Dawn Porter (‘The Lady Bird Diaries’ director): Being first lady was a job Lady Bird Johnson ‘didn’t audition for’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“It’s a job she didn’t audition for,” declares director Dawn Porter about Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson’s view of becoming First Lady of the United States in 1963 following the assassination of then president John F. Kennedy. Lady Bird’s experiences in the White House are the focus of Porter’s new documentary “The Lady Bird Diaries.” The film, which debuted at the 2023 SXSW Festival, begins streaming November 13 on Hulu.
In an exclusive video interview with Gold Derby (watch above) Porter discusses diving into the life of one of America’s most revered first ladies and her hope that “a lot more people understand the contributions of this remarkable woman.”
Porter’s film is anchored in the first lady’s own voice. Lady Bird meticulously recorded more than 100 hours of her diaries, authorizing their release following her death in 2007. The recordings span between the death of President Kennedy thru the end of Lyndon Johnson’s term in office. In her diaries, Lady Bird offers insights and commentary on a politically volatile time in American history, including the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and assassinations of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.
In choosing to let Lady Bird’s recordings be the focus of the film, Porter describes the challenge of creating an entire film from the recordings without the use of interviews with historians or other talking heads. “I was interested in the challenge of ‘could we really do this?’,” she says. “And the reason that we could do it is because she was a very meticulous journalist.” However, Porter argues that it was equally important to allow Lady Bird’s own voice to tell her own story. “That’s because women are erased from history so often that I wanted to make that point.”
Porter hopes that people realize the importance of Lady Bird’s role as more than just a first lady. “She really professionalized the East Wing and made it what we think of it today,” she says. “But she was also a very close strategic partner for Johnson. She wrote drafts of his speeches. She critiques his speeches. She is actually the first first lady to go on a campaign tour– alone– campaigning for the president.”
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