On Inauguration Day in 2021, Melania Trump left Washington as first lady. She wore a blue-and-orange caftan, a pair of navy flats and a face-swallowing pair of sunglasses — the fashion equivalent of an out-of-office message. Given that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, had not yet been rewritten, she and her husband were as close to becoming a pair of political pariahs as they would ever get.
Things change, she wants you to know.
With her new movie, “Melania,” the trailer for which was released on Wednesday, Mrs. Trump is asserting direct and creative control over her story. In just over a minute, she tells Americans, who have at times been mystified by her actions, exactly how she wants to be seen.
“Here we go again,” a (slightly) smiling Mrs. Trump says into the camera, a military aide on her arm and a wide-brimmed hat on her head, as she heads into Donald J. Trump’s second swearing-in ceremony. This time, with her eyes partially obscured and the curl of her lips visible, there is no question which history-making first lady she most resembles: herself.
Barron Trump, her 19-year-old son, appears in the trailer in flashes. He is living in Washington and attending college these days, and raising him had been the central pursuit of Mrs. Trump’s first-term life. Now that he is grown, a few of her other priorities are coming into view.
The first lady appears to viewers as an involved and assertive force in her husband’s life, though only when she wants to be. In one snapshot from the trailer, Mr. Trump is rehearsing his inauguration speech, and he decides to wave the camera crew into the room.
“My proudest legacy will be that of peacemaker,” Mr. Trump says, reading from the script. His wife interjects. “Peacemaker and unifier,” she stresses. Her influence on him is real, confidants of the Trumps say, but he does not take every piece of her advice as gospel. As president, Mr. Trump has tried to end wars, but has not yet pursued much in the way of unity.
In what is perhaps the trailer’s most interesting moment, she phones her husband from Trump Tower. “Hi, Mr. President. Congratulations,” she says into the phone. He asks her if she watched whatever she was congratulating him about. Her office did not respond to questions about what the event was. Either way, she was not watching live.
“I will see it on the news,” she tells him.
The movie is directed by Brett Ratner, a director and producer behind movies like “Rush Hour” and “The Revenant.” Just as “Melania” serves to help Mrs. Trump assert control over her story, the project is a redemption vehicle of sorts for Mr. Ratner, who in 2017 was accused of sexual misconduct by six women in an article published by The Los Angeles Times, claims that he denied. Paramount has also recently shown interest in distributing “Rush Hour 4” — reportedly at Mr. Trump’s request, with Mr. Ratner at the helm.
Importantly for Mrs. Trump, she is no longer the first lady perhaps best remembered for fumbling a visit during her husband’s first term to detained migrant children on the border, wearing a jacket emblazoned with “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” on the back as she boarded an airplane.
In the movie trailer, she is portrayed as in control and assertive, weighing in on her husband’s speeches and sketches for gowns. Set to swelling instrumental music and introduced with the iconic roar of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion — a feline now held in captivity by Amazon Prime, the movie’s distributor — “Melania” is meant to explore the days leading up to Mr. Trump’s second inauguration. In 2017, a cashmere-draped Mrs. Trump had a deer-in-headlights look about her as her husband was sworn in.
That day, she had been worried about security, about her son adjusting to life in Washington and about evoking an image of Jacqueline Kennedy, a woman whose physical presence she had wanted to emulate as first lady.
Things change.
“My fans and people would love to hear more from me,” she said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” before returning to the White House. “Right now, it’s a day-to-day life. What I’m doing. What kind of responsibilities I have,” she said about the crux of the movie.
“History is set in motion during the 20 days of my life prior to the U.S. presidential inauguration,” Mrs. Trump said in a statement to Fox, which was shared by her office. “For the first time, global audiences are invited into theaters to witness this pivotal chapter unfold — a private, unfiltered look as I navigate family, business and philanthropy on my remarkable journey to becoming first lady of the United States of America.”
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
The post ‘Here We Go Again’: In Melania Trump’s Movie, This Time She Knows What She’s Doing appeared first on New York Times.
