‘The Clinton Affair’: How Monica Lewinsky Led Into The #MeToo Era – The Contenders Emmys Video

“The reason for making this series was because Monica agreed to talk,” says The Clinton Affair EP Alex Gibney about landing Monica Lewinsky for the 6-part A&E docu-series at Deadline’s Contenders.

To understand and rationalize our present, we need to know our past, and when it comes to that axiom there are many themes from the Clinton era that continue to echo today.

“The #MeToo theme played in a whole host of ways with Monica, with Paula Jones and some of the other women,” says EP Blair Foster about the females who Clinton was involved with and who are chronicled in the A&E series, “This is much a series about what was happening today as was happening back then.”

In our sitdown with Gibney and Foster, they juxtapose the release of the current Mueller Report with that of the Starr Report, the latter a blueprint leading to the Clinton impeachment proceeding and the former destined to be one should the House of Representatives move forward with an inquiry on President Donald Trump. Gibney also observes how the Clinton era gave birth to a fierce partisan atmosphere that continues remains loud today in Washington, D.C. in which Democrats and Republicans consider each other “evil.”

Gibney and Foster interviewed Lewinsky over 20 hours in three separate interviews. She agreed to participate in The Clinton Affair for various reasons: She knew it was the 20th anniversary of the incident, and she wanted her voice to be heard. For legal reasons when the affair made headlines, the documentary filmmakers observe how Lewinsky was painted in a poor light with other political figures defining that moment.

During Gibney and Foster’s interviews with Lewinsky, “It was on the cusp of the Weinstein story breaking out” and Lewinsky in between chats “was personally rethinking her story throughout this time” says Foster.

Gibney is a five-time Emmy winner in documentary categories for Going Clear: Scientology & The Prison of Belief and Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God while Foster is a three-time winner for HBO’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World and two for an investigation into U.S. military torture practices.