Entertainment
The Cast Of The First Lady Looks Exactly Like Their Real-Life Counterparts
When they nailed it they really nailed it.
by Jamie Kenney
SHOWTIME
Anthology drama The First Lady follows important moments in the lives of three presidential wives: Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford, and Michelle Obama. So how did the cast do when looking like their counterparts? Let’s take a look!
Gillian Anderson as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
Anderson played longest-serving First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The actress wore prosthetic teeth, which helped her perfect Roosevelt’s unusual accent.
Anderson felt that portraying Roosevelt was different from other roles she’d had. “You don’t treat it like any other role,” she told Hollywood Outbreak. “You take it a lot more seriously and it does feel like there’s a lot more pressure. At the end of the day you show up and do your best and then you let go.”
Pfeiffer’s admiration of Ford grew as she prepared for the role: “When I got into it, I saw there was so much to Betty,” she told Variety. “It was kind of daunting because ... you want to honor them in the best way that you can.”
Davis told Vanity Fair the last thing she wanted was to upset Michelle Obama: “There’s a lot of fear that I messed up. She’s an icon. I’m mostly terrified about what she will think. I gotta make the sister look good. I just hope that it lands with her.”
Lily Rabe as Lorena “Hick” Hickok
“Hick” was a journalist and Eleanor Roosevelt’s dearest friend. The two shared an “intimate” friendship, wrote long letters to each other, and Hickok even lived in the White House.