Particular criticism has been directed at the film 's accuracy in portraying President Ronald Reagan. While Alan Rickman 's performance generated positive reviews, the director and screenwriters of the film have been criticized for depicting Reagan as indifferent to civil rights and his reluctance to associate with the White House 's black employees during his presidency. According to Michael Reagan, the former president 's son, "The real story of the White House butler does n't imply racism at all. It 's simply Hollywood liberals wanting to believe something about my father that was never there. '' Paul Kengor, one of President Reagan 's biographers, also attacked the film, saying, "I 've talked to many White House staff, cooks, housekeepers, doctors, and Secret Service over the years. They are universal in their love of Ronald Reagan. '' In regard to the president 's initial opposition to sanctions against apartheid in South Africa, Kengor said, "Ronald Reagan was appalled by apartheid, but also wanted to ensure that if the apartheid regime collapsed in South Africa that it was n't replaced by a Marxist - totalitarian regime allied with Moscow and Cuba that would take the South African people down the same road as Ethiopia, Mozambique, and, yes, Cuba. In the immediate years before Reagan became president, 11 countries from the Third World, from Asia to Africa to Latin America, went Communist. It was devastating. If the film refuses to deal with this issue with the necessary balance, it should n't deal with it at all. ''
who plays ronald reagan in lee daniels the butler
Alan Rickman