HBO announced today that Greg Kinnear has been cast as Vice President Joe Biden, America’s fun, spontaneous uncle who remains one heartbeat away from becoming its terrifying, spontaneous dad. Kinnear will play Biden in Confirmation, the cable network’s upcoming film about the contentious Clarence Thomas Senate hearings in the early ’90s. At the time, the future vice president was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tasked with presiding over the hearings where attorney Anita Hill called Thomas’ character into question with accusations of repeated sexual harassment. Biden has been accused in subsequent years of intentionally derailing Hill’s case, blocking corroborating witnesses from testifying as part of a backroom deal.
Kinnear joins a cast that already includes The Wire’s Wendell Pierce as Thomas and Scandal’s Kerry Washington as Hill. Other new cast members include Jeffrey Wright as Hill’s attorney Charles Ogletree and Jennifer Hudson as Angela Wright, one of the women who wasn’t allowed to testify.
Confirmation will be Kinnear’s first role since Fox canceled his legal dramedy Rake last year. There’s no word yet on how much of his performance as Biden will be influenced by The Onion’s classic literary hero, “Diamond” Joe Biden, but it would make sense if the then-senator made the alleged deal because he was worried about the feds raiding the secret grow operation he had running out of the Capitol Building’s coat room.