Brace yourselves for an exciting adventure in a Brit doing a folksy southern accent, because Clive Owen is stepping up to the job of playing Bill Clinton in the next season of American Crime Story. (Do Americans get any acting jobs anymore? This is Little Women all over again!) Per Variety, Owen will play the former president in Impeachment: American Crime Story, which will focus on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, starring Beanie Feldstein as Lewinsky (and with Lewinsky herself onboard as a producer), Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, and Annaleigh Ashford as Paula Jones.
The series is based on Jeffrey Toobin’s book A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President, which is promising given that Toobin also wrote the book that formed the basis for The People v. O.J. Simpson. Production is set to start in early 2020, with an air date on FX on September 27, 2020, just weeks before the presidential election. Sure, that’s dramatic timing, but Murphy himself has defended it. “I know that a lot of people have big opinions about that, about whether when that will air,†Murphy said, adding, “I think that idea of impeachment obviously with Trump is fascinating. I wouldn’t say that we’re changing things that much or mentioning Trump at all in our narrative.â€