Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen act out Trump Ukraine call in Colbert appearance

Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen on Wednesday offered their best President Trump impressions, acting out his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that is at the center of the House impeachment inquiry.

The two award-winning actors — who star together in the new film “The Good Liar” — appeared on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

{mosads}”Donald Trump, you may have heard, released a transcript of him essentially extorting the Ukrainian president, saying we won’t give you military aid unless you launch an investigation into the Bidens,” host Stephen Colbert said to the pair of performers.

The White House released a rough transcript of Trump’s July call with Zelensky in September, in which he pushes the Ukrainian president more than once to investigate Biden on unfounded corruption allegations. Trump has defended the call, repeatedly referring to it as “perfect.”

“Now [Trump] says it’s a perfect phone call, perfectly innocent,” Colbert, a frequent critic of the president, continued. “He wants to read it on-air in a fireside chat. And he thinks when he reads it out loud it’ll suddenly seem so innocent that you won’t want him removed from office.”

Colbert then asked “two of the greatest living actors” to read a line from the White House transcript of the call. 

“I’d like you to do us a favor, though,” Mirren, reading Trump’s words, said coyly.

McKellen, 80, then gave the same line a shot, pointing two of his fingers to motion as if he was holding a gun as he read.

After Colbert encouraged Mirren to recite the transcript line in a “happy” tone and McKellen in an “innocent” way, the 74-year-old actress said with a laugh, “There’s no way of saying that any other way except for guiltily.” 

“It’s a guilty phrase,” she added.

“Helen, can you be the president of the United States?” Colbert quipped.