It’s not every day you hear about a casting announcement and think “Why haven’t they thought of this before?” But that’s what we thought when we saw that Sigourney Weaver was set to play a divorced, former First Lady who becomes the Secretary of State. A role that is such a blatant fan-fiction/alternate universe version of Hillary Clinton, and no one is even bothering to deny it. Love it. Love it.
Weaver will be making her TV series debut as Elaine Barrish, who “throws herself into the job” following the split from her husband, a former president. The series Political Animals, which will run on the USA Network (where characters are welcome!), will also focus on Elaine’s relationship with her twin sons — one of whom, Doug, is her chief of staff, the other is a drug addict. The former will be played by James Wolk (Happy Endings), but it’s not mentioned whether he’s doing double duty as his own identical twin. Doug’s fiancee will be played by Brittany Ishibashi (Parenthood, Fairly Legal).
Now let’s discuss the kickassery of Sigourney Weaver taking this role. She certanly won’t be the first to play a high-profile woman in office (see: Geena Davis as POTUS in ABC‘s Commander-in-Chief), nor will she be a high-powered woman dealing with a crumbling marriage in the world of politics (see: Julianna Marguiles in CBS‘s The Good Wife). And while neither of those examples are lightweights by any means, the casting of someone who has made her career playing women in places we rarely see women adds so much credibility and believability to this role. Because seriously, who wouldn’t buy the women who played Ellen Ripley and Grace Augustine playing one of the globe’s most important power brokers and the highest-ranking member of the President’s cabinet?
And now, let’s talk about how this is so obviously about Hillary Clinton. Pretty much everyone wants to see what would happen it the current Secretary of State, former presidential candidate, former New York Senator, and former FLOTUS kick Bill Clinton to the curb. We get it. But even if they were ready to call it quits (because we at The Mary Sue totally consider ourselves reliable predictors of divorces for former occupants of high, high political offices … no, we don’t), doesn’t it seem like, despite having all the reasons in the world to divorce, they just can’t be bothered with it? Both have nothing to worry about careerwise, married or not. So … meh, they’ll just stay married. Less paperwork.
But that obviously hasn’t stopped USA’s Greg Berlanti (who wrote the Political Animals pilot and will direct it) from imagining how crazy it would be if the Clintons did split up and what would happen if Hillary just struck out on her own while having to deal with all of that mess. What would happen to her? We wouldn’t see her falter in public, for sure. And Weaver’s Elaine Barrish would probably be a likely candidate to keep a cool head through her ordeal while trying not to fall apart in private. Because even the strongest woman is not immune to emotions.
So now, we get Hillary Clinton fan fiction. Acted out by Sigourney Weaver. I’ll allow it.
(The Hollywood Reporter via Think Progress)
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