Beanie Feldstein is opening up about taking on the role of Monica Lewinsky — and acting as her "bodyguard."
Feldstein plays the former White House intern in Impeachment: American Crime Story, the upcoming FX series about former President Bill Clinton's affair with Lewinsky and his impeachment. In an interview with W Magazine, Feldstein described portraying Lewinsky's "pain" on the show.
"I felt gutted by some of the things that Monica went through," Feldstein said. "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."
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The Booksmart star also reflected on how she and Lewinsky are "cut from the same cloth in so many ways" and described how she could relate to her situation.
"Obviously, I'm queer, so I don't know if I'd flirt with the president, but who knows?" Feldstein said. "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."
Lewinsky herself is one of the producers of Impeachment, and according to Feldstein, she provided feedback on every episode.
"[The producers] would go through the scripts with her and [she would] give all her feedback and her notes," Feldstein previously said, per Entertainment Weekly. "And by the time it got to me, I was sure that everything in there was something that she felt comfortable with, she felt was real to her life and represented her."
Impeachment: American Crime Story is set to premiere on Sept. 7.
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