Furious Hillary Clinton Wrote Letter to SNL Creator After Actress Impersonated Her Daughter
Former Saturday Night Live actress Julia Sweeney revealed this week that then-first lady Hillary Clinton objected to her portrayal of her young daughter during an early 1990s skit on the show.
Sweeney appeared Wednesday on the “Fly on the Wall” podcast hosted by former SNL stars David Spade and Dana Carvey.
The group was talking about the lack of women on the show in the early ’90s when Spade brought up Sweeney’s portrayal of Chelsea Clinton — who was a teenager during that time — noting that the characterization “rubbed somebody wrong.”
“Yeah, Hillary,” Sweeney replied.
“She wrote a letter to Lorne,” Sweeney said, referring to SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
“People were saying how unattractively I was playing Chelsea, and all I did was not wear makeup and put braces on,” she said.
“If you say that, you’re saying I’m unattractive.”
Hillary Clinton Wrote ‘SNL’ a Letter Criticizing the Show’s Portrayal of Daughter Chelsea, Says Cast Member Julia Sweeney: ‘That Was Wrong. She Was Right’ https://t.co/PhvIBXR845
— Variety (@Variety) August 31, 2023
“I wasn’t trying to play [Chelsea] unattractive,” Sweeney said.
“I just didn’t wear makeup and put on braces. That was it, and a wig. A long wig.”
Sweeney said she has come around to Clinton’s way of thinking about the treatment of the daughter of Hillary and former President Bill Clinton.
“Anyway, 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. That was wrong. She was right – that was wrong.”
Last year, Chelsea Clinton — who now is 43 — spoke about being the butt of jokes when she was younger, according to the Independent.
“I had a different experience with comedy in some ways than a lot of people, because I was made fun of so much as a child, by people who were professional comics,” she said.
“When SNL made fun of me, I was like, ‘Wow, a group of adults sat in a room, all decided this was a good idea, nobody thought maybe we shouldn’t make fun of children.’”
Later in the year, SNL aimed barbs at then-13-year-old Chelsea Clinton again in a “Wayne’s World” sketch in which the characters played by Mike Myers and Carvey rated Clinton as less attractive than former Vice President Al Gore’s daughters, according to EW.
Myers later sent an apology to the Clinton family.
“We felt, upon reflection, that if it was in any way hurtful, it wasn’t worth it,” Michaels said then, according to EW. “She’s a kid, a kid who didn’t choose to be in public life.”
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