Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorMichelle Pfeiffer didn’t know much about Betty Ford before she signed on to play her in the new Showtime anthology series “The First Lady.”“I really only knew about, of course, the Betty Ford Center, which is I think what she’s the most famous for,” Pfeiffer told me at the show’s premiere on Thursday at the DGA building in Los Angeles. “And I knew that she came out and was open and transparent about her own issues with substance abuse and alcoholism, which was very, very taboo at the time.

And she was discouraged from doing so. And she came out and spoke candidly and transparently about her breast cancer and about mental illness.”Pfeiffer’s admiration for Ford grew while preparing for the role before transforming into the presidential spouse, who became first lady in 1974 when Gerald Ford was sworn in as president following Richard Nixon’s resignation amid the Watergate scandal. “I think people really trusted her and she was one of the most popular first ladies ever.

Because people really trusted her. And because of her, her kind of lifting the veil of shame on a lot of these taboo subjects, it allowed other people to talk about them, and to come out and get the help that they needed.”She added, “When I got into it, I saw much there was to Betty … It was kind of daunting because, when you’re playing a real person, especially one who is so revered and historical, you want to honor them in the best way that you can.”Pfeiffer and her co-stars also shared some of the more challenging work they faced for their portrayals.“She had this kind of odd speech pattern,” Pfeiffer said of Ford. “It was a couple of different regions kind of mixed together.

‘The First Lady’ Stars Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson on Becoming Michelle Obama, Betty Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt

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