Edie Falco was protective in portraying Hillary Clinton on Impeachment: American Crime Story

Vanity Fair

“If I want something done, I gotta do it," Falco, whose First Lady Hillary Clinton character got the spotlight on this week's Impeachment episode, tells Vanity Fair. "That came into my mind with this. I have tremendous respect and admiration for what she’s been through and what she’s accomplished in the face of that. And how she’s remained married to a man that she respects in spite of his issues and their issues together. I think she’s carved an admirable path through her life. I wanted to make sure she’s treated with respect…not that I did it right, but I wanted to be at the helm of taking care of this woman who was a national treasure and is pretty spectacular in the world.” Speaking about Hillary’s guiding forces, Falco explains, “her faith has been a big part of her life forever…and still is to this day. Like in her concession speech, she used a Bible phrase. The fact that she’s in a long-term marriage, I can’t relate to that, but that is something that she takes very seriously…. My parents were divorced. Everybody I know has been divorced. It’s almost like a rite of passage—you get married, get divorced, eventually you get married to the right person. I think she takes the marriage vows seriously. She made an agreement under God to be with this person until she dies. And I think she’s a public servant, and it’s been in her blood forever. You take the three of those things and it’s going to make you behave a certain way. From my vantage point, that is kind of what has guided her.” Falco also reveals she first met Clive Owen on the first day of filming, when he had already been transformed into President Bill Clinton. “I thought I knew what Clive Owen looked like,” she remembers, laughing at her confusion. “I just thought, He looks different. And then at one point I was pulling out of the parking lot and some attractive man is running towards my window saying, ‘Hey, hold on, hold on.’ And I feel like, Oh, my God, that’s Clive Owen. The whole time we were together, he looked like Bill.” Falco points out that she didn't see a lot of faces while filming during the pandemic. “it wasn’t just with Clive,” she says. “I didn’t know what anybody looked like between the masks and the plastic shields. I didn’t ever know who the hell I was talking to. It was very strange.” ALSO: Impeachment's Linda Tripp is your office frenemy nightmare.