Viewers are getting their first look at Viola Davis’s turn as Michelle Obama in a forthcoming starstudded TV drama after Showtime released a trailer for “The First Lady” on Thursday.
The “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” star portrays Obama on the show, while Michelle Pfeiffer takes on the role of Betty Ford and “The Crown’s” Gillian Anderson plays Eleanor Roosevelt.
The premium TV network called the 10-episode series a “revelatory reframing of American leadership, told through the lens of the women at the heart of the White House.”
The show will feature interweaving storylines in an effort to “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,” Showtime said.
In the promotional spot for the series, Davis’s Obama is seen skeptically asking, “They want to turn me into a Black Martha Stewart?” In another scene, the Academy Award winner says, “The world is always going to judge us.”
In addition to the big names taking on the roles of past first ladies, a high-profile lineup plays former commanders in chief, with Kiefer Sutherland as Franklin Roosevelt, Aaron Eckhart as Gerald Ford and “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” O-T Fagbenle as Barack Obama.
“The First Lady” is set to premiere April 17 on Showtime.