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Its a fair question.
The British actor doesnt look much like the former somewhat doughy American president.
But for Murphy and executive producer Brad Simpson, it was all about the eyes.
All eyes go to him, Simpson says.
Clive has something that Clinton also has, which is a lot going on behind these really emotive eyes.
Then theres the basic thing, of course, that Clive is just an incredible actor.
I started looking at all the footage from that period, reminding myself about the whole thing.
The stakes were so high, and it was a story that reverberated around the world, he says.
Theres something sort of attractive about being scared.
It pushes you to do things that you would not ordinarily do, he says.
As viewers of the show can attest, its easy to forget its Owen playing Clinton.
The Writing
AsMadeline Kaplans fact-checking of the seriesproves,Impeachmenttakes its historical accuracy seriously.
Both Burgess and Simpson say Owen insisted on portraying Clinton as a flawed human.
Clive would confer with me a lot, even about slight changes.
Sometimes it was the sound of something or the feel: Am I just being flat?
Am I being incredibly manipulative here?
What is this based on?
Ultimately, you take a stab at make it as believable as you might.
I wasnt sure what that would do for me, really, Owen says.
I knew she was very present in the process and that she talked to Sarah and Ryan a lot.
I thought it was better to just concentrate and work, really.
With Clinton, the research is done for you already.
Theres so much archival footage, Buster says.
We looked at the deposition because thats all on video.
And we looked at his acceptance speech when he was reelected.
Then there were a couple of vignettes online where he was being conversational more casual, everyday speech.
Buster began by identifying Clintons trademark sounds then transcribed the scripts phonetically.
For instance, I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.
I never told anybody to lie became aa did naht hav sex-shooul ruh-lay-shnz with that wuumn, miss Lewinsky.
Aa never told inny-buddy ta laa.
Theres a thinness to his voice, says Buster.
So we listened to that and found the placement of where it lives.
Even though hes a big man, there was not a lot of body resonance in his voice.
It sits right up in his neck and back of his throat, so we incorporated all those elements.
I used to find it very pretentious when I saw actors staying in the accent all the time.
Raleigh began by taking a life-cast scan of Owen.
Using Photoshop, he overlaid that image with one of Clinton to identify what needed to be changed.
Obviously we cant take anything away, so were limited to what we can augment, says Raleigh.
Using a model of Owens head, Raleigh tested prosthetic designs with clay.
We found a place that resembled Clinton, but you still kind of know its Clive.
We wanted to make it not so fake.
The one area where he didnt need any prosthetic help was mimicking Clintons gut.
I got the belly down, dont worry about that, he says, laughing.
I just ate what I wanted.
Ryan came to the table with two massive references:All the Presidents MenandThe Parallax View.
The team used several subtle maneuvers to add a sense of unease.
Some overhead shots of the West Wing spin counterclockwise, an effect meant to disorient viewers.
In the deposition scene, close-ups are used to emphasize Clintons growing realization that hes caught in a lie.
Then we would slowly, over the course of the edit, work our way into him.
Every time you cut back to Bill as the questions go on, the camera gets closer and closer.
And as we moved in, we were using wider lenses, so it feels a bit warped.
Thats a very simple technique.
Dennis was also tasked with re-creating the camera angles of archival interviews and news footage soImpeachmentwould look identical.
Despite the inherent challenges, these scenes were particularly fun for Owen to film.
Theres something quite unusually satisfying for an actor about knowing clearly what the objective is, Owen says.
Weirdly, its a bit like doing stunts its a very definite thing.
Its not open to your interpretation.
