Bill Clinton Left ‘Independence Day’ Screening After Watching the White House Explode

For Bill Clinton, the 1996 movie Independence Day hit a little too close to home.

The 42nd president of the United States — who was in office when the sci-fi action film was released in July 1996 — ran out of a screening after watching the White House blow up right before his eyes, according to director Roland Emmerich.

In a 2021 oral history of the film by The Hollywood Reporter (which was repurposed Thursday, October 23, following news that President Donald Trump ordered massive construction at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue), people involved in the film looked back on the time it screened at the White House.

“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, ‘Could you hold for the White House,’” recalled writer-producer Dean Devlin. “I said, ‘What?’ And they said, ‘The President would like to screen the movie tonight.’”

When the Independence Day team arrived at the White House’s screening room in the East Wing (which Trump has ordered to be demolished), Bill and wife Hillary Clinton were there to greet them.

“They have the worst screening room there ever,” writer-director Emmerich admitted. “It’s a former bowling alley, a little postmark of a screen.”

Devlin recalled, “In the front row is Hillary and Bill. And Bill has the largest tub of popcorn I’ve ever seen.”

Bill Pullman, who played President Thomas Whitmore in the film, explained, “All three of us were in the back row, standing up, because we were too nervous to even take a seat.”

When it finally came time for one of the film’s most iconic scenes, Emmerich remembered, “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’t pee earlier because they were so into the movie.”

Added Devlin, “When we got to the moment the White House blows up, Roland and I are looking at each other going, ‘We’re in the White House watching it blow up.’ It was bizarre.”

At that moment, the real-life president of the United States ran out, Emmerich said: “One minute later, he comes back, shaking his hands dry. Dean and I looked at each other and nearly started laughing.”

As for actor Pullman’s experience sitting in between the Clintons at the White House screening, he received quite the compliment after the credits rolled.

“At the very end, Hillary leaned over [to] say, ‘You really were great, and if we ever need to step away for a weekend we know who to call,’” Pullman recalled. “Bill wanted to give me a tour. So we ducked out after the movie. It was just me and him walking around, talking about, ‘This is the desk from 1812 where they signed such and such.’ I thought, ‘I’m glad it was me that went to watch the movie in front.’”

Independence Day won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for Best Sound.