Viola Davis Morphs Into Michelle Obama in First Lady

Upcoming Showtime drama offers a peek
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 18, 2022 1:24 PM CST

What's it like to be married to the president of the United States? An upcoming TV drama examines that life behind the curtains at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., drawn from the perspectives of Michelle Obama, Betty Ford, and Eleanor Roosevelt, per the BBC. A new trailer for First Lady—a 10-episode Showtime series dubbed a "revelatory reframing of American leadership, told through the lens of the women at the heart of the White House"—shows snippets of Viola Davis as Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Ford, and Gillian Anderson as Roosevelt. And it looks like there are some good lines for the award-winning actresses to chew on.

"They want to turn me into a Black Martha Stewart?" an incredulous Davis, as Obama, says at one point in the clip. "The series will peel back the curtain on the personal and political lives of three unique, enigmatic women and their families, tracing their journeys to Washington, dipping into their pasts, and following them beyond the White House into their greatest moments," a Showtime statement notes, per People. The show—which also stars Kiefer Sutherland as FDR, Aaron Eckhart as Gerald Ford, and O-T Fagbenle (Luke from The Handmaid's Tale) as Barack Obama—begins streaming April 17. Watch the full trailer here. (More Michelle Obama stories.)

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