Hillary and Chelsea Clinton: "Today, being a woman and an American is political in itself"

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton as we've never seen them before: on a stage, decked out in a costume and a clown's nose, learning to "get past the flop" of a failed gag.

Or arbitrating for one and gracefully losing a legal quiz for the other against Kim Kardashian, surprisingly more savvy in constitutional law than a seasoned lawyer like Barack Obama's ex-Secretary of State … If mother and daughter seem to happily free themselves from their ceremonial image in

(“Culottées”), the Apple TV + documentary series (available from September 9, 2022) adapted from their book co-written in 2019, it is also for "the good cause".

The cause of women, which the most admired and polarizing politician in the history of the United States and her only daughter, American equivalent of the princess of a royal family, wanted to highlight and celebrate.

Read alsoHillary Clinton reveals the speech she would have given if she had been elected in 2016

On video,

Gutsy,

the trailer

Series of intimate portraits of “women with guts” – from comic Amy Schumer or feminist icon Gloria Steinem to anonymous people who have had the courage to challenge the status quo and advance their rights and those of their communities –,

also proves to be, implicitly, a crossed and illuminating biography of its two protagonists.

That of Hillary, Chicago lawyer who became first lady of Arkansas, at the age of 31, out of love for Bill Clinton - the youngest elected governor at the time -, then first lady of the United States, raised, after the Monicagate scandal , to the status of the most admired and criticized woman politician at the same time.

To this day, she remains the only candidate to nearly land the job of President of the United States…

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 , documentary series available exclusively on Apple TV+.

AppleTV+

And, Chelsea, the couple's only child, who grew up in the spotlight but in the shadow of this overwhelming notoriety.

A ball of “Energy” (nickname conferred by the secret services of the White House) with a keen intelligence.

"Chelsea alone has more diplomas than Hillary and I combined," likes to recall her father, who employs her as an advisor and vice-president of his foundation.

Teacher, consultant, author of children's books, the mother of Charlotte, Aidan and Jasper was the cheerleader who cheered up her own mother following her loss to Donald Trump in 2016.

Like a mirror held up to the resilience of all women,

, the debut project from their joint production company, HiddenLight, is a makeover for Hillary and demonstrates her renewed commitment “to leaving a better world for future generations.”

From New York, where they reside, mother and daughter gave us an exclusive interview.

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The complicity of Hillary and Chelsea Clinton in the service of audacious and courageous women.

Heidi Gutman/Apple TV+

Miss Figaro.

– How did the idea for Gutsy, your first documentary series for Apple TV+, come about?

With Chelsea, in 2019 we published

(Ed. Simon & Schuster, not published in French, Editor's note), a hundred portraits of famous women that we admired.

We had great fun writing it with four hands, and discovering, by listing these exemplary female figures, our respective definitions of their embodiment of courage.

By offering to adapt it in series, Sam Branson (son of Richard, CEO of Virgin, editor's note) made us want to produce it.

Our values ​​aligned: together, we launched HiddenLight Productions, in order to reveal inspiring talents, voices and destinies still unknown to the general public.

was the spark of this new commitment for us.

How do you define a woman “who has guts”?

Determined and resilient.

She fights to fulfill her individual destiny, but also for the good of an entire community.

By following his convictions and values, in his personal and professional life.

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Meeting with Jane Goodall, the iconic primatologist.

Heidi Gutman/Apple TV+

What presided over the choice of your speakers and which ones impressed you the most?

Eclecticism has been our watchword: from the primatologist Jane Goodall to the Native Americans who created an independent court of justice, from Kim Kardashian to the first black students of a segregationist school in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957… Courage of New York's women firefighters, who saved so many lives, blew my mind.

Just trying out their equipment made me realize the extent of their strength, physical and moral.

Whether they are artists, scientists, activists, nuns, front-line workers, whether their destiny has been changed by love, political conviction or following an accident in life, they upset the established order, redress injustices and help others to accomplish.

Which ones impressed me the most?

This repentant ex-member of a Nazi supremacist group whose mission is to “deprogram” racism and violence among others.

And these two mothers, one white, one African American, who lost their children to racially-motivated murders and came together to ease tensions within their communities.

In tolerance, they force people who maintain this hatred to question themselves.

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Hillary and Chelsea Clinton with the Women Firefighters of New York.

Heidi Gutman/Apple TV+

Chelsea, can you tell us what your mother taught you about courage?

