s a career defining character. It’s kind of the same thing as how Ricky Gervais will alway be David Brent, and Steve Coogan will always be Alan Partridge. I know people will shout “Peanut Dust” at me wherever I go.
Have you had people who come up to you who think the show is real?
No one in real life, but we’ve had probably thousands of people think it’s real on TV. When we first started on YouTube, a lot of the comments were really hateful, like “Get a job!”, “Fucking immigrants!” And to be honest, that is the best.
So are you guys looking to do stuff away from Kurupt FM?
We want to do other stuff as well, but we love the show. People Just Do Nothing is our heart and we’ll always go back to it. The way I think of it is that we’re kind of like the Wu-Tang {laughs} - we’re all individuals and big characters, and we all want to do solo projects, but we’ll all come back for the album. And without that original thing we’re nothing.
Do you have anything else non-Chabuddy lined up?
I’ve got something but I can’t really talk about it {he then proceeds to tell us about a very cool-sounding TV show, and then begs us not to mention it before it’s properly announced}. And I’m writing some new TV stuff and a few things, but it’s all currently in development.
