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Actress Beanie Feldstein will play Monica Lewinsky in FX’s Impeachment: American Crime Story this fall, and she says she approached the role as though she was the former White House intern’s bodyguard. “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.” Feldstein said that since she is queer she’s not sure she would have flirted with President Bill Clinton as Lewinsky did, but she understands the charisma of the ex-commander-in-chief.
“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.” Feldstein, best known for her turns in Lady Bird and Booksmart, said she felt another kind of kinship with Lewinsky, too: “Monica and I are cut from the same cloth in so many ways. We’re both Jewish girls from L.A. who listen to show tunes on the treadmill!”