While the upcoming Netflix drama series “Kennedy” will chronicle the famous political dynasty from 1931 to 1944, the family’s signature Boston accent won’t be so pervasive.
Nick Robinson, who plays Joe Kennedy Jr., JFK’s older brother who was originally being groomed to run for president before he was killed in motion during World War II, tells me, “We made the chief decision beforehand that we’re going to steer away from the Boston accent. So it’s subtle. Also, that accent has type of modified through the years. It was initially like this mid-Atlantic upper-class accent after which it type of modified to [what] I feel modern audiences associated more with working class Boston.”
Preparing for the role proved to be a history lesson for Robinson. “I knew concerning the Kennedy family, but I didn’t know much about Joseph Kennedy Jr., in order that was a fun time to get a deep dive onto him and his life and his legacy,” he said on the recent premiere of his recent Netflix rom-com “Voicemails for Isabelle.”
Laura Donnelly, who plays matriarch Rose within the eight-episode “Kennedy,” says she and Michael Fassbender, who plays patriarch Joe Sr., had prepared to make use of the couple’s accents before filming began. “Once Michael and I had arrived on set, we’d already decided that we’d already done our work on the accents,” Donnelly told me at recent “Sugar” Season 2 premiere in Los Angeles. “Then we came upon that the overall vibe was going to be pull it back. We were a bit like, ‘Oh, I don’t know learn how to try this.’”
Not that they were asked to lose the accents all together. “Their accent was form of created in a really aspirational way, and so that you do need to have that reference,” Donnelly said. “At the identical time that they had nine children. We didn’t want these tiny kids trying to do this accent, so there needed to be a way of closing that gap so the children can be more of a general and that Michael and I’d do the more distinctive accents. I feel that form of creates a mix.”
The series is predicated on Fredrik Logevall’s book “JFK: Coming of Age within the American Century, 1917-1956.”
Donnelly also talked concerning the pressure of taking up the role of the enduring matriarch. “I feel that it’s actually very lucky for me that I’m not American and I didn’t feel age-old pressure of we all know a lot about them,” said Donnelly, who’s Irish.
She continued, “So pressure like that, I attempt to just generally shut out and I’m like I’m playing an actual woman.”
Donnelly’s preparation included watching footage of Rose being interviewed later in life. Rose died in 1995 at age 104. “I’ve come to admire her a lot,” she said. “Oh, my goodness, what she endured and with such dignity and beauty.”