A new trailer has dropped for the Starz limited series Gaslit, a unique take on the Watergate scandal of the 1970s starring Julia Roberts.
Roberts plays Martha Mitchell, a vocal Arkansan socialite with a mouth that is even bigger than her larger-than-life personality. She is also the spouse of President Richard Nixon’s loyal Attorney General, John Mitchell, played by Sean Penn, a relationship that becomes strained once Martha becomes the first whistleblower of the scandal that forced the president’s resignation and shocked a nation.
From All the President’s Men to Frost/Nixon, film adaptations of the Watergate scandal and its aftermath have included approaching it from the point of view of journalists to Nixon himself.
But a too-often forgotten part of history is the fact that Martha, despite being affiliated with Nixon’s party, was the first public figure to sound the alarm to the press about the scandal, in which a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters had ties to Nixon’s re-election campaign. The President later attempted to cover up the theft of documents and wiretapping of phones at the Washington, DC hotel.
The miniseries, based upon a true crime podcast called Slow Burn, will also explore other overlooked aspects of the incident, from Nixon’s fumbling and manipulative subordinates to the fanatical followers of the President who aided and abetted in the crimes.
But most of all, the series will examine how Martha’s personal life and the Presidency itself unraveled in the fall out of her refusal to keep quiet.
Gaslit comes to Starz on April 24.
