New digital content from the White House released Thursday morning featured a conversation between President Joe Biden and a series of actors and actresses who have played presidents on television or in movies, offering advice to the real president on his State of the Union address.
“I’ve never spoken to so many presidents all at one time,” Biden said from Camp David, where he spent the weekend doing prep with top aides.
He spoke with Morgan Freeman, Tony Goldwyn, Geena Davis, Michael Douglas and Bill Pullman in a virtual call.
“Well sir, in my capacity as president, all I had to deal with was a meteor. One of the things that I came out of that with in my speech to the people: Hope. Hope is the strongest force we have in this country. It is the most useful and most effective,” Freeman said, reflecting on his time in the film “Deep Impact.”
Goldwyn acknowledged that he “behaved very badly” as president in the aptly named TV show “Scandal,” but offered Biden this advice: “Tell them that you exist for them – tell them that they make you a better man.”
Pullman offered his insight: “We can’t be consumed by our petty differences and we will be united in our common interests.”
And Davis took a page from her iconic turn in “A League of Their Own”: “There is no crying in politics,” she said.
Biden invited the “ex-presidents” to the White House and said he would love to meet them in person.
