Viola Davis did speak with Michelle Obama before she played her in Showtime’s upcoming The First Lady, but she is reluctant to share much of what they talked about in their private conversati…
“She said, ‘I’m not even an angry person.’ Isn’t that something? Listen, I am sort of an angry person, but she’s not. And so what I wanted to do was honor her and not the perception of what Black women are supposed to be.”, a 10-episode series that debuts April 17 on Showtime, tells the story of American history through the eyes of Eleanor Roosevelt , Betty Ford and Obama.
“It was always about trying to track through history the sublimation of voice, and to turn the lens on history to see it through a female point of view,” said, the series’ showrunner and executive producer. “And so it was important to see continuity of the issues and to be able to point out the similarities as well as the juxtaposition. We wanted it to intersect and go through 110 years of history all at the same time and per episode.
In one scene, Michelle Obama shares her concerns and fears for her husband Barack Obama’s safety as he embarks on his presidential campaign, even using the N-word to describe the racists and extremist dangers he will likely face. “We use creative license because we all know that Michelle Obama is someone who does not like politics, the viciousness of it,” Davis said. “And so it was an imagined conversation. And I did push for those words to be used because I know that those are the words that Black people use in private. We do. We use those words in private, especially to drive something home, and Michelle Obama is from the South Side of Chicago.