This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Tika Sumpter was determined to put the story of Barack and Michelle Obama's first date on the screen — whether she got to play Michelle Robinson or not.
"I was just inspired by the love story… seeing these two not as we know them now, but from before," Sumpter said Sunday, after the world premiere of "Southside With You," at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
The movie is set in 1989, and depicts the first date between Michelle, then an associate at a corporate law firm in Chicago, and Barack, a newly minted lawyer working the summer at the same firm.
Writer-director Richard Tanne drew from interviews given by the Obamas over the years, so the events of the date — going to an art exhibit, seeing "Do the Right Thing," having their first kiss while getting ice cream — are accurate. As for the conversations, Tanne said, "you just have to extrapolate from what's there."
For a good dramatic arc, Tanne also included a scene where Barack spoke at a community-organizing meeting — though he's not sure whether that meeting happened on the first date or later in their courtship.
Sumpter was involved from the beginning, and is one of the film's producers. Finding the actor to play a young Barack Obama went through a casting process in which Tanne and casting director Tracy "Twinkie" Bird considered 30 actors.
One of the actors was a newcomer, Parker Sawyers, who sent an audition tape in which he gave an impersonation of Obama today. It was awful, Sawyers and Tanne agreed, but Bird suggested that Tanne watch it with the sound off. Sawyers had the look, and Tanne called him to send a second tape, with one instruction: "You're just a guy trying to get a girl."
The Obamas know about the movie, Tanne said. "They're excited, and a little baffled, by its existence," he said.
— Sean P. Means