Showtime shared the first look of Viola Davis as Michelle Obama in the upcoming series The First Lady. The images were released exclusively through Entertainment Weekly. The Oscar-and Emmy-winning actress shared them on her social media pages as well.
The Showtime drama will retrace the lives of three memorable women: Michelle Obama (Viola Davis), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson).
The show’s first season will focus on the personal and political lives of the First Ladies tracing “their journeys to Washington through an enlightening intimacy,” according to Showtime.
Davis (and The First Lady exec producer) did have a nice chat with Michelle Obama — and read her memoir, Becoming — before signing on to the anthology series.
“I feel very protective of Michelle,” says Davis, who also studied the first lady’s 2020 Netflix doc to perfect her gestures. “It’s our job as actors not to judge whoever we are portraying, but I ended up thinking she’s just dope.”
Black Widow‘s O-T Fagbenle will be portraying President Barack Obama.
First Lady will have 10 episodes and is set to premiere in 2022.
