Feldstein talks about playing Lewinsky
While working on the third season of “American Crime Story,” actor Beanie Feldstein wondered what color nail polish Monica Lewinsky was wearing around the time she interned for the Clinton administration.
In order to find out, she texted Lewinsky herself.
“Playing someone real is a huge undertaking – playing someone who texts you is a completely different thing,” Feldstein, who portrays the activist and public figure in the forthcoming chapter of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, recently told the Hollywood Reporter.
“I mean, I’m playing someone who sends me videos, and I’ll go to respond, and I’m fully wearing her hair,” she said with a laugh. “But of course it was daunting because I just want to do right by her. All that matters to me is what she thinks.”
During the ongoing press tour for “American Crime Story: Impeachment,” produced by both Feldstein and Lewinsky, the performer and her real-life counterpart have reflected recently on their close relationship – built almost entirely over text and video chat amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The highly anticipated followup to “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson” and “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace” chronicles the extramarital affair between former President Clinton and White House intern Lewinsky that led to Clinton’s impeachment and rendered Lewinsky a national pariah.
“I felt gutted by some of the things that Monica went through,” Feldstein told W Magazine. “My task is to be Monica’s bodyguard – to put my body in front of hers. It’s my job to portray her pain, because I feel so much for her.”
Despite never having been in her exact position, Feldstein said she could relate to Lewinsky’s inner suffering as a young person thrust into the spotlight, explaining that “there’s always pain beneath the surface” of fame.
“I’m queer, so I don’t know if I’d flirt with the president, but who knows?” Feldstein said in conversation with W. “When Clinton shined his light on you, there was no better feeling in the world. It wouldn’t matter if you were male, female, nonbinary, queer.
“When that man put his spotlight on you, the world fell away. And if I was 22 and the most powerful person in the world focused his high beams on me, I would probably do the exact same thing as Monica.”
In an effort to capture Lewinsky’s essence for “Impeachment,” Feldstein frequently communicated with her, in addition to reading her biography, watching interviews and reviewing audio tapes of her conversations with the late government employee Linda Tripp, who infamously sold Lewinsky out to the public.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever said this to you, but I found [the tapes] extremely difficult to listen to, as someone who cares very deeply for you,” Feldstein told Lewinsky during the THR interview.
While collaborating with Feldstein on the FX drama, Lewinsky said she came up with “this cockamamie idea to spend several hours on Zoom” showing the “Booksmart” breakout her family photos.
“I just thought, I’m not going to sit down with Beanie like a new therapist, ‘OK, let me tell you the story of my life,’ ” Lewinsky told THR.