Alec Baldwin Quits Twitter After Backlash To His Dig At Gillian Anderson For 'Switching Accents'

Another day, another Twitter deactivation by Alec Baldwin.

Baldwin found himself once again embroiled in drama this week after he took a swipe at fellow actor Gillian Anderson for "switching accents" at the Golden Globes on Sunday. The blowback has been so intense he deactivated his Twitter again.

The actor announced his exit on Instagram, in which he cited Twitter users' "a**hole-iness" as the reason for his departure.

Baldwin's swipe at Anderson seems to have been a veiled reference to the uproar following the revelation his wife Hilaria had faked a Spanish ethnicity, including using a fake Spanish accent, for close to a decade.

Yesterday, Baldwin shared an article about Anderson accepting her Golden Globe for The Crown in an American accent on Sunday night.

He captioned the tweet:

"Switching accents? That sounds… fascinating."

But the comparison isn't particularly apt.

According to sources who grew up in Massachusetts with Hilaria, whose real name is Hillary, she never actually grew up in Spain. Anderson, on the other hand, comes by her dual accent honestly.

Born in Chicago, Anderson moved to London as a baby and spent most of her childhood there, moving to Michigan in her tween years. This has made Anderson bidialectical—fluent in two different dialects of English—and she often moves between British and American accents in response to the accents around her.

Hence the American-accented acceptance speech Sunday night.

Anderson's fans did not take kindly to Baldwin's swipe, so an intense backlash erupted on Twitter—and Baldwin who dished it out, couldn't take it.

In his Instagram video, Baldwin made clear he is a fan of Anderson's and his intent was to comment on multiculturalism, not to insult her.

"...[T]he multicultural expressions of anyone ― whatever country, language, music, food, clothing, art, any of it, whatever of those expressions are important to you ― that's your business."

And he blames "a**holes" on Twitter for his exit.

"Of course you can't do any irony on Twitter, where all the a**holes in the United States and beyond go to get their advanced degrees in a**hole-iness."
 

On Twitter, people couldn't help but roast Baldwin for his drama.

This is the second time Baldwin has deactivated his Twitter account just this year, after leaving previously in January amid the furor over his wife's claims.