- “Impeachment” writer said she rewrote the blue-dress scene after talking to Monica Lewinsky.
- Sarah Burgess said the rewrite made sure the scene “felt right” and gave Lewinsky “more of a voice.”
- The main structure of the scene didn’t change but she added more details to the conversation.
“Impeachment: American Crime Story” lead writer Sarah Burgess said that she rewrote a crucial scene involving Monica Lewinsky’s infamous blue dress to give Lewinsky “more of a voice.”
Tuesday’s episode of this season, which covers former president Bill Clinton’s impeachment, includes a conversation between Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein) and Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson) during which Tripp finds a blue dress in Lewinsky’s closet.
“This blue dress is reallyreallydirty,” Tripp is told by Lewinsky that she found the dress in Lewinsky’s closet after a sexual encounter.
Lewinsky continues that “no one even noticed” the semen stain on the dress and she initially assumed it was soiled from guacamole at dinner. After a discussion about dry cleaning, the two decide to spend the night at Lewinsky’s.
Ahead of the premiere of the third season in August, Burgess told Insider that Lewinsky and Tripp are having “two different experiences” while talking about the blue dress.
She explained that she “did have a vision” for the scene but she rewrote it after a conversation with Lewinsky (who was a producer on the latest season) “to make sure that it felt it felt right.”
“It was giving Monica more of a voice and explaining why she had it and it’s telling the true story of what happened,” Burgess said, adding that Lewinsky “very casually” had the blue dress in her closet alongside other outfits she hadn’t had a chance to get cleaned yet.
“The fundamental structure of the scene was always that Linda was over and they were looking into the closet, which is actually based in reality,” Burgess told Insider. “And then [the dress] sort of comes up naturally in that way.”
She added that her chat with Lewinsky ahead of the shoot was “really about adding that material about all the dry cleaning” which was “an actual conversation that Monica said she had with Linda Tripp.”
At a virtual Television Critics Association panel in August, Feldstein previously revealed that Burgess and executive producer Brad Simpson had Lewinsky review the script for each episode. After Lewinsky had given the filmmakers her “notes and feedback,” Feldstein received the scripts.
“I knew that every word that I was saying was approved and had been to Monica first,” Feldstein said.
She said: “I was sure that everything in there was something that she felt comfortable with, she felt was real to her life and felt represented her.”