Paul Kelly on Playing JFK Jr. in “Love Story” as Ryan Murphy’s Modern Mythology Continues

It started with American Horror Story. 

The Ryan Murphy-penned series, now approaching its thirteenth season, was the catalyst for the sprawling American Story franchise, which now counts five “spin-off” series in its ranks. In addition to the aforementioned American Horror Story, the franchise includes American Horror Stories (an anthology series that serves as a companion to AHS), as well as American Crime Story, American Sports Story, and — as of today — Love Story. 

While the two horror series are (predictably) fantastical, American Crime Story and American Sports Story blur the line between real and imagined, filtering true American epics through the lens of fiction. Past iterations have portrayed OJ Simpson’s murder trial, the impeachment of Bill Clinton, and the “rise and fall” of NFL player Aaron Hernandez. In fact, this ethos extends into other Murphy projects like Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, which chronicles the legendary fallout amongst New York City’s high society as circles unravelled after the 1975 publication of Truman Captoe’s La Côte Basque.

As Feud writer Jon Robin Baitz put it, Murphy’s work weaves “a strange alternate history of America here. It’s the ‘American Berserk,’ as Philip Roth called it. Nobody has captured that intersection between beauty, death, horror and corruption the same way.” Collaging pop culture’s most consequential moments, Murphy’s œuvre takes its cues from late-night television segments, tabloids, and gossip fodder of decades past.

With Love Story, an eight-episode recreation of the explosive romance between John F Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, Murphy finds himself in familiar territory. Inspired, like several of its sister series, by headlines of the past, Love Story retells a famous romance in service of Murphy’s modern-day mythology. 

“With John being a Kennedy, legacy is kind of built into [the series],” says actor Paul Kelly. Stepping into Love Story, Kelly plays a convincing John F Kennedy Jr. He threads the needle between charismatic and calculated, dodging paparazzi as he pursues Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon). 

“The script was ever-changing,” Kelly says. “We only got so much, at certain times, so you kind of had to infer.” There’s a sense of this on-screen. Cameras linger on quiet rooms and closed lips. Yet the story never shies away from intensity, either; nothing feels untold.

“[John] really tried to make his own mark on the world. [He’s] honouring the legacy, but not necessarily living up to the direct expectations imposed upon him.”Paul Kelly

“The story follows them as they’re navigating their relationships, family, friends, their own relationship, their relationship to the public, to the press,” Kelly elaborates. In fact, reporters and daily gossip columns are supporting actors, manufacturing enough drama to make today’s smartphones and social media — two rare tragedies that Kennedy and Bessette escaped — feel tame. Standing in the midst of a media storm, the relationship “gets a little more complex,” Kelly says, adding: “and I think we do a pretty good job of exploring that. They’re just wonderful people.”

In fact, as it follows the young Kennedy, Love Story inevitably explores JFK Jr.’s own foray into media: George Magazine. Published from 1995 to 2001, JFK Jr. founded George with the tagline “Not Just Politics As Usual.” Born from a tug-of-war between celebrity and politics, the magazine contextualizes JFK Jr.’s unique position at the centre of both worlds. More than once, Kelly’s JFK Jr. pitches the publication as a marriage between entertainment and news. In the context of today’s twenty-four hour ‘infotainment’ era, Kennedy’s idea sounds like almost like a premonition.

JFK Jr. had “different aspirations” than his family, Kelly says. “The thing that I learned about John, what really carried me through, was that he strove to go about it his own way.” On screen, the Kennedy-Bessette relationship seems to parallel the constant conflict between Bessette’s world — of fashion and celebrity — and the poise and politics that characterize the Kennedys. Professional goals clash with personal ones.

As Kennedy and Bessette wilted under the spotlight, the George Magazine founder grappled with an increasing overlap between private and public life. Was his media venture a way to reclaim the narrative? Perhaps, Kelly says. “[John] really tried to make his own mark on the world. [He’s] honouring the legacy, but not necessarily living up to the direct expectations imposed upon him — whether it be what the family or the press thought he was supposed to be,” explains the actor.

Love Story seems to revel in the tension between expectation and desire. Even after launching George and marrying Bessette, Kelly says, the Kennedy political dynasty weighed heavily on JFK Jr. In these endeavours, the actor explains, “there was still an eye towards the legacy.” A tragic plane crash cuts the Kennedys’ story short, fading to black off the coast of Massachusetts. What remains, Kelly says, “still rings true and lives on.”

FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette” premieres with three episodes at 9 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, February 12th on FX and on Hulu, on Disney+ in Canada.

FEATURE PHOTO COURTESY OF DISNEY +.

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