‘Impeachment: American Crime Story’ Casts Clive Owen As President Bill Clinton
As our current embarrassment of a president is bracing for possible impeachment, FX is moving forward withImpeachment: American Crime Story, which dramatizes the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton. And now the show’s producers have found their president:Clive Owen(Children of Men) will step into the shoes of the former Arkansas governor, and we’ll be eagerly waiting to hear if Owen tries to imitate Clinton’s distinctive Southern accent.
Deadlinereports that Owen has been cast to play former President Bill Clinton, who held the highest office in the land from 1993 until 2001. In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice surrounding his extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; Clinton was acquitted by the Senate and remained in office for his full term.
Monica Lewinsky is producing this season alongside ACS head honchoRyan Murphy, and the season has already castBeanie Feldsteinas Lewinsky,Sarah Paulsonas Linda Tripp, andAnnaleigh Ashfordas Paula Jones. Now Owen joins them, but Hillary Clinton has yet to be cast.
Clinton himself appeared in the 1996 Sinbad movieFirst Kid(and actually hasa new Showtime series in the worksright now), and he’s been portrayed by several people in the media before, notably byPhil HartmanandDarrell Hammondfor years onSaturday Night Liveand byDennis Quaidin the 2010 movieThe Special Relationship, where Quaid was nominated for an Emmy, a Screen Actors Guild award, and a Golden Globe for his performance. I’m curious to see how Owen stacks up against those guys – especially Hammond, whose lip-biting impression of Clinton was so pervasive that it’s eclipsed the persona of the actual man in my mind.
The show is written bySarah Burgessand based on author Jeffrey Toobin’s bookAVast Conspiracy.Here’s the description of the book:
InA Vast Conspiracy, the best-selling author ofThe Run of His Lifecasts an insightful, unbiased eye over the most extraordinary public saga of our time – the Clinton sex scandals. A superlative journalist known for the skillfulness of his investigating and the power of his writing, Jeffrey Toobin tells the unlikely story of the events that began over doughnuts in a Little Rock hotel and ended on the floor of the United States Senate, with only the second vote on presidential removal in American history. This is an entirely fresh look at the scandal that very nearly brought down a president.
After nearly beingscrapped altogether, filming starts in late March, and the limited series is currently set to premiere on Sunday,June 28, 2025. That’s just a few months before the next presidential election, and you may read FX’s defense of their decision to air such a potentially distracting piece of media at that critical point in the election cycleright here.
