Michelle Pfeiffer to play Betty Ford in Showtime's The First Lady anthology series
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The cast of Showtime’s upcoming anthology series The First Lady (formerly known as First Ladies) is coming together, with Deadline reporting that Michelle Pfeiffer will be playing Betty Ford and that The Undoing’s Susanne Bier will be directing. The series is a “revelatory reframing of American leadership,” emphasizing “the women at the heart of the White House,” with this first season focusing on Betty Ford, Michelle Obama, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
We learned a while ago that Viola Davis would be playing Obama, but that and this new Pfeiffer-as-Ford casting are still all we seem to know about which famous people will be playing these other famous people. Roosevelt will presumably be played by another big name, but it’ll be interesting to see how Showtime handles casting the presidents these women are married to. After all, the show’s official plot synopsis implies that they won’t be getting much of the spotlight. Maybe Bier can call in some Undoing favors and get Hugh Grant to play Gerald Ford? That would be a lot of fun.
On a related note, seeing as how we’re still a First Lady short, we don’t know when this thing is going to air. Showtime is clearly putting some weight behind it with Davis and Pfeiffer and Bier, though, so it’s most likely not going to rush into anything (also, there’s whole pandemic thing going on).
44 Comments
Pfeiffer is smart for taking this particular role, especially if the producers don’t take the cheesy approach (which they probably will) of all First Ladies being heroines by definition of the office.Many aren’t all that interesting (think Mamie Eisenhower, Pat Nixon, or Rosalynn Carter), and some of the ones who are – like Edith Wilson, who apparently ‘inspired’ the series – have a distinctly mixed legacy. If they do that properly, maybe there will be a Florence Harding episode where they hint at her killing her husband.But Betty Ford? Alcoholism, destigmatizing breast cancer with a very public surgery, going against Republican orthodoxy later in life, having a terrific marriage, raising some decent human beings as kids – this is a great, great role for someone who wants to portray someone who shouldn’t be remembered as just the wife of a President.Looking forward to seeing what they allow Pfeiffer to do.
If they do that properly, maybe there will be a Florence Harding episode where they hint at her killing her husband.Has there ever been a horror movie set in the White House?
Well it felt like a horror movie but turns out it was a documentary.
Yes. It was called The Trump Administration.
Rosalynn Carter is far better then Pat Nixon. I mean she’s been married to Jimmy longer then most first ladies have lived. Also she once met John Wayne Gacey, she isn’t that dull.
Oh, she’s a wonderful person and they’ve got a great marriage, but in terms of an interesting life worth making a TV show about – it’s more or less been supportive Navy wife on steroids for 70 years. Good human being, but as a portrayal, not something that lends itself to drama.Pat Nixon at least would be showing someone who stayed married to someone who had psychopathic tendencies and dramatic mood swings, which might make it Lifetime worthy.
Yeah you got me there. I’m now imagining a Nixon Lifetime movie complete with dramatic arguments and a slow mo knocking wine glass shot. I want this.
Didn’t Nixon towards the end of his administration roam the halls at night, piss-drunk and ranting at portraits? That would make for good television.
Yes, but its been depicted in several films already. Its not hard to see why, Nixon yelling at Andrew Johnsons portrait is dramatic stuff.
*dingdingdingdingding!*
“Mrs. Pfeiffer’s finished!”
Nixon also beat the hell out of Pat and sent her to the hospital at least once – an open secret for journalists at the time who wouldn’t report on it as back then it was considered a “family issue.”
Also she once met John Wayne Gacey, she isn’t that dull.Oh please, Pat Nixon hung around bigger creeps than that, and I’m not even counting the one she was married to.And she was a stone cold fox.
I admittedly don’t know much about Pat Nixon, I’m curious now. Go on…
The Mary Todd Lincoln episode would be very depressing. Even though she was a morale-booster for much of the Civil War, most of the focus would be on her physical and mental sufferings.
That’s one that I suspect they’ll do, not just for the mental illness – which they can start looking at some of the revisionist work, since Robert Todd Lincoln doesn’t come off so well either – but also the family drama with the Confederacy relatives, the spending that took place that caused all the battles with Radicals, and just harassing Hay and Nicolay to the point where they were forced out of the White House for the second term.Whatever else can be said about her, she wasn’t boring.
Mary Todd Pfeiffer: morale-boosting Civil War pin up girl!
I just want them to keep the musical numbers:
Pfeiffer is psmart! And if you gotta pproblem with that, I’ll punch you in the pface!
I understand they considered casting Melania Trump as Melania Trump, but then realized that role would be outside her range.
To capture Melania properly on film you’d have to tape a bunch of cats together.
