American Crime Story: Impeachment showrunner Sarah Burgess talks about depicting the worst day of someone’s life in the Emmy-nominated episode, “Man Handled.”
Showrunner Sarah Burgess was not short on material when it came to research for the Impeachment episode “Man Handled,” which is nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Between Monica Lewinsky’s memoir, documentaries, and reports, she had a wealth of information to boil down to a 60-minute episode of television.
“This is such a well-documented event,” says Burgess. “The Office of Independent Counsel produced a lot of reports about it. There’s an official government report I had on hand, and it’s literally a timestamped timeline, starting in the morning and moving into the night. I felt I had to take all of that in and that did really imply a very clear structure and timeline for the event.”
Because she had these parameters, most everything you see in the episode is exactly how it happened. Burgess says she’d have moral reservations about departing from the timeline for any reason having to do with entertainment or theatricality, especially when writing about a terrible day in someone’s life. However, she does say it was the fastest script she wrote for the show while holed up in the Villa Carlotta in Hollywood, pre-COVID.
“The events and timeline did flow naturally because they really happened and you’re never going to question yourself because I knew things Monica had said in public and in private. This is something that should have never happened to her, and you’re not going to depart from the events in writing it. I’m hesitant to say that it was great to have those parameters because the reason I had those parameters was terrible. It’s very unusual in that regard.”
Getting Notes from Monica Lewinsky
Not only did Burgess have the responsibility to depict one of the worst days in someone’s life, but she also got to show that person scripts about that day and the events surrounding it.
“I completed the script and then we presented it to her and she gave me notes. I ended up working in such a great process because I was able to engage with the material and everything that happened from all of these perspectives. We’re in Linda Tripp’s home, Ann Coulter and the elves, Mike Emmick. There were certain things that she recalled that were different from what I initially wrote. I really wanted to know where she was emotionally. Whatever she wanted to share, I let her come to me with that. I was not put in a position, nor did I feel it was appropriate, to be emailing her about this.”
Shortly after the FBI grabs Monica at the mall, she asks to make a phone call—and runs into Linda Tripp herself, the woman and former friend who put this mess into motion.
“She really did run into Linda. I know it seems like something that I came up with and thought it was so cool,” Burgess says with a laugh, “but I believe that’s the last time they ever saw each other. It happened very much like that. Linda did have shopping bags.”
It’s a moment that does feel scripted, only because it’s just so perfect. Monica is going through hell and Linda is picking up some body butter from The Body Shop. Burgess remembers exactly what she wrote in the script.
“Yes, I do because I’m an obsessive maniac. I remember listing out the bags that Linda had. It was important to imagine it visually, which is always true about screenwriting, but I was fixated on that in a unique way. Monica obviously has reason to be scared and is tracking people in the mall as she walks around. We’re in her perspective taking in these images in the mall, and she’s hurrying back and then she sees teenagers gossiping and browsing, and then Linda. It did not feel necessary in the moment to describe the emotion of the moment because it was relatively clear what happened.”
On Breaking Up What Could Be a Bottle Episode
Since the episode nearly takes place in one location, the Ritz-Carlton hotel room, it could have the potential to be a bottle episode, but Burgess was always committed to going home with Linda.
“That also really happened, that Paula Jones’s lawyers came to her house that night to get information from her for their deposition of the president the next morning. They said Linda Tripp was very shaken and scattered, which was unusual for her.”
Burgess also recounts that the story of how Ann Coulter and the elves got Linda Tripp’s tapes could be an episode on its own, with her sneaking them from her lawyer and “walking zigzags in parking garages.” Apparently Ann Coulter also had an incredible sound system because she was a huge Grateful Dead fan (go figure).
“I felt committed to the scope of the show like that,” says Burgess of adding other characters into this episode. “I think Ryan did a spectacular job directing and Beanie is so wonderful in this role. When you return to them [Monica and the FBI in the hotel room], you feel that they are the spine of the episode and we are in this sweaty, exhausting hotel room with them. Because so much of this is waiting for her mother and not totally understanding what is happening, and then we’re going to walk around the mall—which is surreal because it’s a feminized, fun space that’s suddenly terrifying—I think it was helpful to be able to go into the points of view of those other major characters and return to it. Time passing and everyone getting tired and more and more bleary was actually very important to land at the end of the episode.”
In addition to the episode being a turning point in the event, it also proves to be a turning point for Monica Lewinsky as we know it in the limited series. She’s never the same following “Man Handled.”
“It’s terrible because it feels like this would be the worst day of anyone’s life, but then very soon she’ll wake up and she’s all over the news. There’s an ensuing seven months until the real story gets out there, so there’s this long period where the United States thinks Monica made up this whole thing. The show is so much Monica and Linda together, and now they’re never together again.”
But “Man Handled” also proves how much the FBI underestimated Monica Lewinsky.
“They totally thought in 20 minutes she’d fold. They were unprepared for her emotionality, but they didn’t expect her to stand up. She refused to betray these people that she knew.”
American Crime Story Impeachment is available on Hulu.