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Home • 2019 ESSENCE Festival

The Cast Of 'The First Wives Club' On Joining The Series: 'When Tracy Oliver Calls, You Put On Your Best Bra And Audition'

The cast of the upcoming BET series stopped by the 2019 Essence Festival to treat fans to a special screening and panel.
The Cast Of 'The First Wives Club' On Joining The Series: 'When Tracy Oliver Calls, You Put On Your Best Bra And Audition'
Photo by Ryan Theriot/Getty Images for BET Essence Festival Weekend
By Sydney Scott · Updated December 6, 2020

We’re not sure how much longer we can wait for Tracy Oliver’s The First Wives Club remake to hit BET’s new streaming service, but, thankfully, we were treated to a little taste of what’s to come.

The stars of the series: Michelle Buteau, Ryan Michelle Bathe, and RonReaco Lee, stopped by Essence Fest over the weekend to treat fans to a special screening and panel.

The new First Wives Club, which will also star Jill Scott, is helmed by Girls Trip writer Tracy Oliver. The highly anticipated remake was announced in 2017.

“Equality, female empowerment, diversity, Black women doing things, friendship, relationships, all those things,” Michelle Buteau said when asked why she joined the series. “Also, Tracy Oliver. When Tracy Oliver’s like, ‘I’m writing a show, it’s a reboot, do you want to audition?’ You put on your best bra and go audition.”

Article continues after video.

Opening up about The First Wives Club in an interview with ESSENCE, Oliver said, “What I can say is that this will feature Black women. That was something that I was really excited about. I love The First Wives movie, but to me if I was going to do it and have my voice and what I’m passionate about being put into the show, it has to be personal to me, so it’s going to be an all-Black cast.”

We can’t wait.

TOPICS:  the first wives club