“Love Story” star Dree Hemingway has responded to Daryl Hannah’s scathing essay about the Ryan Murphy-produced John F. Kennedy Jr. series, telling Entertainment Tonight that she respects and loves Hannah.
Hemingway plays Hannah in “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette,” which partly explores the real-life, off-and-on relationship that Hannah shared with JFK Jr. for five years throughout the early 1990s. While “Love Story,” which was created by Connor Hines and executive produced by Murphy, has proven to be a massive hit for FX, the series has come under heavy fire for its historical inaccuracies.
For her part, Hannah penned a guest essay in the New York Times denouncing the series’ depiction of both her and her and JFK Jr.’s romance. It was said essay that Hemingway was asked about by ET on the carpet for the Vanity Fair Oscars party on Sunday night.
“I mean, I respect her and it’s really a sensitive thing to play somebody, a real person,” Hemingway said of playing Hannah in the FX series. “All I can speak to is me as an actress, but I love her. I love her.”
“Love Story” intentionally positions Hannah as a foil for the budding romance between JFK Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) and Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon). In doing so, the FX series features scenes in which the “Splash” and “Kill Bill” star not only invites friends of questionable character over to her and Kennedy’s apartment, but also crashes the memorial service for Kennedy’s late mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Naomi Watts).
In her NYT essay, Hannah fervently disputed these scenes, writing, “The character ‘Daryl Hannah’ portrayed in the series is not even a remotely accurate representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John. The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue.” Furthermore, the actress called the series’ efforts to tear her down in favor of lifting Pidgeon’s Bissette up an example of “textbook misogyny.”
Hannah also noted in her essay that the depiction of her in “Love Story” has led to her receiving “many hostile and even threatening messages” from viewers. “Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle,” Hannah wrote in her essay. “But a real, living person is not a narrative device.”
“The Kennedy family is also notoriously private, and I have always honored their right to privacy,” she added. “Know that most (if not all) of those claiming to have any intimate knowledge of our personal lives are self-serving sensationalists trading in gossip, innuendo and speculation.”
TheWrap has reached out to FX for comment regarding Hannah’s remarks.
Hannah is not the only prominent public figure who has disowned “Love Story.” JFK Jr.’s nephew Jack Schlossberg, who is currently running for public office, has also intensely criticized the series and its depiction of his late uncle. “I would just want people who do watch the show to watch it with one letter in mind, and that’s a capital ‘F’ for fiction,” Schlossberg said during a “CBS Sunday Morning” appearance earlier this month.
The criticisms have seemingly not had an impact on the show’s numbers. It ranks as FX’s most-watched limited series ever on streaming.
