I suppose that the casting of Viola Davis as Michelle Obama was always bound to lead to catastrophe. Like two suns battling to see who can shine the brightest, here we have women hailing from the same Obama-era cultural lineage of unimpeachable Black Excellence, converging in Showtime’s The First Lady.
Still from 'The First Lady'/Showtime
Davis stars as Lady Obama turning in what should’ve been another Emmy-baiting performance in the exhausted genre of prestige dramas that excavate history to pander to our current political climate. Instead, Davis gives a bemusing interpretation of the former first lady that harkens back to the early days of Obama’s public life when anti-Black, misogynoir political caricaturists overexaggerated her physical features. There’s Davis’ wonky attempt at Obama’s Chicago-reared accent, her razor-thin eyebrows, and her mouth. Oh my God, her mouth.
Davis’ insistence on basing her entire transformation into Obama on fixing her mouth in a permanent scrunched position — even as she’s speaking — leads me to side with the theory that some fans on Twitter have proposed that there must be friction between the two ladies.
— paul (@paulswhtn) April 17, 2022
Davis’ performance — as cringe as it is — however, is less relevant to what led to her accepting the role. Within the past decade, since being catapulted into fame by her role in How to Get Away With Murder, an air of regalness has been bestowed upon Davis that’s only rivaled by the woman who once resided in the most esteemed house in the country. Davis’ awards acceptance speeches often have the energizing force of a motivational speech. Her voice alone can easily oscillate between a tranquil balm to a powerful near-Shakespearean soliloquy.
On paper, her casting as Michelle Obama made sense because she is Michelle Obama. She is the vision of aspirational Black womanhood that has emerged in the last decade. As a graduate of the Shonda Rhimes School of Strong Female Leads which produces characters who speak primarily in monologues, you can easily hear Davis’ voice saying Obama’s famous mantra, “When they go low we go high.”
Still from 'The First Lady'/Showtime
So it's no wonder why Davis, who also executive produces The First Lady, chose to take on this role. She faced (much lighter) criticism when she took on the role of legendary blues singer Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom because of her choice to wear a fat suit rather than, as an EP, give the role to an actress who didn’t need prosthetics to play the role. But it’s a testament to Davis’ stature that even as many people derided her Ma Rainey and Obama performances, they still show reverence towards the Oscar award-winning actress.
In perhaps an ironic twist of fate, Davis’ memoir Finding Me – a book that revives the same feelings of Black excellence as exemplified through wealth accumulation and "overcoming the odds" that Obama’s Becoming does – comes out shortly after the release of The First Lady.
A memoir is always an easy way for a public figure to affirm their place in history. And the place where Davis finds herself is one that can only be rivaled by American royalty.
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Featured image still via The First Lady/Showtime
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak
