‘The First Lady’ trailer exposes closed-door drama for White House spouses
Make way for “The First Lady.”
An anthology series that chronicles the White House careers of three of our most influential first ladies — Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt, played respectively by Hollywood heavyweights Vio🀅la Davis, Michelle Pfei🌞ffer and Gillian Anderson — is coming to .
The 10-episode drama airing this April includes supporting actors Kiefer Sutherland as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Aaron Eckhart as Gerald Ford and relative newcomer O-T Fagbenle, who last starred in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” as the first black president, Barack Obama.
A new two-minute trailer sees the three iconic women as they navigate White House politics, both civic and꧃ domestic, and pulls on the threads of controversy that have made each woman so instrumental and enduring to Americans.
“In four years, I want to look back and think: ‘What did I become living in that House?'” says Oscar winner Davis, 56, transformed as Obama, who would later earn the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award in 2020. Meanwhile, Pfeiffer, 63, portrays a genteel and defiant Ford, whose husband was thrust into the presidency in the wake of Richard Nixon’s resignation. And Anderson, 53, fresh off her Emmy win for playing a spot-on Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown,” assumes the part of Eleanor Roosevelt, a fierce feminist who later became known as perhaps one of the nation’s first LGBTQ first ladies.
Guest stars also include Dakota Fanning, Judy Greer, Ellen Burstyn and Kate Mulgrew, among others who will fill the shoes of some of US history’s major players.
Showtime has billed “The First Lady” as “a revelatory reframing of American leadership, told through the lens of the women at the heart of the White House.
“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,” the network added.
TV fans out and about in New York; Philadelphia; Washington, DC; Los Angeles; and Chicago might catch one of Showtime’s out-of-home advertisements for “The First Lady” over President’s Day weekend, such as outdoor digital projections shown on national landmarks, .
“The First Lady” premieres for streaming on Showtime beginning April 17.
