{"id":221404,"date":"2025-10-23T23:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/221404\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T23:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:32:07","slug":"bill-clinton-ran-out-of-independence-day-after-white-house-blew-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/221404\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Clinton Ran Out of Independence Day After White House Blew Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn 1996, Independence Day<\/a> caused a stir with a Super Bowl spot that showed an alien ship blowing up the White House. Executives at 20th Century Fox were nervous and even told director Roland Emmerich that simply wasn\u2019t something you could do in a national TV ad. But the spot ended up being a hit, helping build buzz that propelled the film to $817.4 million at the global box office, then the second highest grossing film of all time.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe image of an exploding White House takes on a new light today, with President Trump ordering the demolition of the East Wing<\/a>, including the storied White House screening room that opened under Franklin D. Roosevelt and has hosted screenings of many memorable movies. (The plan is to rebuild the screening room down the road.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAs fate has it, Independence Day was among the films that screened at the White House. In 2021, as part of a larger oral history<\/a> of the film, Emmerich, star Bill Pullman and writer-producer Dean Devlin recalled watching the White House explode \u2026. while at the White House.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, an excerpt from that larger 2021 oral history. <\/p>\n

\n\tDEAN DEVLIN, writer-producer We were in the middle of doing a press junket in New York for the movie. The phone is ringing in my room. I pick it up and they said, \u201cCould you hold for the White House.\u201d I said, \u201cWhat?\u201d And they said, \u201cThe President would like to screen the movie tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tROLAND EMMERICH, writer-director All of a sudden we are standing in the middle of the White House, and Bill Clinton is chatting us up. They have the worst screening room there ever. It\u2019s a former bowling alley, a little postmark of a screen.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEVLIN In the front row is Hillary [Clinton] and Bill. And Bill has the largest tub of popcorn I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

\n\tBILL PULLMAN, president Thomas Whitmore All three of us were in the back row, standing up, because we were too nervous to even take a seat.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEVLIN Clinton waves to Roland to come sit down next to him.<\/p>\n

\n\tPULLMAN Roland was so decisive. \u201cI am German, I can\u2019t go.\u201d I thought, \u201cThat\u2019s weak! You are the director.\u201d And Dean, he wrote the speech! He said, \u201cNo, no, I\u2019m too nervous.\u201d By default, I said, \u201cOK, I\u2019ll serve the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEMMERICH Bill had to sit next to the president, right in front between [the Clintons]. Sandwiched in.<\/p>\n

\n\tPULLMAN It was a little nerve-racking.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEVLIN Remember in Amadeus at the end of the opera, it\u2019s silent until the king claps his hands and then everybody claps? It was like that for every joke of the movie. No one wanted to laugh at a joke until they heard Bill laugh.<\/p>\n

\n\tEMMERICH The first big destruction scene starts with blowing up the White House. In test screenings, a lot of people left right after, and then they immediately came running back. They didn\u2019t pee earlier because they were so into the movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEVLIN When we got to the moment the White House blows up, Roland and I are looking at each other going, \u201cWe\u2019re in the White House watching it blow up.\u201d It was bizarre.<\/p>\n

\n\tEMMERICH Then, who runs out? Bill Clinton! One minute later, he comes back, shaking his hands dry. Dean and I looked at each other and nearly started laughing.<\/p>\n

\n\tPULLMAN At the very end, Hillary leaned over and say, \u201cYou really were great, and if we ever need to step away for a weekend we know who to call.\u201d Bill wanted to give me a tour. So we ducked out after the movie. It was just me and him walking around, talking about, \u201cThis is the desk from 1812 where they signed such and such.\u201d I thought, \u201cI\u2019m glad it was me that went to watch the movie in front.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRead the full oral history here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1996, Independence Day caused a stir with a Super Bowl spot that showed an alien ship blowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,29971,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-221404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-independence-day","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}