Alec Baldwin Subtweets 'The Crown' Star Gillian Anderson Over Accent Switch

Alec Baldwin alluded to wife Hilaria Baldwin’s recent heritage controversy this week while taking a dig at Gillian Anderson’s ability to switch between accents. 

The “30 Rock” actor on Wednesday tweeted a CNN report about Anderson’s Golden Globe win for Netflix’s “The Crown,” in which she played former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Anderson, who was born in Chicago but spent much of her childhood in London, was noted as having “accepted the award using her American accent.”

The “X-Files” and “Sex Education” star is quoted in the article as saying she “tried hard to cling on to my British accent” when her family relocated from England to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when she was 11. And though she’s once again based in London, she added, “I just slip into one or the other.”

Apparently, that didn’t sit well with Baldwin, who tweeted, “Switching accents? That sounds...fascinating.”  

Baldwin’s tweet was a less-than-subtle reference to his wife, who last year was accused of having appropriated elements of Spanish heritage. 

Days before Christmas, Hilaria Baldwin’s background was the subject of a viral Twitter thread that accused her of a “decade long grift.” The accusation referred to the yoga and health entrepreneur presenting herself as Spanish ― a claim that had been publicly corroborated by her husband ― even though she was born and raised in Boston by American parents.

After it was revealed that her given name at birth was not Hilaria, but Hillary Hayward-Thomas, many questioned the legitimacy of her sometimes Spanish accent. That ensuing backlash prompted Alec Baldwin to briefly quit Twitter in January after he likened the social media platform to “a party where everyone is screaming.” 

Last month, Hilaria Baldwin issued a lengthy apology on Instagram in which she said she’d been “listening, reflecting, and asking myself how I can learn and grow” in the weeks since the controversy broke. 

“My parents raised my brother and me with two cultures, American and Spanish, and I feel a true sense of belonging to both,” the mother of six wrote. “The way I’ve spoken about myself and my deep connection to two cultures could have been better explained ― I should have been more clear and I’m sorry.”