Featured Image Credit: Channel 4
Topics: TV And Film, Derry Girls
Lisa McLoughlin
Derry Girls’ creator Lisa McGee has revealed the real-life inspiration behind Chelsea Clinton's unexpected cameo in the show's final-ever episode.
Watch the moment below:
The Channel 4 series came to a rather emotional end as each of the girls cast their votes in the local polling station for the monumental 1998 Good Friday Agreement referendum.
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Viewers watched as the girls strolled out together while a newscaster was heard announcing: "Yes – 71.12%. A record-breaking turnout and an overwhelming majority. The people of Northern Ireland have spoken. The country has just taken its first step into the future."
But as blubbering fans tried to gather themselves after the heartwarming conclusion, they were caught off-guard by a post-credits scene starring none other than Chelsea Clinton.
The daughter of Bill and Hilary Clinton was seen in 'Present Day New York' accepting a letter that had been sent to her years earlier, but had been lost in the post for two decades.
She opens the letter to find a letter written by Erin Quinn (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) and Orla McCool (Louisa Clare Harland), inviting her to hang out with them when her family came to visit Derry back in 1995.
The letter, which the teens wrote in the series two finale ‘The President’, is signed off with the words: “We think your hair is absolutely cracker.”
And while many may believe the cameo came out of nowhere, the show’s creator and executive producer Lisa McGee revealed that Chelsea’s appearance was inspired by her own teenage years.
The showrunner explained that she wrote a letter to Chelsea in 1995 when President Bill Clinton was scheduled to visit the city of Derry in a show of support for Northern Ireland’s peace process.
Speaking to the New York Times, the 38-year-old said she wrote to the president’s daughter to invite her to see a film at the city’s Strand movie theatre.
McGee, who was just 13 when she wrote to Chelsea, added: “She never replied.
“The innocence of that. Living in this place that’s violent and scary, but we were these eejits running about writing letters to Chelsea Clinton.”
Speaking about the moment again at a Channel 4 preview, McGee said that she originally wrote the cameo into the script to amuse herself – and was left stunned when Chelsea agreed to starring in the finale.
She said: “The more we talked about it – me and Mike [Lennox], the director – I was like, ‘F*** it, let’s try.
“It was a manager in America who used to work for the Clintons. And she acted as this middle-woman for us. Then she rang me one night and was just like, ‘Chelsea is in’. And I was like, ‘Oh my god!’”