The burden of playing a real person, especially one who has lost so much, is not lost on Constance Zimmer.
In her latest role, which finds the Entourage alum starring in Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette as Ann Freeman, Carolyn’s mother, Zimmer says that she had to get into the right frame of mind to find her character.
In Episode 6, “The Wedding,” that became even more important as she had to give a speech at the rehearsal dinner that epitomized Ann’s concerns over her daughter’s nuptials to the Kennedy heir. While the speech itself has never leaked, it’s been widely reported that the essence of Ann’s message was one of concern that Carolyn was making a mistake, something the Love Story writers brought to life and Zimmer tried to channel.
“What I really tried to lead with is the simplicity of the strength of her words and the strength of her honesty, because she was an elementary teacher. And I just kept thinking, ‘She’s an elementary teacher, she talks to young children all the time, right? And so she comes already from a very patient, grounded space. But when she’s talking not only to her daughter, but then talking to a room full of people who are larger than life in her own ideas, right? [I was] Combining those two,” Zimmer told DECIDER in a sitdown interview.
In the scene, Ann does not outright tell Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon) not to marry John (Paul Anthony Kelly), but does strongly voice worries that he’ll leave her in the dust to pursue newer and shinier things. To do that, she uses a tearjerker analogy about Carolyn sitting with a lonely classmate on the bus as a child, rather than with her group of friends, turning to John and asking him to not sit where people expect him to be, but where he is most needed… i.e., with his wife.
Earlier in the episode, Zimmer’s character had expressed similar issues in a one-on-one scene with Pidgeon’s, telling her that she worried Carolyn was giving up a lot to fit into John’s life and that it was looking like a one-way street. It was Carolyn’s response to that moment, a.k.a. sheer dismissal, that caused Ann to use her time in front of the entire party to make one last plea.
It also happened to be, at least in the case of the TV version, something Ann does off the cuff. The scene shows Ann initially pulling out a toast she had prepared on a piece of paper, only to hesitate before putting it down and speaking straight from her heart (and her head). It ultimately results in Ann walking away from the party on the verge of tears, something Zimmer said she felt intensely, also in her heart and head.
“I think also the fact that she had a speech written and then doesn’t do the speech written and then just goes from the heart, it kind of allows those emotions to unfold with every word she says. I think surprising herself emotionally at the end is, is what happens when you speak from the heart. You don’t know what’s going to get you,” the actress told DECIDER.
View this post on Instagram Zimmer also said that it was Ann’s toast at the wedding that she was sent to audition with for the show, which meant that she had been emotionally preparing herself for quite some time to be able to deliver the moving moment. Additionally, she was sent the script the day before her audition and studied it on a flight back from London, leaving her with little time to actually dive into researching Ann and everything she went through.
Knowing that her time was limited, the actress says she focused more on capturing the essence of any mother who loves their child deeply but has doubts about a choice they are making. To her, that means trying desperately to find a gentle way to get a message across, even if crossed wires, miscommunication, and blissful ignorance mean the message is not received.
“Because I couldn’t do very much research on her before my audition, I just had to go with what was on the page, and what was on the page was already so beautiful and so well written that I was like, ‘oh, okay, I’m a mom, I know how to do this.’ And that’s what I went with,” she said.
Zimmer added, “I think that mothers just want the best for their children and I think some of them show it in ways that are difficult, right? And I also think that the Bessette Freeman family were very private, and they were a family that didn’t ask to be put in the limelight or have their life exposed. And so I think that just added another element of protection. So you can’t fault her for wanting to make sure her daughter was going to be okay.”
The first six episodes of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette are now streaming on Hulu. New episodes premiere on Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on Hulu.
If you’re new to Hulu, you can get started with a 30-day free trial on the streamer’s basic (with ads) plan. After the trial period, you’ll pay $10.99/month. If you want to upgrade to Hulu ad-free, it costs $18.99/month.
If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the Disney+ Bundles, all of which include Hulu. These bundles start at $12.99/month for ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu and goes up to $32.99/month for Disney+, Hulu, and Max, all ad-free.
