Emmy winner Kiefer Sutherland has joined the cast of Showtime’s The First Lady as President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The 24 star is the latest to join a high-profile cast of stars in the biographical series about three of America’s first ladies.
Produced by Lionsgate and Showtime, The First Lady will “peel back the curtain on the personal and political lives of three unique, enigmatic women, tracing their journeys to Washington through interweaving storylines with an enlightening intimacy,” with the first season focusing on Michelle Obama, Betty Ford, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Sutherland joins Gillian Anderson as first lady and activist Eleanor, as well as Oscar-winner Viola Davis, who is playing Michelle Obama and executive producing the series, and Michelle Pfeiffer who will play Betty Ford.
Exploring the life-changing decisions made by America’s first ladies within the walls of the White House, The First Lady is a “revelatory reframing of American leadership, told through the lens of the women at the heart of the [presidency]”. Sutherland will play America’s longest-serving president, whose wife Eleanor was not only an open civil rights activist, but also convinced her husband to remain in politics after a bout of polio left him paralyzed below the waist.
The team for the scripted anthology series is, appropriately, comprised primarily of women, with Cathy Schulman serving as showrunner and executive producing alongside Davis, along with Susanne Bier, who will direct all of the first season. The series was created by Aaron Cooley (Four Seats: A Thriller of the Supreme Court), who will write several of the episodes as well as executive produce.
The First Lady will also star O-T Fagbenle as Barack Obama, Aaron Eckhart as Gerald Ford, and Dakota Fanning as Susan Elizabeth Ford. No release date or further information has been revealed about the series.
via Collider