This year's Sundance Film Festival featured two very special cameos, from President Obama and Michelle Obama. Granted, the first couple did not fly Air Force One into Park City, but they did appear in fictionalized film form in Southside with You, Richard Tanne’s charming romance re-imagining the couple’s first date in Chicago in 1989—as the duo see Do the Right Thing, get ice cream, and attend a community meeting. But do the Obamas know about the indie homage to their first date?
During a Q&A after the film’s premiere, Tanne confirmed that the first couple are familiar with Southside with You. “We've heard from some pretty reliable sources that they are aware [of the film],” the writer-director said. “They are excited. And they are also a little baffled by its existence.”
Part of the reason for their surprise—they weren't alerted of the film during its scripting phase, because Tanne based the project entirely on information that had been made public about that first date.
“I pretty much just culled from the public-domain articles, interviews, videos. . just whatever I could get my hands on,” Tanne said. “And through the years I have been reading as many books as possible. Of course there wasn't a note taker on the dates, so you just have to extrapolate from what's there.”
“The trajectory of the date is about 90 percent accurate,” he continued. “They went to the art institute. They had lunch afterwards. They saw Do the Right Thing. They had ice cream. They kissed outside the ice cream parlor, at Baskin-Robbins. . .There was some question as to whether or not the community organizing meeting happened on the first date, or if it just happened early in the courtship but dramatically it worked, so I just put it in. Again, it's a fictionalized account, so I tried to be as authentic as possible.”
The film’s Michelle, actress Tika Sumpter, was cast early on—as an initial advocate of the project, she also served as a producer. But finding an actor to play the oft-parodied president proved harder.
“I think we put together a list of about 30 actors,” Tanne said. “Parker [Sawyers] actually came in through a taped audition. His initial audition was an impersonation of commander in chief Obama. That was exactly what we weren't looking for. So Tika actually said, ‘Turn the volume off and give it another look.’ So I did, and I looked into his eyes, and I saw that there was more there.”
Even though playing the president seems like an especially nerve-racking role, Sawyers summoned some low-stress rationale.
“This is my first lead and I live outside the country, and nobody knew me. So I just imagined that everyone would think I would suck anybody so [expectations] were really, really low,” Sawyers said to audience laughs. (And his logic seemed to help—the actor is getting rave reviews for the performance.)
Asked when they would screen Southside with You for the first couple, Tanne said, “As soon as possible. Maybe we can get them here for a screening later this week.”
Or, if their schedule is too busy, Sumpter floated the idea of a White House field trip. “We could go there for a screening,” Sumpter said. “Whatever works"
