Viola Davis has been cast to play Michelle Obama in ‘First Ladies’. It is a drama that is undergoing fast-track development at Showtime – there have been three scripts promised.
Davis – also known for her role in How To Get Away With Murder – will also be acting as an executive producer for the project and alongside her will be the writer of novels Four Seats: A Thriller of the Supreme Court, The Guns of Ridgewood etc. Aaron Cooley. The show will be set in the East Wing of the White House – an area of the politically vital building that has had some of the most impactful decisions made in history. However, many of them have been hidden from view and many of them were made by the women behind the scenes or the ‘First Ladies’. The series will give viewers an insight into the personal lives of these women and will focus on Eleanor Roosevelt, Michelle Obama and Betty Ford.
Cooley had previously written a script about Lady Bird Johnson which inspired the series to go ahead. The series has been created specifically for a female focus and to view the life of these ladies in the throngs of politics through a female lens. Similarly to Netflix’s The Crown, it will give viewers a new insight into the first ladies and what struggles they have faced behind closed doors. However, all of the storylines will have come from information that is available to the public – Michelle Obama wasn’t involved in the production (sadly).