You made me snort wine out of my nose.
Were you drinking wine when you read it?
I can take no credit whatsoever:
They can always hire the body double she occasionally used while First Lady.
I’d be more for a thrilling legal drama where Donny and Melania’s respective legal teams renegotiate their prenup.“My client demands at one act of penetrative intercourse per week.”“We’re not gonna agree to that, not unless you pay for her labiaplasty.”“We were more than willing to pay for it, but your client’s demands for choice of surgeon were ridiculous!”“Please. My client refuses let one of your client’s fly-by-night, quote, ‘rock star’ surgeons touch her reproductive organs; her vagina is a significant part of her revenue-generation stream!”“Dr. Hadrian Melman-Forschner is a well-respected Boca Raton plastic surgeon with franchises all over Florida and his own syndicated satellite radio show, and has 14-handicap.”“Fine. But in the event of divorce, your client keeps Barron.”“THAT IS COMPLETELY UNFAIR AND YOU KNOW IT.”
Meryl Steep would be an amazing Eleanor Roosevelt, AKA the objectively best Roosevelt. She’s better then FDR, I will fight anyone who says otherwise.
Nah, we need someone who can bring some strong lesbian energy to that role, and as much as I love her, that ain’t Merryl.Gillian Anderson, on the other hand?
Ironically both women played Thatcher. I know the event that needs to be depicted. The time she worked with Milton Eisenhower, Ikes brother, to diplomatically get prisoners from the Bay of Pigs incident released. Eleanor hated Milton due to playing a role in the Japanese imprisonment camps from the war. It was her last real major act, she died months later. Great story.
I’d rather Meryl do a warts-and-all turn as Nancy Reagan. They bear a passing resemblance and since she already played Thatcher she might as well complete the cursed set. Not that I imagine an honest portrayal of the Reagans would ever get the green-light: between his obvious dementia, the atrocious scandals that everyone seems to have forgotten, and Nancy’s penchant for relying on her personal astrologer to guide policy no one would believe it.
Can the First Lady do this?
Goddamn, Michelle Pfeiffer still “looks like a million bucks,” as Ebert said in his Fabulous Baker Boys review. And I think she’s underrated as an excellent character actress.
Have The Great Cate (Blanchett) play Eleanor. To ideologically and morally counterbalance her playing Phyllis Schlafly. Blanchett has said she didn’t know anything about the latter and the history of the ERA until she took on the role. As she’s technically half American, she can learn this country’s history through the true-life people she plays! (I have always wanted her to do a Ida Tarbell movie.)
Yeah, Pfeiffer’s clearly studied at the Charlize Theron Hot Blonde Academy of Aging.Not to diminish either’s talent or achievements in favor of appearance, but Jesus Christ, how do you stay that good-looking for that long?
Good question and I don’t know. I can’t tell if people have had “work done”, if it isn’t horribly noticable. (And I don’t care if they have.) I don’t know if Pfeiffer has, only that she looks the same ridiculously stunning self as she did when younger. If not better! David Kelley is a lucky bastard.
From what I’ve read in the past, Pfeiffer once went the Botox route and decided it wasn’t something she wanted to do again. In one movie she did during that period (What Lies Beneath, I believe) you can see that her face was pretty much locked into a blank expression and her eyebrows never moved. If people like Charlize Theron, Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman have had “work” done, they must have been treated by the most insanely talented surgeons on the planet.
I have to differ re: Kidman. People are entitled to do what they want with their faces, but I always remember as an uncomfortable viewing experience watching Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, which was supposed to be this big sweeping period epic. It had enormous golden-hour closeups of her face against the Outback and it was jarring, because she had so obviously had something done that limited her range of expression. And that was over a decade ago.
Some roles I notice Kidman has work done and others less so, but my mind never is like “omg I’m so distracted”. Some actors I’m like maybe you need a touch of botox, not due to vanity reasons, but because nobody moves their forehead that much in a normal conversation.
Sorry but me thinks it’s the other way around. Theron studied at the Pfeiffer Academy..
Betty Ford was 56 when her husband became president.Michelle Pfeiffer is 62.
Between Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly, Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, and now Michelle Pfeifer as Betty Ford we’ve clearly got some weird mini-trend of gorgeous women playing famous conservatives of bygone eras.Now I want to see Salma Hayek play Elizabeth Dole.
what? Jane Curtain busy?
Paul Pfeiffer to play Boba Fett in Showtime’s The Fist Lady archeology series
I’m checkin in!
Dunston?
In the interest of medai continuity, I’d like to seethe returns of Alia Shawkat as as Frances Cleveland, Laura Linney as Abigail Adams, and Alia Shawkat as Frances Cleveland.