![]() The actor's narrow face, high cheekbones, and lean physique instantly conjured Obama. And, man," Sawyers continued, shaking his head and slipping into a spot-on imitation of Obama's familiar vocal rhythms, "it was…very…slow, aaannnd talking…like…this."ĭespite Sawyers’ vocal imitation falling flat, Tanne's casting director advised him to watch Sawyers' audition with the sound off. "It was a scene where he talks about his father. ![]() In Sawyers' initial audition, however, the Indiana-born actor presented a full impersonation of the now 54-year-old President Obama's public persona, which was totally wrong for the naturalistic approach first-time director Richard Tanne was going for. His performance as the 28-year-old Harvard Law student is uncanny, filled with subtle Obama trademarks - his loping gait, his halting laugh, the way he uses his hands to cut through the air when making a point - without ever falling into caricature. Most of his previous acting credits were for small, nameless parts in films like Zero Dark Thirty and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, but in his first lead role, Sawyers needed to play the most powerful man in the world at one of the most formative moments of his life: his first date with a young lawyer named Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) on a warm Chicago summer day in 1989. … It was like, all right, I better make this guy jump off the screen."Īnd that is exactly what Sawyers did. ![]() "She told her optometrist that I had won the part," Sawyers told BuzzFeed News at the festival. But it wasn't until Sawyers' wife came home from an eye doctor appointment that the 32-year-old London-based actor fully grasped the magnitude of what he was about to attempt. ![]() Parker Sawyers knew it was a big deal when he was cast as Barack Obama in Southside With You, an independent romantic drama that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. ![]()
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