The Accuracy Of The Comey Rule Casting Is Downright Eerie

How soon is too soon? With the 2020 presidential election less than six weeks away, there is a certain amount of nauseating deja vu happening with the return of several key players from the 2016 presidential election: James Comey, for instance. Because even though we’re currently still living through the havoc wreaked by Trump’s win, Showtime has already drummed up a two-part drama series chronicling the events leading up to his victory and the tumultuous days and months afterward, as seen through the eyes of the former FBI Director. The Comey Rule is based on Comey’s 2018 memoir, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, which called our current president “unethical … and untethered to truth and institutional values." In the book, Comey also asserts that "his leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty."

Written and directed by Billy Ray (who wrote and directed based-on-a-true-story films Shattered Glass and Breach), The Comey Rule relies heavily upon its actors to bring well-documented public figures to life in ways both disturbingly accurate and entertaining.

Jeff Daniels plays Comey, adopting his serious and deadpan demeanor, opposite Brendan Gleeson, who plays a menacing Trump. Other actors of note include Holly Hunter as acting Attorney General Sally Yates, T. R. Knight as former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and Joe Lo Truglio as Jeff Sessions. Here, we take a look at the incredibly eerie transformations these and other Oscar and Emmy winners underwent in order to bring our stranger-than-fiction reality to the screen.