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Is The Residence Based on a True Story? Here’s the Real Inspiration Behind Shonda Rhimes' Netflix Murder Mystery
Netflix’s The Residence brings a murder mystery to the White House, but is it based on real events? Here’s what’s real and what’s made up.
Shonda Rhimes’s new Netflix series, The Residence, is now streaming, bringing a murder mystery set inside the White House. But is the story based on real events?
While no known murders have occurred at the White House, the show is loosely inspired by real-life stories of the residence’s staff, as detailed in Kate Andersen Brower’s book, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House as per Town & Country.
The Netflix series is based on Brower’s 2015 book, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of butlers, maids, chefs, and other White House staff. Brower, a former White House correspondent, conducted interviews with those who worked closely with U.S. presidents and their families.
“The idea came to me in 2013 because Michelle Obama had this lunch for the female reporters who covered her, the East Wing reporters,” Brower told Bethesda Magazine in 2021.
“There were about a dozen of us, and this butler came in and he was serving us this really elegant meal. Michelle Obama was on a first-name basis with him, and they had this rapport like he was almost part of their family.”
Unlike the book, which focuses on the real-life experiences of White House staff, the Netflix series adds a fictional murder mystery.
The show follows detective Cordelia Cupp, played by Uzo Aduba, as she investigates a crime that takes place during a state dinner. With over 150 potential suspects, including world leaders and celebrities, the story unfolds in a dramatic but entirely made-up way.
While The Residence is a work of fiction, there was a historical event that came close to a White House murder. In 1859, Congressman Daniel E. Sickles shot and killed U.S. District Attorney Philip Barton Key in Lafayette Square, just outside the White House.
Key was having an affair with Sickles’s wife, and before pulling the trigger, Sickles reportedly shouted, “You villain! You have dishonored my house and you must die!”
Many of the show’s characters are inspired by real White House workers, but not all are direct representations of actual people. One example is White House chief usher A.B. Wynter, played by Giancarlo Esposito. It is unclear if his character is based on a real individual or a mixture of several historical figures.
Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Jasmine Haney in the series, admitted that she had no clue what a Chief Usher was or an Assistant Usher until she started working on the show. She later learned from Brower’s book that these roles involve managing the household and ensuring the residence runs smoothly.
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