Whoopi Goldberg and Vanessa Williams begin filming Netflix comedy Women Like Us

Whoopi Goldberg and Vanessa Williams have begun filming Women Like Us, a Netflix comedy drama that brings four established stars together for an emotionally complicated weekend away. Jenifer Lewis and Vivica A. Fox complete the leading cast, with Tasha Smith directing.

The film follows a recently widowed woman whose lifelong friends and sister take her to the Hamptons. Their break coincides with what would have been her 30th wedding anniversary, giving the trip a significance that cannot simply be left behind when the bags are packed.

What follows is a confrontation with grief, marriage and the friendships that have carried the women through earlier stages of their lives. Alongside the difficult conversations, the story makes room for comedy and ambitions that have not disappeared with age.

The ensemble is central to that premise, with the women’s shared history shaping the weekend. This is a story about people who already know one another well, arriving at a moment when familiar relationships are being tested by a major loss.

Netflix announced that production was under way on 25 September and released a photograph of the four stars with their director. The update moves the project beyond its earlier casting announcement and into filming.

Women Like Us is a joint production involving Netflix, Higher Ground and MACRO Film Studios. Higher Ground is the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, while MACRO develops and finances work centred on Black voices and people of colour.

Ali Kinney wrote the screenplay, with additional writing from Tracy Oliver. Michelle Obama is an executive producer for Higher Ground, alongside Charles D. King for MACRO.

James Lopez and Poppy Hanks are producing for MACRO, with Anikah McLaren and Mark R. Wright producing for Higher Ground. The collaboration puts a substantial creative team behind a film built around women’s experiences of friendship and starting again.

A release date has not been announced, and the production update does not assign the four leads to named characters. The confirmed premise places their relationships at the centre, with an anniversary that should have celebrated a marriage instead becoming the setting for a different kind of reckoning.