An executive producer of Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette is weighing in on Daryl Hannah’s headline-making essay about the show.
“You know, from the beginning of this, this was going to be John and Carolyn’s story, and we put a lot of research and rigor into all the people and moments in the series that ultimately shaped their relationship,” Brad Simpson told Variety in an interview published on Friday, March 27, when asked for a reaction to Hannah’s comments.
Simpson continued, “We read a lot of biographies and journalistic accounts. Anytime you’re dealing with characters that are based on real people, there are big emotions and sensibilities, I think it’s tough for anybody to see themselves represented.”
Simpson noted that “all of us in the show” try to “approach every character with empathy and love.”
FX dramatized John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette’s tragic romance in Love Story, which sparked backlash for the way it was portrayed. Love Story, created by Ryan Murphy, stars Paul Anthony Kelly as JFK Jr. and Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette. The real-life couple were together on and off between 1992 until their 1996 wedding. […]
“We love all our characters,” Simpson said. “So, obviously it’s difficult for some people to see themselves represented. We know this is a real tragedy that affected real people. But our intent was to celebrate the people around John and Caroline.”
While the show following John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s relationship is a “dramatization” of real-life events, Simpson emphasized that a legal team was “very rigorous about fact checking us.”
“And even though these shows say from the beginning that we are trying to tell the emotional truth and we’re dramatizing events,” Simpson said. “There is a very vigorous fact checking that has only gotten more and more vigorous. I think that what’s actually interesting is that back during the age of The People v. O.J. there were a lot more journalists out there. So they would do journalistic deep dives into our episodes and read all the books and be in conversation.”
Simpson continued, “And what’s different now is there’s just a lot of hot takes on Twitter and on Instagram. And so you don’t have as many journalists out there who are going back and debating, ‘OK, this is what we think happened in real life. They’re competing narratives and this is what the show is presenting. How did they do that?’ And that happened a lot on O.J. and it happens less on this. It just becomes a quick, ‘They got it wrong, they got it right,’ based on somebody’s Wikipedia dive.”
Hannah, for her part, addressed how she was portrayed in Ryan Murphy’s series in an essay published by The New York Times earlier this month. Hannah, who was played by Dree Hemingway on the show, argued that the series is not “remotely accurate” in its “representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John.” She also wanted to clarify the “actions and behaviors attributed” to her, which she found to be “untrue.”
“I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties. I have never pressured anyone into marriage. I have never desecrated any family heirloom or intruded upon anyone’s private memorial,” she wrote. “I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s. It’s appalling to me that I even have to defend myself against a television show. These are not creative embellishments of personality. They are assertions about conduct — and they are false.”
Hannah, who dated JFK Jr. for five years in the ‘80s, went on to explain the impact the show has had on her life.
“When so many people watch a dramatization that uses a real name, real-life consequences follow,” she wrote. “In the weeks since the series aired, I have received many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual. When entertainment borrows a real person’s name, it can permanently impact her reputation.”
Love Story is available to stream on Hulu.