Alec Baldwin's Tweet About Gillian Anderson Explained

Actor Alec Baldwin has been known to court controversy throughout his career, but the same didn't seem to be true of his wife, Hilaria. However, controversy eventually caught up to her at the tail end of 2020, when a social media user took to Twitter to comment on the actress' "commitment to her decade-long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person." 

Since then, a treasure trove of evidence has come to light exposing Hilaria's "dubious" Spanish accent and outing her as Boston-born "Hillary." Amid widespread public backlash, the star defended her so-called Spanish identity via an Instagram video posted on Dec. 27, 2020. "If I've been speaking a lot of Spanish, I tend to mix them and if I'm speaking more English...then I mix that," Hilaria explained, adding that though she was born in Boston, she grew up splitting time between Massachusetts and Spain. She also went to The New York Times with her side of the story, but fans appear to be split on whether or not she's truly owning her gaffe.

Phew! That saga brings us up to present day, when Alec posted a very telling (and now deleted) tweet in response to Netflix star Gillian Anderson on March 3, 2021. "Switching accents? That sounds...fascinating," the SNL actor quipped, according to Us Weekly, sharing a CNN story with the headline, "Gillian Anderson's American accent throws some people off." OK, but what does it all mean? Let's take a closer look.

Avid Netflix viewers might recognize Gillian Anderson as the actress who has helped bring to life such gems as Sex Education and The Crown. Both series feature Anderson enunciating her lines in crisp, British syllables, so fans were left stunned when she opened her mouth to accept a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress In A Series for her role in The Crown. "Thank you very much to the Hollywood Foreign Press and my fellow nominees," Anderson began, ditching her usual British accent in favor of a perfectly American one. "Was anyone else very extremely shocked to find out that Gillian Anderson is NOT BRITISH AT ALL?! FULLY American," one confused Twitter user wrote. "I've been bamboozled beyond recognition."

Turns out Anderson is as British as Hilaria Baldwin is Spanish ... sort of. According to E! News, Anderson was originally born in Chicago, though she relocated to London for a decade before moving back to the states to attend college at DePaul University. Depending on how you read it, Alec Baldwin's tweet can therefore be seen either as a dig at Anderson or a nod to the fact that there are plenty of people with mixed heritage who claim multiple accents, his wife included.