Welcome, Jessica Harper, to the Ryan Murphy universe. The Ethel Kennedy actress talks about why she wanted to take on this role and how she filled in her character’s history in FX on Hulu’s Love Story.
Jessica Harper was excited—and appropriately located—when she got the call to play Ethel Kennedy on FX on Hulu’s Love Story.
“I was in Cape Cod as it happened,” said Harper. “Literally a stone’s throw from, you know, Hyannis Port. So it was kind of ironic. As a Baby Boomer, when somebody says, ‘Do you want to play a Kennedy in this thing?’ You go, ‘Yes.’ Because we’re all so attached to that era, the Kennedy era, and it had such significance for all of us.”
To play the quiet menace that is Ethel Kennedy, Harper took a crash course on her subject by reading books and watching the documentary Ethel’s daughter Rory made about her mother.
“Playing a historical figure is difficult in one way because you want to be so true to who that person is, because they were real and you want to get it right. But on the other hand, you have all this material from which to draw, to get a glimmer of who she was. I mean, if you play a fictional character, they often don’t tell you where this character came from so you have to imagine it all. But in this case, I was well informed by reading all this stuff.”
In addition to taking on a Baby Boomer’s dream role, she also got to play in Ryan Murphy’s universe. Can we expect her in more Murphy shows in the future?
“Seeing, witnessing the production that he pulled together, all the elements of it and how well he does that, it was so well made and so well done. And having that experience kind of a spoiled me. I mean, I’d love to have that again.”
Just imagine Jessica Harper channeling some of her Suspiria energy for a new American Horror Story series.
“I’m in,” she said. “I can do spooky.”
Watch or listen to more of our conversation below!
