Grace Gummer broke her silence after Jack Schlossberg said his mother, Caroline Kennedy, laughed “so hard” at Gummer’s portrayal of her.
In April, Schlossberg appeared on the “Next Question with Katie Couric” podcast and spoke about Gummer’s performance on FX’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. “I showed [my mom] a clip of her. … The person was freaking out … and we’re just laughing so hard — as if that’s how my mom acts,” he said.
Addressing the remarks in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gummer admitted that she understood the perspective behind his criticism. “I really can’t imagine what it’s like to see your life portrayed onscreen. My goal was to play her with honesty and compassion and delicacy. I have an immense amount of respect for her,” she said.
The actress evidently doesn’t mind criticism coming her way. While she has not heard directly from the Kennedy family yet, Gummer is open to hearing Caroline’s perspective. Gummer said she “would let [Caroline] speak” if the former diplomat ever wished to connect.
She echoed the same sentiment in a March interview with Town & Country. Speaking of what she would do if she ever bumped into Caroline, Gummer said, “I bow to her. I say thank you. I let her speak. I have so much admiration and respect for Caroline, and my greatest hope is that I did right by her.”
Gummer recently told ABC’s On The Red Carpet that she doesn’t believe in “imitating people” as an actress and detailed how she prepared for the Ryan Murphy-produced show. “I just gathered information all over the place. And through reading and talking to people that she knows, I got an energy sense,” she said.
Schlossberg, meanwhile, has openly criticized the series. During a March appearance on CBS Sunday Morning, he criticized the showrunners for “making a ton of money on a grotesque display of someone else’s life.”
“If you want to know someone who’s never met anyone in my family, knows nothing about us, talk to Ryan Murphy. The guy knows nothing about what he’s talking about,” Schlossberg said at the time.
He went on to suggest that Murphy should consider donating some of “the millions of dollars of profits” to causes John F. Kennedy Jr. supported or to the JFK Library, adding, “But he’s not. He’s making money. This is not a documentary.”