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EXCLUSIVE: No joke, here’s the deal, and let me be clear: Dana Carvey, fresh off his latest hilarious sendup of a doddering President Biden, will appear in the upcoming documentary Playing POTUS, from director Josh Greenbaum.
The film currently in production from EverWonder Studio in partnership with Delirio Films and Green Bomb Productions will include new interviews with Carvey, whose impressions have ranged from Joe Biden to George H.W. Bush, Ross Perot, and Bill Clinton; Maya Rudolph, currently rocking it as Kamala Harris on SNL; Alec Baldwin (Pres. Trump); Will Ferrell (Pres. George W. Bush – remember “Strategery”?), Keegan-Michael Key (Pres. Obama and his alter ego “Luther”); Jay Pharoah (also Pres. Obama); Darrell Hammond (Pres. Clinton, VP Al Gore, VP Dick Cheney), and more.
“The film will tackle the uniquely American tradition of presidential parody, a bold art form that has transformed our perceptions of real-world presidents and politicians for the past 60 years,” notes a release about the project. “[T]hese iconic impressions have an outsized and lasting impact on American politics that has gone completely unexamined…until now.”
Greenbaum, whose latest documentary Will & Harper – starring Will Ferrell and Harper Steele – in now streaming on Netflix, tells Deadline he’s discovered there is more to the tradition of presidential parodies than simply making people laugh. “I think what we find in the doc, which is in the middle of editing right now, is that it’s a pretty critical part of a healthy, functioning democracy — this interesting check on power. And it’s certainly a funny doc. That’s what I love to do, but it’s an interesting examination of this art form that really just started in earnest around JFK.”
Jimmy Kimmel, who regularly skewers Donald Trump on his late-night ABC talk show, will also appear in the film, as will Democratic political strategist James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun who helped put Bill Clinton in the White House.
“Our country’s best comics often defined the presidents they played, and Playing POTUS is a smart and funny look at the performances that shaped the last 60 years of American politics,” said Ian Orefice, CEO of EverWonder Studio, the company which financed the documentary. “Josh and Delirio Films are bringing together an unbelievable lineup of artists and political figures, and their reflections on the role this art form plays in our democracy will make you think as much as they make you laugh.”
Playing POTUS marks Greenbaum’s seventh documentary collaboration with Delirio, including the 2017 comedic documentary Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show. Playing POTUS is based on the book of the same name by Peter Funt (son of Candid Camera creator Allen Funt).
“Delirio Films is thrilled to reunite with director Josh Greenbaum and partner with EverWonder Studio on this important and never-more-relevant documentary,” said Delirio Films partners Rafael Marmor and Christopher Leggett. “The combination of Josh’s track record of wildly funny, thoughtful and nuanced documentaries and this subject feels like a real opportunity to lower our collective temperature and bring people on all sides of the political spectrum together through comedy.”
The film will also pay due attention to candidates who never quite reached the lofty office to which they aspired.
“Who could forget Tina Faye’s Sarah Palin?” Greenbaum notes. “A lot of political scientists have pointed at her impression of Sarah Palin as having a fairly severe impact on the election and on politics. You also see things in the film like where Darrell Hammond played Al Gore — and he played him in this smarmy ‘Lockbox’ [way]. We uncovered it telling our story, but they showed Al Gore that sketch the next day to say, ‘Hey, this is what you look like, so you need to change it.’ Which I don’t think is a great move to show a candidate how you’re being parodied. And I think he sort of failed even in the next debate, probably because he was in his head about it.”
Will Ferrell inaugurated his impression of “Dubya” on SNL, of course, and later starred as the 43rd POTUS in the 2009 Broadway show You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush. So, who’s the best ever at crafting a presidential parody? Greenbaum isn’t quite ready to make that executive call.
“I love them all,” he says. “If I were to tell you who everyone I interviewed most consistently said was maybe the best, most cited Dana Carvey for all of his impressions. His George W. Bush, his Perot, he’s got an amazing Biden, he’s got a great Trump, he’s incredible.”
Delirio Films, run by partners Rafael Marmor & Christopher Leggett, “has been at the forefront of premium documentary production for nearly 15 years with a particular focus on history-changing moments and icons,” the company notes. They launched Netflix’s original documentary slate with The Short Game and then marked Hulu’s launch into original documentaries with Becoming Bond and Too Funny to Fail (all directed by Greenbaum). In 2022 they released They Call Me Magic, an Apple TV+ original 4 part docuseries about Lakers legend Magic Johnson. Their most recent releases include the 2023 documentary Reggie, about baseball legend Reggie Jackson, and Will & Harper, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix.
EverWonder Studio is “a best-in-class content studio and production company across Documentary, Live, Experiential and Brand Partnerships, led by multi-Emmy-winning Producer and executive Ian Orefice (TIME Studios) and backed by legendary media executive Jeff Zucker (CNN, NBCUniversal) and RedBird IMI,” the company writes. “The studio’s focus is on nonfiction subjects with worldwide appeal, transforming them into entertainment that has purpose and impact, and then expanding those projects as businesses across platforms, screens, and experiences.”
EverWonder is teaming with Meadowlark Media on a documentary examining the dynamic relationship between tennis legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, and announced a partnership with Emma Cooper’s Empress Films to produce Who Killed Diana?, a three-part documentary series that will be the first project of a broader franchise.
