Executive producer Sarah Burgess unpacks the moment she was obsessing over as a writer with her two stars.
Warning: Spoilers from episode 5 ofImpeachment: American Crime Storyare discussed in this article.
Tension fills every second of Linda Tripp’s lunch withMonica LewinskyinImpeachment: American Crime Story’s fifth episode.
Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp in ‘Impeachment: American Crime Story.'.FX
Impeachmentexecutive producer Sarah Burgess, who wrote the season’s story, was “intimidated” tackling the scene.
“It was one of their final times together,” she says of Tripp and Lewinsky.
“This very important relationship, which dominates the first half of the season.
Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky in ‘Impeachment: American Crime Story.'.FX
I struggled with episode 5 in a lot of ways.
I returned home to New York to write it because I was struggling with feeling connected to Tripp.
What she was doing, it was tough, morally speaking.”
“I thought that was such a telling indicator of what was motivating and driving her.
I can feel how much she knows is at stake.
It was a confirmation of what I had come to believe was guiding her.
She believed she was doing the right thing.”
Paulson felt incredibly “vulnerable and exposed” while filming this sequence, largely due to her hair.
Tripp, she points out, never wore her hair up.
“I felt so much of my look as Linda had to do with this ’90s hairdo.
And when that was gone, I didn’t fully feel like Linda,” she explains.
It was an interesting push and pull."
The quick micro-cuts and diopter shots all enhanced the characters’ growing paranoia.
Paulson, who worked with the filmmaker on FX on Hulu’sMrs.
America, “trusted her completely” with Tripp’s “knife’s-edge dance” in the scene.
“Laure helped me balance how much to show.”
Impeachment: American Crime Storyairs on FX Tuesday nights.
