Beanie Feldstein wanted to 'do right by' Monica Lewinsky in 'Impeachment: American Crime Story'

28 October 2021

Beanie Feldstein “wants to do right” by Monica Lewinsky.

Beanie Feldstein

The 28-year-old actress will portray the former White house intern - who was the subject of widespread international ridicule after the uncovering of her affair with President Bill Clinton, who was later impeached for lying to Congress about it - in ‘Impeachment: American Crime Story’ and she admitted she felt a "tremendous amount of responsibility" with the role.

Speaking on 'Late Night with Seth Meyers', she said: “I really felt like I wanted to do right by her in every way that I possibly could. And so to do that, I had to really send myself into some really intense places.”

The ‘Booksmart’ star acknowledged the role was a big departure for her previous work.

She added: “It was really something like I'd never done before. Most of what I've been lucky enough to be part of in the past has been leaning comedic you know like a dramedy or like a true comedy or a musical and 'Impeachmen' is not only a drama, but it's someone's real life.”

While showrunner Ryan Murphy was careful to check in on Beanie after shooting intense interrogation scenes, she was always determined not to ask for breaks and push to give her best.

She said: “He'd come up to me, and he would be like, "How you doing? Can we go again?" And I just would be like, "It's for Monica, we have to go again. If you need to go again -- I have to do right by her.”

And Beanie found playing Monica - who serves as a producer on the FX series - all-consuming.

She said: "That's like all I... I brush my teeth thinking about it I go to sleep thinking about it. Like, I do, everything in my life revolves around doing right by her so, you know, what she had to go through was really disturbing and intense so, yeah, it was very different.”

And after immersing herself in research about the scandal, the actress admitted it was "weird" to finally meet Monica in person.

She said: "By the time I met her, I'd been researching her for 10 months, which is like a really weird interaction of like, 'Hello, I know almost everything about you’.”