John Legend helps bring Obamas' first-date story to big screen

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The "Southside with You" movie about a young Barack and Michelle Obama's first date opens Friday, and music great John Legend helped bring the story to the big screen.

"I thought it's a great love story, you know they've been seen as political figures for so long now and they've lived these really big lives, but I love that it's a small, simple, subtle, first-date movie," said Legend, an executive producer.

Legend said anyone in a relationship or has ever been in one will "have a sense of nostalgia for those innocent moments of your first date."

He even wrote a song inspired by the Obama's first date, which is similar to the one he did for the movie "Selma."

"The film is subtle and sweet and intimate and I wanted the song to have that sense of intimacy so I even sang it in a whispering voice so that it would have that sense of closeness, just me on the piano," Legend said.

Legend said the film isn't about the couple's ideology and politics, though he notes that he enjoys seeing the scenes of Barack Obama speaking in front of a church where Legend says the viewer can see the beginnings of a great orator.

"It's about their humanity," Legend said. "It's about an inspirational couple going on a first date and I think the left and the right can enjoy it if they open their minds to it."