Booksmart and How to Build a Girl star Beanie Feldstein plays Monica Lewinsky in Impeachment: Amercian Crime Story. Photo / Supplied
Booksmart and How to Build a Girl star Beanie Feldstein plays Monica Lewinsky in Impeachment: Amercian Crime Story. Photo / Supplied
Beanie Feldstein was just 5 years old when Bill Clinton's impeachment trial and the fallout around his affair with Monica Lewinsky took place but she had no hesitation when given the chance to play her on screen.
"I made it very clear to her when we started filming that Isaw myself as her bodyguard. I was like: I'm putting my body in for you. I'm gonna protect you. I have your back."
Feldstein plays Lewinsky in Impeachment: American Crime Story, the new season of the anthology American Story series from mega-producer Ryan Murphy.
The Emmy-winning franchise commands attention by applying a contemporary lens to (relatively) recent history, recontextualising famous events within evolved societal attitudes to expose crimes beyond those recognised by the law. ACS is part of Murphy's expansive American Story anthology franchise - which in addition to founding series American Horror Story now also includes the recently announced American Love Story and American Sports Story.
"I really think this is an origin story for today," says Impeachment: American Crime Story executive producer Brad Simpson.
The first American Crime Story season used the OJ Simpson trial to explore racism and the tabloidisation of the news media. The second looked at institutional homophobia via the murder of Gianni Versace. The Covid-delayed third season goes all in on the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal and the subsequent impeachment trial faced by Clinton, also examining the impact of patriarchal power structures, misogyny in the media and the intense tribalism that continues to define American politics.
Monica Lewinsky was a 22-year-old White House intern when her relationship with President Bill Clinton began. Photo / Getty Images
Clinton's January 1999 trial for lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Lewinsky was only the second time in US history that a President had faced impeachment. You may recall a couple of impeachments since then, with support similarly split down party lines.
"The show is not about making a comparison between Trump and Clinton," adds Simpson, speaking via a Zoom call. "I hope that one of the debates will be the hyper partisanship, but also ... the acceptance of lying, because they're on your team. Is that a gateway to where we are now?"
The events have traditionally been depicted in relation to the men in the story – Clinton, independent counsel Ken Starr, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich – and the conflict between them.
"The way this was told [before], the women were often marginalised and treated as kind of like these melodramatic women on the side," says Simpson. "We wanted to come in through the women."
Feldstein (Booksmart) stars as Lewinsky, and Sarah Paulson (who won an Emmy for playing Marcia Clark in the first season of American Crime Story) portrays Linda Tripp, who broke Lewinsky's trust and revealed her affair with the President, played here by English actor Clive Owen.
Clive Owen stars as Bill Clinton in Impeachment: American Crime Story which comes to Neon and Sky's Soho this week. Photo / Supplied
It's an understatement to say that the media coverage was unkind to Lewinsky at the time, especially as she was legally prevented from talking about it. Lewinsky was consulted extensively for the series, and is a credited producer.
"She did not have a voice during this entire really unbelievably overwhelming series of events that happened," says executive producer Nina Jacobson. "There was no way we could make the show and not give her a voice, it would have felt utterly wrong."
"I had the great gift when I received the scripts in that I knew every word I was saying was approved and had been to Monica first," says Feldstein, who says she developed a friendship with Lewinsky.
"Because of my age at the time, I was really taking this in for the first time," she says. "As an extension of Monica in the world, I do often get people's stories and thoughts about her and I understand completely what we were up against as far as what people thought of her at the time. It was deeply important to me to unravel that and redeem her."
Impeachment: American Crime Story premieres Wednesday September 8 at 8.30pm on SoHo
