For Kelly, the role was an opportunity of a lifetime. The 37-year-old Canadian was relatively unknown before snagging the part — having built his career as a model.
“I was thinking about perhaps hanging up the old hat,” he said. “And then when I just decided, like, ‘yeah, whatever,’ that’s kind of when it happened.”
Stepping into such iconic roles was not an easy feat. Unlike other biopic subjects, for example, Bessette-Kennedy did not write a memoir or frequently speak to the media, and her public life was meticulously curated like her clothing. Her image lives on almost exclusively through paparazzi photos — photos that have been dissected and cataloged for a generation of fashion aficionados.
With just one month to prepare, Kelly said he worked closely with acting and dialect coaches and immersed himself in all things JFK Jr.
“Getting into John, I really just dove into everything I could watch on YouTube,” he said, adding that he also listened to Kennedy Jr.’s narration of his father’s book, “Profiles in Courage.”
“To play America’s Prince, it has some weight to it,” Kelly added. “When playing a real life individual, you have to take the utmost care and love and honesty into it.”
But as with any adaptation of true events, the series has drawn some scrutiny.
Before the show’s release last year, John F. Kennedy Jr.’s nephew Jack Schlossberg — who has a large online following and is running for office in New York — slammed its existence.
“Lately, my news feed has been filled with pictures of my uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., a great man,” Schlossberg said in his Instagram story in June, according to Entertainment Weekly. “For those wondering whether his family was ever consulted, or has anything to do with the new show being made about him, the answer is no, and there’s really not much we can do.”
“For the record, I think admiration for my uncle John is great,” he added. “What I don’t think is great is profiting off of it in a grotesque way.”
Schlossberg’s mother, Caroline Kennedy, is portrayed by Grace Gummer in the show, which has scenes showing the Kennedy grandchildren playing at Jackie Kennedy Onassis (played by Naomi Watts)’s New York City apartment.
When stills from “American Love Story” were first released, many online also expressed disappointment with how Murphy and his team depicted Bessette.
The criticism focused largely on the outfit worn by Sarah Pidgeon, who plays Bessette, for the photos. Bessette, who worked as an executive for Calvin Klein, has become a posthumous style icon.
For some, the boxy brown coat, cropped trousers and empty No. 35 Birkin bag that appeared in the promotional photos were a deviation from Bessette-Kennedy’s signature stuffed-to-the-brim No. 40 designer bag and high-quality minimalist style that made her one of the most notable fashion icons of the 1990s. Other photos and a test video show Pidgeon in a faux leather jacket, a midi silk skirt and Converse.
“The details matter here as she used her image to control the narrative,” Jack Sehnert, the vice president of international design at Steve Madden and creator of an Instagram account devoted to the style icon, @carolynbessette, told NBC News last year. “They could have rummaged eBay for a month or two to find references & originals to make recreations for Sarah.”
The backlash prompted Murphy to clarify that the first looks were merely shot for lighting and color tests and do not represent the finalized costumes for either character. In a recent interview with Variety, he said the camera test images were released early to pre-empt paparazzi leaks and called the release a “mistake.”
Murphy also later responded to Schlossberg’s comments, telling California Gov. Gavin Newsom that he thought “it was an odd choice to be mad about your relative that you really don’t remember”
“The days of civil discourse are over, and it’s very hard,” Murphy said in an episode of Newsom’s podcast. “And you kind of either get into the muck or you try and rise above it.”
Disappointment from some fans hasn’t appeared to deter others from diving into the series, which airs its finale on March 26.
The interest in Bessette’s fashion has prompted an upcoming auction, where four pieces from her actual wardrobe will be up for grabs.
It’s what The Fashion Auctioneer Lucy Bishop described as a “pinch me moment,” adding that the pieces for sale were gifted by Bessette to Rosemarie Terenzio, the former chief of staff to John F. Kennedy Jr.
The auction includes a camel Prada coat, which Bessette was often photographed in on the streets of Manhattan walking her dog Friday; and a black dress by Yohji Yamamoto, which Bessette wore to the White House. Bidding for these items start at $10,000.
Panna II Garden Indian Restaurant in the East Village, where Kennedy and Bessette had their first date, has seen a boom in business since an episode of the show shot there, the restaurant’s owner told NBC News.
“Reservation is more booked up nowadays,” said Boshir Khan, who attributed the recent rise in customers to the show. “Everyone is coming, they want to take pictures … they are saying, ‘we saw the show about John F. Kennedy Jr.’”