Julia Sweeney as Chelsea Clinton (left), Hillary with Chelsea.Photo:Al Levine /NBC/Everett Collection, J. DAVID AKE/AFP FILES/AFP via Getty
Al Levine /NBC/Everett Collection, J. DAVID AKE/AFP FILES/AFP via Getty
WhileHillary Clintonmay have taken her ownSaturday Night Liveimpersonations in stride, she reportedly wasn’t happy when the show lampooned her daughter,Chelsea Clinton, when she was just a teenager.
Speaking on Wednesday’s episode of Dana Carvey and David Spade’sFly on the Wallpodcast, SNL alum Julia Sweeney said Clinton “wrote a letter” to show creator Lorne Michaels after she portrayed the then first daughter in a January 1993 episode.
“Did that…rub somebody wrong?” Spade asked Sweeney of her impression of Chelsea.
“Yea—Hillary,” Sweeney said.
“She wrote a letter to Lorne. People were saying how unattractively I was playing Chelsea and all I did was not wear makeup and put braces on,” Sweeney said of her one-time portrayal. “I was like, ‘If you say that, you’re saying I’m unattractive!’ "
She continued: “I wasn’ttryingto play her unattractive. I just didn’t wear makeup and put on braces [to play Chelsea]. That was it, and a wig. A long wig.”
In hindsight, though, Sweeney said she agrees with the former first lady, who would go on to become a senator, the U.S. Secretary of State and run two campaigns for the presidency.
“But I understood what Hillary was saying, especially now that I’m a parent,” Sweeney said. “It’s like, yeah f— off. I mean, don’t play kids. I mean, that was wrong. She was right, that was wrong.”
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Chelsea has opened up in the past about how her mom helped instill confidence while she was growing up in the public eye, saying in a2022 interviewonThe Viewthat her mom’s emphasis on health rather than weight “did help protect me when I was 12, 13, and my dad was running for office and there were all sorts of largely older white men commenting on my looks, on my weight, on my appearance. I was like, ‘Well that’s about them, that’s not about me.’ "
The Clintons' life has also been subject to other portrayals, such as 1998’sPrimary Colorsand FX’sImpeachment: American Crime Story.
source: people.com
