What did SNL say about Chelsea Clinton? Hillary Clinton letter incident explored in wake of Julia Sweeney's revelation

American comedian Julia Sweeney gave a bombshell revelation about the time she portrayed teen Chelsea Clinton on Saturday Night Live. The 63-year-old personality appeared on an episode of Dana Carvey and David Spade's podcast Fly on the Wall on August 30, 2023. At the time, she discussed the lack of female representation on the sketch-comedy show.

When it was pointed out that political people like Sarah Palin and Bill Clinton gave women a chance to be in sketches, Spade told the duo that Sweeney had once played Bill and Hillary Clinton's daughter, Chelsea Clinton, who was a teenager at the time, and that it got on somebody's nerves.

Julia Sweeney portraying Chelsea Clinton in SNL. (Photo via Everett Collection)

When Sweeney responded "Hillary," the actress added that the former secretary of state also wrote a letter to creator Lorne Michaels expressing her disapproval.

"People were saying how unattractively I was playing Chelsea and all I did was not wear makeup and put braces on. If you say that, you're saying I'm unattractive! [I wasn't] trying to play her unattractive. I just didn't wear makeup and put on braces. That was it, and a wig. A long wig."

In the January 1993 episode in question, hosted by Harvey Keitel, Julia Sweeney played a young Chelsea Clinton in a sketch with Phil Hartman, who played then-President Bill Clinton, and Jan Hooks, who played then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.

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Julia Sweeney agrees with Hillary Clinton's disapproval of Chelsea Clinton's portrayal on SNL

In the same conversation, Julia Sweeney admitted that Hillary Clinton was right at her part as a mother to object to the portrayal of her daughter on Saturday Night Live.

"I understood what Hillary was saying, especially now that I'm a parent. It's like, yeah f--- off. I mean, don't play kids. That was wrong. She was right, that was wrong."

Although Sweeney did not reprise her role as the first daughter, SNL continued to feature segments about the then-13-year-old, including one in which Michaels and the cast apologized to the young Clinton.

In a Wayne's World comedy sketch, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey's characters implied that the teen girl was less attractive than Al Gore's daughters at the time.

At the time, Lorne Michaels said:

“We felt, upon reflection, that if it was in any way hurtful, it wasn’t worth it. She’s a kid, a kid who didn’t choose to be in public life.”

While appearing on an episode of the Apple TV+ series, Gutsy, Chelsea Clinton shared her thoughts on being a teenager while growing up in the White House.

“I had a different experience with comedy in some ways than probably a lot of people because I was made fun of so much as a child by people who were professional comics. When ‘SNL’ made fun of me, I was like, wow, a group of adults sat in a room, [and] all decided this was a good idea. Nobody thought, like, maybe you shouldn’t make fun of children. I was like I just don’t think that’s funny or OK.”

The comedy-sketch show Saturday Night Live will return to NBC after the SAG-AFTRA strike is over.