UPDATE: On Monday, Feb. 22, Showtime confirmed that Gillian Anderson will portray Eleanor Roosevelt in the upcoming anthology series, The First Lady. In addition to Anderson, who will play the longest serving First Lady, the Showtime show stars Viola Davis and Michelle Pfeiffer.
“Gillian Anderson is an actress of incredible range and exquisite talent – she is the perfect choice to complete this powerhouse trio, who will inhabit the roles of these iconic women,” Amy Israel, Executive Vice President of scripted programming at Showtime stated. “It’s inspiring to have Gillian, Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susanne Bier and Cathy Schulman at the forefront of THE FIRST LADY.
This role comes after Anderson’s critically acclaimed portrayal of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on The Crown. She is also known for her work in The X-Files, Sex Education, The Fall and more.
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The first ladies are beginning to line up.
Just in time for yesterday’s inauguration, Showtime has announced that Michelle Pfeiffer has joined the cast of its anthology drama The First Lady. She’ll play Betty Ford, and is the first announced cast member after Viola Davis, who is playing Michelle Obama.
Now you might be saying “What?!” to that part of the news, which would be fully understandable due to the fact that Viola Davis was cast as Michelle Obama back in February 2020. It’s very, very hard to remember things that happened in February 2020, since we’ve all lived approximately one decade in the past one year.
We’ll never complain about getting to enjoy good news twice, though, so bring on this series stat. Hopefully the costume department is already working on a recreation of her stunning inaugural look.
