Gillian Anderson is still reeling from an encounter she had with Bill Clinton … 30 years ago.
During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, the Emmy Award winning actress spoke about the first time she met former President Clinton. She recounted attending a luncheon hosted in a house in the Hollywood Hills while the 42nd US President was campaigning for his first term back in the early ’90s.
The “Crown” star revealed how charismatic Clinton had been, and how after an “intimate” first impression, she had expected him to contact her again.
“He did the most miraculous thing in the world, he shakes your hand, then he grabs your elbow and at the same time he holds your arm further up,” Anderson recalled. “Slightly intimate little thing. [He] makes eye contact. And he moves on to the next person. Then he looks back at you.”
The 53-year-old confessed that while the interaction was something he did to everyone, the moment had certainly left an impression on her.
Host Jimmy Kimmel was quick to reveal that his experience meeting Clinton was slightly different, “I got all of that except for the look back. I did not experience the look back.”
Anderson admitted that, for her, the moment had been so intense she expected to hear from him again.
“I went home, I thought — this was in the days of answering machines — I literally thought that I was going to go home to a message from him,” she said. “I did. It was that real.”
Clinton’s charisma seemed to have worked in his favor, when Kimmel asked if the actress had voted for him after their interaction, Anderson admitted that she had cast her ballot in his box after a long dramatic pause.
Gillian will appear on Showtime’s “The First Lady” which will revisit presidential leaderships through the experience of the women who built up the country’s former commanders in chief.
Anderson will portray Eleanor Roosevelt with Viola Davis playing Michelle Obama and Michelle Pfeiffer fulfilling the role of Betty Ford. As for their presidential counterparts, Kiefer Sutherland will take on the role of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Aaron Eckhart as Gerald Ford and O-T Fagbenle as Barack Obama.
“The First Lady” will premiere on Showtime on Sunday, April 17.
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