The lineup of Viola Davis as Michelle Obama for a new show gets some early outsiders and in the same breath … some early ridicule for the obvious choice of character she made.
The Showtime series “The First Lady” debuted on Sunday and it seems that some people on Twitter have already received some initial flashes of Viola, who plays Michelle … and some are wondering why it seems the actress is constantly pursed lips in front of the camera.
One scene in particular attracted a lot of eyeballs and people spend a day in the field with memes and jokes about Viola seeming to constantly put on an exaggerated duck face while talking to Barack Obama on television.
There is another scene that appears that shows Viola posing for a photo shoot and there she also seems to be shaking in the pose of a kiss with devotion.
Although it is not clear whether Viola retains this facial expression during the show – as far as we know, these are the only two scenes that are currently circulating – it seems that she evokes the movement of the lips and later in the series. Proven in footage that Viola herself posted on social media over the past few weeks.
Michelle really pursed her lips at times … but it seems that Viola may have thought this was central to her being, because so far – it sounds like she’s doing a lot for TFL.
As for how critics feel about it … it’s not good on this front either. The First Lady has a 40% Rotten Tomatoes rating of 20 different professionals who have weighed so far. These reviews don’t always reflect the quality of a movie or show, but the industry doesn’t seem very excited about what they’ve done here to tell Michelle’s story.
As we said, the show started airing today – so don’t hesitate to check it out for yourself. There will be 10 episodes of this show, so maybe it will get … better? Time will tell.
FWIW, Viola took this role seriously – despite what people online could say / think now that she came out – and even said she was nervous and wanted to make MO look good.
In February, VD was quoted as saying … “You don’t want to offend them with your image … As much as we feel we know Michelle Obama – and I did my best to investigate – there are those personal moments where there’s something a level of creative decision-making that you have to make … There are small details that I can just take a creative license with and I hope I’m not offending her with that. That’s what you need to orient yourself as an artist. “
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