What To Know
- Carolyn Bessette heads to the Kennedy compound for the first time in Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette Episode 5.
- Carolyn and Ethel Kennedy, played by Jessica Harper, have a tense first meeting.
- Executive producer Brad Simpson spoke with TV Insider about bringing such a pivotal family moment to life.
When it comes to intimidating families, the Kennedys are at the top of the list. In the February 26 episode of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon) takes her first trip to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port and gets her first taste of the Kennedys’ intense family dinners. (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)
John (Paul Anthony Kelly) lightly warns Carolyn to call his aunt “Mrs. Kennedy” and not by her first name. Ethel (Jessica Harper), Robert F. Kennedy’s longtime widow, is now the “undisputed matriarch” of the family after Jackie’s death, and Carolyn sees that firsthand at dinner. With Carolyn sitting away from John, Ethel zeroes in on the new person at the table, first calling out the shawl Carolyn’s wearing.
When the discussion turns to trade embargoes and senate seats, Carolyn is adrift, but John doesn’t step in to help. The Calvin Klein publicist isn’t prepared to talk geopolitics with her boyfriend’s family, and John certainly didn’t tell her to study up for Ethel’s grilling (a “hazing,” in Carolyn’s eyes).
TV Insider spoke with executive producer Brad Simpson about Carolyn’s first moments with the ultimate Kennedy matron and how accurate that dinner really was to real life.
“We knew that Carolyn had a complicated relationship with the Kennedy compound,” Simpson said. “She went there a lot. I’m sure she had tons of good memories there, but it was a very specific place with a very specific set of rules. This becomes even more prevalent in Episode 8 when they actually fight about the rules. She very much felt on display there. She was married to the crown prince of the Kennedy family. Everyone’s a cousin in the Kennedy family, but he was the ultimate cousin.”
FX
He continued, “John, who had lived a charmed life in many ways, didn’t fully prepare Carolyn for what it was like, and so it’s accurately depicted there for him. Everyone’s always great to him, and everything’s always fine, but the things we depict are true. He didn’t tell her that Ethel did move the bags around and not want them to sleep in the same room. He didn’t prepare her that she should study up on magazines like Foreign Affairs, other things that are not in most people’s vernacular, and that they were going to be quizzed at dinner. You had to be prepared at dinner to answer questions and be on the hot seat, and he didn’t tell her things, like there was a sign-up for breakfast every day. We pulled this from a lot of research, but really, on her first couple of trips there, she really didn’t feel well prepared.”
Simpson further explained that “Hyannis Port had a very specific set of rules,” and everyone was jockeying to make a good impression. At the time, the family was “ruled by Ethel,” who Simpson said was “benevolent” and “had certain ideas of how people should do stuff. She was the ultimate matriarch of the family, played so beautifully by Jessica Harper. We’re so happy to get her.”
The family weekend doesn’t get any easier for Carolyn, who is caught off guard when John asks her to marry him on a fishing boat. Carolyn doesn’t immediately accept. She believes they need to work out how their lives “really fit together” before they take this leap. And after what she’s just experienced with his family and the fame that comes with being a Kennedy, her hesitation is understandable.
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, Thursdays, FX and Hulu
