Grace Gummer is standing by her portrayal of Caroline Kennedy in FX’s controversial series Love Story two months after Jack Schlossberg criticized her performance.
“All I can say is, I actually can’t imagine what it’s wish to see your life portrayed onscreen,” Gummer, 40, said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Saturday, June 6. “My goal was to play her with honesty and compassion and delicacy.”
The actress added, “I actually have an immense amount of respect for her.”
Schlossberg, 33, previously spoke out about Gummer’s portrayal of his mother during an April 15 appearance on Next Query with Katie Couric, admitting he showed Kennedy a clip from the show, “and we were laughing so hard, as if that’s how my mom acts.”
“Take into accout, it is likely to be entertaining, nevertheless it’s fiction,” Schlossberg said of the series, which he described as “silly.”
Grace Gummer and Jack Schlossberg Getty Images (2)
While breaking her silence on Schlossberg’s remarks, Gummer said that nobody from the Kennedy family has contacted her directly concerning the show. As for whether she would chat with Caroline if granted the chance, she told The Hollywood Reporter, “I might let her speak.”
Gummer also reflected on a very poignant scene from the season finale, at which point Caroline discovered concerning the fatal 1999 plane crash that claimed the lives of her brother John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette Carolyn.
Paul Anthony Kelly and Grace Gummer Eric Liebowitz/FX
“You might have to kind of search inside yourself in a really deep way, emotionally,” Gummer said of how she got into character and filmed her visceral response to the devastating news. (JFK Jr., Carolyn and Lauren Bessette were discovered five days after the crash on July 21, 1999.)
“Technicality is de facto vital to me as an actor. Knowing the lines was, before everything, my center and my mark inside the scene,” she added. “I made sure that I knew all of the beats because a number of the words were repeated, but they were all said in other ways. So I actually tried to be sure that I knew what I used to be saying after I was saying it in order that I wouldn’t have to consider any of that.”
Gummer said she bared all of it for that scene, noting, “I actually let myself go.”
“There’s nothing I left behind, physically or emotionally. I let myself be completely open and vulnerable,” she continued. “And, to be honest, I attempt to imagine what it’s wish to lose someone you’re keen on, and it’s unimaginable, but I attempted to do my best.”