Beanie Feldstein on her performance in this week's Impeachment: American Crime Story episode: "I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it, honestly"

The New York Times

“It was the most tremendous undertaking," she tells The New York Times of re-creating Monica Lewinsky being ambushed by FBI agents who grilled her in a hotel room, leaving her in tears and hysterics. Feldstein says she decided that her performance would rest less on physical or vocal impersonation than on something more ephemeral. “My goal was to just be emotionally true to what she was feeling at every moment,” she says, adding: “This episode pushed me emotionally in ways I never could have ever anticipated or understood. It was the most grueling, painful acting experience I’ve ever had.” In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Feldstein says it took 23 days to film this week's episode. "To say the least, yes. It was a 23-day shoot, which for a television episode is, I think, unheard of," she says. "I’m not too experienced in TV, but from what I heard from everyone it was sort of unique in that respect. I think it was because we had to get it right — no moment could be rushed, and thank God we were helmed by Ryan (Murphy) himself directing it, which was a huge honor for me. He directed the first episode of the series as well, but it’s an honor for me to work so closely with him on this episode. Of anything I’ve ever done in my working life, it’s the thing I’m singularly most proud of and nervous for." Why did shooting take so long? "We didn’t shoot every single day; our schedule with COVID was all over the place," she says. "It wasn’t contained. But also she’s in a room with anywhere from six to 10 men at any given moment, so it’s not just a two-person scene or a person alone in a room, which is much faster to shoot. It’s a great number of people and almost like a play, we had to all move as one and move together throughout the scenes."