Who plays Monica Lewinsky in Impeachment: American Crime Story?
The debut teaser for Impeachment: American Crime Story was released online Wednesday (Aug. 4). The upcoming season of the limited series will tell the story of the affair between Lewinsky, then 22, and former president Bill Clinton, then 49. (In December 1998, Clinton was impeached for “perjury and obstruction of justice” when he attempted to cover up the affair. Two months later, the Senate voted to acquit him of the charges.)
Impeachment will be told from the perspectives of Lewinsky, Linda Tripp (an American civil servant who taped Lewinsky’s discussions concerning the affair) and Paula Jonas (who sued Clinton for sexual harassment).
The former White House intern will be portrayed by 28-year-old actress Elizabeth Greer “Beanie” Feldstein.
Feldstein earned her first acting credit as a background actor in a 2002 episode of My Wife and Kids. In 2015, she graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in sociology. The actress rose to fame in 2016 and 2017, respectively, when she starred in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and Lady Bird, but it was her star-making turn in 2019’s Booksmart that made her a household name. (Fun fact: Her brother is actor Jonah Hill.)
Clinton will be played by Clive Owen, while Tripp and Jones will be played by Sarah Paulson and Annaleigh Ashford, respectively. Other cast include Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton; Billy Eichner as Matt Drudge; and Margo Martindale as Lucianne Goldberg.
Watch the first Impeachment: American Crime Story teaser, below:
Ryan Murphy and Bryan Falchuk executive produced the series, which is a “self-contained mini-series” that features separate unrelated events, similar to their pair’s hit series, American Horror Story. The show’s first season was titled The People v. O. J. Simpson while the second was The Assassination of Gianni Versace.
Murphy first announced a season based in the infamous cheating scandal back in 2017 before gaining the rights to Jeffrey Toobin’s book, A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President.
Lewinsky officially joined the project in 2019. Creators wanted to premiere the show in September 2020 but opted not to due to the timing of the 2020 presidential election. The season was later delayed due to scheduling conflicts and then again due to the pandemic. Production officially began in the fall of last year but was quickly shut down after positive cases of COVID-19 among the cast and crew.
Impeachment: American Crime Story premieres Sep. 7 on FX.