--- title: Barack and Michelle Obama Rom-Com Gets Its President description: In a movie inspired by the president's first date with his future wife, Michelle, Southside With You canonical: https://time.com/3852121/obama-movie-actor/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-08T16:54:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:03:38.456Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Barack and Michelle Obama Rom-Com Gets Its President og:description: The movie is inspired by the president's first date with Michelle og:url: https://time.com/3852121/obama-movie-actor/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Barack and Michelle Obama Rom-Com Gets Its President twitter:description: The movie is inspired by the president's first date with Michelle twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Barack and Michelle Obama Rom-Com Gets Its President by [Jeff Labrecque / EW](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Jeff Labrecque / EW May 8, 2015 4:54 PM CUT by [Jeff Labrecque / EW](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Jeff Labrecque / EW May 8, 2015 4:54 PM CUT Parker Sawyers, who had small roles in _Zero Dark Thirty_ and _Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit_ and recently completed Oliver Stone’s _Snowden_, will portray Barack Obama in _Southside With You_, inspired by the story of the president’s first date with Michelle Robinson, who would go on to become his wife. Tika Sumpter (_Get on Up_) had previously been announced as Michelle. The year was 1989, and 27-year-old Harvard law student Barack Obama was back in Chicago working as a summer associate for the Sidley Austin law firm. His office advisor was Michelle, who initially rebuffed his invitations to go out on a date. She finally relented, and on a summer afternoon and evening, they visited the Art Institute of Chicago, saw Spike Lee’s _Do the Right Thing_, and kissed for the first time outside of an ice cream parlor. Richard Tanne wrote the screenplay and will make his directorial debut. Shooting begins in Chicago in August. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/07/parker-sawyers-cast-young-barack-obama "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com/ "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3852121/obama-movie-actor/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3852121/obama-movie-actor/"},"headline":"Barack and Michelle Obama Rom-Com Gets Its President","datePublished":"2015-05-08T16:54:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:03:38.456Z","description":"The movie is inspired by the president's first date with Michelle","url":"https://time.com/3852121/obama-movie-actor/","keywords":["Barack Obama","movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeff Labrecque / EW"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3852121/obama-movie-actor/","name":"Barack and Michelle Obama Rom-Com Gets Its President"}}]}] ```