Bill and Hillary Clinton Not “Significant” Characters in Monica Lewinsky Miniseries, Says FX Chief

FX’s Monica Lewinsky-produced American Crime Story: Impeachment is already one of the most anticipated new shows of 2020.

Sarah Paulson will play Linda Tripp, Beanie Feldstein is set as Lewinsky and Annaleigh Ashford takes on Paula Jones. But one face from the ’90s saga that gripped the nation will not be a major character: former first lady Hillary Clinton.

“Hillary is actually not a significant character in Impeachment because it’s really told from the point of view of these women who were really far from the center of power,” FX CEO John Landgraf told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s really a revisionist history as told through the point of view of these women whose stories did not seem in any way central to the political stakes of what was going on but who became really central to that. Hillary is a character in it, but she’s not one of the main characters in it.”

To hear Landgraf tell it, FX would not have made Impeachment had Clinton defeated Trump in ’16. “I don’t know that that would change the validity of what we’re doing,” he said. “The perspective about women and the powerless and women who are powerless has changed so profoundly in the time that has passed. That’s what Sarah Burgess is writing about. That’s just valid from an artistic standpoint; it’s a very compelling story. And part of why it’s compelling is it’s being told from the perspective you haven’t seen before.”

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A version of this first appeared in the Aug. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.