The cast of Ryan Murphy's upcoming Netflix series, The Politician, is continuing to take shape. As it turns out, the streaming show will reunite Murphy with more than one of star from American Horror Story. The great Jessica Lange has officially boarded the political satire.
Details on Jessica Lange's character are scarce. We do know one interesting tidbit about how the role was landed, though, thanks to Barbara Streisand. (Naturally.) As those following the development of The Politician may recall, Streisand was initially attached to star in the series.
Fast forward to now, and it turns out Jessica Lange has officially taken over the role that Barbara Streisand was originally set to play. Streisand made mention of the casting switch in an interview with the New Yorker in early November. Now, the casting news has been confirmed.
In boarding The Politician, Jessica Lange is joining her former American Horror Story co-star Dylan McDermott. The two crossed paths quite a bit in Season 1's Murder House, and also starred in Asylum, to later both appear in the most recent season, Apocalypse.
The actor shared that he plays a con man who has maxed out his credit cards and is living a lie. Dylan McDermott also revealed that his character reaches out to an escort service to find a date to attend an event with him. Afterward, they get married. So there are already some interesting angles to play with in that origin story.
Dylan McDermott himself provided another new casting detail. The actor revealed another star who has joined the ensemble in an interview with Entertainment Weekly Radio: Mad Men's January Jones. Who is she playing?
January Jones will play Dylan McDermott character's wife. Thankfully, the actor also dropped that tidbit about how his and Jones' character met. It's certainly some intriguing insight about the character, which sounds as though it will be a far cry from January Jones' Mad Men character, Betty Draper.
Jessica Lange and January Jones join a cast that already includes the previously announced stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Dear Evan Hansen's Ben Platt. Few exact details are known about other elements The Politician. News about the Netflix project started making the rounds a while ago, and we'll hopefully get more soon now that casting is in full swing.
The Politician is said to focus on a well-off young man from Santa Barbara, who decides its time to dive into politics. The series is part of Ryan Murphy's multi-year deal to produce original content for Netflix, a deal that commenced in July. It's a good sign for fans of his previous work that he's already tapped two American Horror Story vets for this show. Maybe Lily Rabe, Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters aren't too far behind.
A release date for The Politician has not been set yet. When it does debut, it will do so on Netflix. In the meantime, a lot of new TV content will be available to stream this fall and in the midseason.
