FX’s award-winning series — Impeachment: American Crime Story — airs tonight and it focuses on the sex scandal between former President Bill Clinton and then-White House aide Monica Lewinsky, Your Content has learned.
Impeachment: American Crime Story is a limited series examining the national crisis that led to the first impeachment of a U.S. President in over a century. It tells this story through the eyes of the women at the center of the events: Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein), Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson) and Paula Jones (Annaleigh Ashford). All three were thrust into the public spotlight during a time of corrosive partisan rancor, shifting sexual politics and a changing media landscape. The series shows how power lifts some and disposes of others in the halls of our most sacred institutions.
Impeachment: American Crime Story is executive produced by Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall, Sarah Burgess, Sarah Paulson, Brad Falchuk, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski and Michael Uppendahl. The series is produced by 20th Television and FX Productions.
The 48-year-old, who served as a producer for Impeachment: American Crime Story, confessed that – despite willingly signing on to help with the creation of the show – she found it incredibly difficult to watch “some of the worst moments of her life” be dredged up for the whole world to see.
Appearing on the Today show on Tuesday morning, hours before the FX series is due to premiere, Lewinsky spoke out about the struggles she faced while ‘wearing two hats’ — that of the show’s producer and that of its main subject.
“As a producer, I’m very proud. I’m really proud of the project of the show,” she told Savannah Guthrie.
“As a subject, I’m nervous. You know, I’m nervous for people to see some of the worst moments of my life and a lot of behavior that I regret.”
Lewinsky famously had an affair with Clinton between 1995 and 1997, with their relationship beginning when she was a 22-year-old unpaid White House intern – and eventually led to his impeachment on December 19, 1998.
The show offers a dramatized version of their romance, as well as the sensational scandal that ensued after the then-President confessed to having an ‘improper physical relationship’ with Lewinsky.
At the time, Lewinsky found herself thrust into the center of a huge scandal – and she quickly became the subject of much criticism and backlash, both online and in the media.
But while she says she has come a long way since the affair, she confessed that it was still incredibly painful to watch the portrayal of it, admitting that there were moments when she wished she could stop her on-screen self from making the decisions that she did.
“I do not recommend watching your early 20s be dramatized on TV,” she joked, adding: “[There were] moments where I just thought, “Oh, god, don’t, don’t smile back. Don’t talk to her. Don’t confess. Don’t do this, don’t do that. Don’t make bad decisions.”
“I think that was hard, really hard to see.”
There has already been plenty of speculation about exactly what details will be included in the show – which stars Beanie Feldstein in the role of Lewinsky, while former President Clinton and former First Lady Hillary are played by Clive Owen and Edie Falco, respectively.