As a child, I wouldn't have been able to give you the definition of “gutsy”: indomitable, intrepid?

But my mother taught it to me by example, day after day.

As far back as I can remember, everyone had an opinion to give about her.

On her appearance, her outfits.

About what she did, didn't do, should have done.

On what she said or preferred to remain silent… In the 1980s, as the wife of the governor of Arkansas, working was not well seen.

Yet she continued her career, doing more than “just” raising me or supporting my father in his duties.

I've seen her weather setbacks and disappointments and always pick herself up.

Without letting yourself be overcome by sourness or hardening yourself to the point of closing down.

Mom has this quality, admirable,

 : whatever the difficulties they encounter, their joie de vivre and their optimism remain unfailing.

Hillary, what do you think of the courage your daughter Chelsea has shown?

She did not choose to be born into a family of politicians.

And, with a governor and then president father, she was the target, from her earliest childhood, of criticism and insults of unspeakable cruelty.

Unscrupulous adults thought it normal to attack her to get at us, her parents.

As a mother, this injustice broke my heart more than once... But I was proud to see her forge a shell, to find her own way and to trace it with determination, in spite of the harassment she suffered. been a victim.

This natural temerity allowed her to identify with many of our speakers, such as the daughters of trade unionist Dolores Huerta, who participated in demonstrations for the rights of immigrant workers still in their cradle!

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Hillary and Chelsea Clinton celebrate the courage of the first black students at a segregated school in Little Rock.

Heidi Gutman/Apple TV+

Your complicity is obvious on screen… What did you discover on the set that you didn't know about each other?

I'm delighted to have shot the series with Chelsea, because

also talks about transmission between generations.

And the whole world will now know how much she loves to tease me!

Including on our points of disagreement.

But my daughter also makes sure that I stay in touch with the modern world and its evolution.

I didn't discover her temerity during the filming, but the series confirmed to me how much she was always ready to literally throw herself headlong into new experiences.

His fearlessness is inspiring.

The big revelation for me?

I didn't know why my mother had adopted, as a politician, the trouser suit as her “uniform”.

It was during an official trip to Brazil, photos of her in a skirt had been stolen and used by a brand of lingerie… Horrified, she had promised herself that this would never happen to her again.

(She turns to Hillary, laughing.) Honestly, Mom, why didn't you ever tell me?

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Meeting under the stars with Native American women.

Heidi Gutman/Apple TV+

What acts or decisions have required each of you to be the most “gutsy” so far?

In my private life: my decision to stay married, which, as everyone knows, was played out in broad daylight and in front of the whole world (after the Lewinsky affair in 1998, Ed).

I had to find the confidence in myself to ignore this overexposure in order to make the best decision for me and my family.

And I have no regrets.

So, from a personal point of view: don't divorce, don't give up.

On the professional side?

Running for President of the United States in 2016 was like walking a tightrope and without a safety net, not least because I was the first to come so close, with all the preconceptions that came with the idea of ​​a woman at the head of the White House.

I am very satisfied with the campaign we conducted and extremely proud of

having obtained more votes than the elected president (Donald Trump, editor’s note).

I regret not having won, but it was a reckless undertaking in itself.

In view of a childhood and adolescence so exposed: find the courage to live my life as a woman, wife, mother, with integrity, and give purpose and meaning to my journey.

The repeal of the right to abortion in the United States last June bears witness to a violent setback for women's rights.

How can they resist, mobilize?

We are being backfired, specifically to 'put us in our place', prevent us from occupying public space.

The women we feature in

fight for their acquired rights, keep a hard-earned space and invite others to join them there.

I thought we were on an upward curve in terms of civil rights, but I changed my mind when I read the Supreme Court decision and saw that women continue to be diminished and discriminated against all over the world… There we have to show solidarity and "gutsy", rally around this concept of bravery that goes beyond our individual interests and ask ourselves, every day, how to move the lines.

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Good humor and laughter are on the program of the

series .

Heidi Gutman/Apple TV+

Chelsea, is

Rather, it represents for me the values ​​that I wish to defend as a citizen.

It is not a political program, but militant, yes.

The rights to dispose of our bodies or to choose the career we like are called into question every day.

I think being female and American today is political in itself.

Telling women's stories is political.

It is to denounce the evils against which to fight, to show that there are levers of action and to seize them to do good at our level.

In the name of all.

Gutsy,

documentary series available exclusively on Apple TV+.