Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton on their TV series celebrating "Gutsy" women
Hillary Clinton has a new campaign, along with her daughter, Chelsea: Telling the stories of gutsy women in a new docuseries on Apple TV+, called "Gutsy."
"CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell asked the Clintons, "How would you describe a gutsy woman?"
"I think a gutsy woman is determined to make the most of her own life," Hillary replied, "but also to try to use whatever skills, talents, persistence that she has to bring others along."
"And you can do it in any field or in any area," added Chelsea. "And so, whether that's sports or activism or the arts, it was really important to us that there be a wide spectrum of women who have been hugely gutsy for themselves and for their communities."
"Do you think people like gutsy women?" asked O'Donnell.
"I think some people like gutsy women," Hillary said. "I think some people are afraid and threatened by gutsy women. I think some are put off by gutsy women."
To watch a trailer for "Gutsy" click on the video player below:
Women like comedian Amy Schumer, whom they met for tea. Schumer admitted to them, "I did go through ten years of being majorly trolled. You won't be able to relate to this."
"No, not at all!" Hillary replied.
Schumer described the attitude she faced professionally: "We want this other version of women. We want you to be pretty and quiet and effusive."
"And only a supporting cast member," Chelsea added.
"Absolutely!"
The series shows the former first lady and first daughter, who was mostly shielded from public view, in a new light.
Hillary said, "I'm not of the generation that grew up with rappers – male or female. And Chelsea has for years been trying to educate both Bill and me."
"It's an ongoing effort," Chelsea laughed.
Which is how the former presidential candidate found herself painting with Grammy-winning artist Megan Thee Stallion.
O'Donnell asked, "Have you really listened to her music?"
"Yes. Yeah," Hillary replied.
Chelsea said, "Ask her, did she really listen to it before the Apple TV+ series?"
"No. The answer is no. But you did."
"I did. But my mother did all her homework, Norah!"
"What did you like about [Megan]?" O'Donnell asked.
"I thought she was unapologetic in the way that she claimed her sexual being," said Hillary. "She has a stage persona. She just put it out there, you know, kind of opened herself up."
"Right," Chelsea said. " 'Deal with it or ignore me, but don't minimize me and don't patronize me.'"
The series confronts difficult topics. One episode is fully dedicated to rejecting hate.
O'Donnell said, "I was also struck, Chelsea, when you said you can't remember a time where hate and 'the whisper of violence' didn't surround your family."
"It's true, Norah. I mean, I remember being a little girl in Arkansas and people yelling hateful things at us, at my parents. I remember in '92 when my father was running for president and someone threw a bag filled with probably red food coloring, but they said, you know, 'This is the blood of an aborted baby; it should have been you.' Like, really active hateful rhetoric and actions that just permeated life when I was a kid."
Personal experiences punctuate almost every episode, such as Hillary's revelation about why she wears pantsuits. "I didn't know that story!" Chelsea laughed. "It's, like, by far and away the greatest revelation I had."
A state visit to Brazil led to some compromising photographs: "I was sitting on a couch," Hillary recalled, "and the press was let in. There were a bunch of them shooting up."
Some of those photos were then used to sell lingerie. "And all of a sudden, the White House gets alerted to these billboards that show me sitting down with, I thought my legs together, but the way it's shot, it's sort of suggestive. And then I also began to have the experience of having photographers all the time, I'd be on a stage, I'd be climbing stairs, and they'd be below me."
"That's so creepy!" said Chelsea.
"I just couldn't deal with it. So, I started wearing pants."
While pantsuits might be synonymous with Hillary Clinton, it is another decision she's well known for that she considers gutsy. "The gutsiest thing I ever did privately was stay in my marriage," Hillary said. "It was not easy, and it was something that only I could decide. And then in my public life, running for president. I mean, it was hard. It was really hard! And it was, you know, trying to be on that tightrope without a net, and nobody in front of me because it hadn't been done before."
O'Donnell said, "I guess I was surprised that you said that staying in your marriage was gutsier than running for president."
"Well, it was, in terms of my private life. it was really hard. And as you know, everybody had an opinion about it. People who I had never met had very strong opinions about it! And it took a lot of honestly prayer and thoughtfulness and talking to people I totally trusted to really think through, because it was all being done in public, Norah. So, it made it even more painful and difficult. But I have no regrets."
Having no regrets, for both Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, is another expression of gutsiness, which they hope has universal appeal.
O'Donnell said, "There seems to be an undercurrent of a message throughout this whole series that you're trying to show women, tell women, to be gutsy, to stand up for yourself."
"Exactly," said Hillary.
"And also, Norah, with the hope that those women's examples can be inspiring to anyone who might be watching," said Chelsea.
"Men and boys, not just women and girls," added her mom.
"But I think, also, so that people hopefully can see part of their own life, whether their own struggles, their own opportunities in the women's stories that we're sharing, so that they hopefully can then be a little bit closer to feeling, 'Well, I can be gutsy, too.'"
For more info:
- "Gutsy" debuts on Apple TV+ September 9.
Story produced by Kay Lim, Julie Kracov and Julie Morse. Editor: Lauren Barnello.
See also:
- Hillary Rodham Clinton & Chelsea Clinton on "Gutsy Women" and Trump ("Sunday Morning")
- Excerpt: "The Book of Gutsy Women" by Hillary Rodham Clinton & Chelsea Clinton
- Louise Penny & Hillary Rodham Clinton on their thriller collaboration ("Sunday Morning")
- Hillary Clinton on why she lost and "the most important" mistake she made ("Sunday Morning")
- Book excerpt: "What Happened" by Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Hillary Clinton on making "what appears to be impossible, possible" ("Sunday Morning")
