Throughout his years of development, Connor Hines was concerned that nobody was even going to notice his passion project. Then, last summer, test shots of stars Paul Anthony Kelly as John F. Kennedy Jr. and Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette became an Instagram lightning rod, and he realized that attention wasn’t going to be an issue.
Over its first six episodes, FX’s Love Story has captivated and divided viewers — with debates about historical accuracy, the treatment certain still-living figures have received and, still, the clothing. As a first-time showrunner who’d been fascinated by Bessette and Kennedy long before Ryan Murphy announced plans for their TV treatment, he seems to still be processing his show’s outsized role at the watercooler. “I put it on my bucket list and assumed that I would not be able to write it until much later in my career,” says Hines. “When it was announced that Ryan was doing this new anthology, I pursued the job as I’ve never pursued anything in my life.”
Speaking during a recent episode of The Hollywood Reporter podcast I’m Having an Episode (Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple), recorded before Daryl Hannah took her issues with her own depiction public, Hines spoke about the long process of piecing together two incredibly private lives and why we’re all still so fascinating by America’s most famous family.
So how did this become a fascination of yours?
I was obsessed with The Crown and the fact that we don’t have anyone equivalent in the U.S, really, except for the Kennedys — in terms of a dynasty that’s known the world over. I went down a rabbit hole, starting with Joe Kennedy, working my way through the generations. For a while I thought I was going to write something dating back to the beginning of the family. There’s no shortage of stories and trials and tribulations. But reaching John and Carolyn’s generation, specifically their story, I remember texting my manager at the time. I couldn’t believe nobody had done a limited series about the two of them. I put it on my bucket list, assumed that I would not be able to write it until much later in my career. When it was announced that Ryan Murphy was doing this new anthology, I pursued the job. I’ve never pursued anything in my life.
I’d imagine that people haven’t done it before because there’s a certain amount of fear in tackling such a sensitive subject…
Yeah, but I was so struck by the disconnect between the narrative that surrounded their marriage at the time — especially Carolyn — and the woman that her friends described as being this incredibly fun, loving, vivacious woman. Of course, you see a myriad photos of her and she looks quite withdrawn or frightened or shut down. I just thought, “Oh, I want to know who the woman was that nobody got to see, who the woman was before she met JFK Jr.” She had a very storied career at Calvin Klein, starting with folding sweaters at the mall in Boston to being one of his most trusted advisors in the C-suite.
What was your awareness of them growing up?
I grew up right outside of New York City. My dad commuted in every day, so he’d always bring home a copy of the New York Post. I have all of these memories of seeing their photos everywhere. I specifically remember, in Page Six, they always bold the celebrity names. It was constantly their names and images. And I come from two very large Irish Catholic families outside of Boston, so I was already familiar with the Kennedys. My grandmother basically had a shrine to the President and Jackie…
Oh, the Kennedy obsession is very real in Irish American families.
One-hundred percent. He was our first Catholic president, which meant a lot to that community. It meant a lot to my grandparents. [Jackie] was just a rockstar in her own. I don’t think people really give her enough credit for the role she played in the Camelot of it all. She specifically crafted that narrative as, I think, a service to her husband. She was so much more savvy than I think people realized. People think of Jackie Kennedy and they think grace, poise and style. But, and I say this in a positive way, she was a very calculated, savvy person. A political operative.
A lot has been said about your decision not to interview anyone in the family, which operates under this rather hilarious assumption that any of them would talk to you.
Correct. In what world would they want to be like, “Yeah, let’s sit down and kiki!” Obviously, the family has been apprehensive about the show — which I understand. But it’s not like I was screening their calls. I think it was understood from the very beginning that there would not be a collaboration between us. That’s best for everybody involved. You have to be as objective as possible when you tell a story. I know myself well enough that if I started developing personal relationships with members of the family, it would’ve absolutely clouded the way that I wrote the show.
This family still looms large in the American psyche, not just because one member is currently involved in decisions that a lot of us don’t agree with. There is a nod to RFK Jr. in one episode, it’s very subtle. But was there any temptation to have more fun with that?
We are already dealing with a sensitive subject matter as it is. I didn’t have much interest in inviting any more controversy or discussion. I thought that was something we should just steer clear of. Plus, I didn’t really to distract from what the show was about. Anything surrounding him would create headlines that I certainly didn’t want. We’re trying to celebrate different members of the family.
The majority of this show is scenes between two of them, John and Carolyn, in private. Talk to me about the process behind the artistic liberties that you take. These are scenarios in which we don’t know what was said, so what guardrails did you establish?
Basically, you do as much research as humanly possible. You nail down a timeline for each episode, and each episode has a milestone — whether it be a wedding or the engagement. You gather as much information about those periods of times, what their friends and family were saying about the state of their marriage. So much of the volatility was captured by the media, but the loving moments between them, the respect and admiration, they had for each other was not making news. Our job was to recreate that. You just had to have an understanding based off of everything you read about where they were in their journey emotionally, where Carolyn was in the journey with her fame and celebrity, where John was with his career, with George, with his family. Take all the variables that were surrounding them, you gain a sense of how they would be feeling about themselves and therefore towards each other. And then, with that, you take a creative liberty and extrapolate as best you can.
But there was this huge kerfuffle, mostly sartorially, when that test shot came out last summer.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. (Laughs.) I haven’t heard about this. This is the first I’m hearing about the test shots.
It was very preliminary. We were still playing around with the aesthetics for these characters. It wasn’t really anything more than that. Once they were released, I don’t think we anticipated everybody feeling as strongly as they did about the looks. More specifically, I think we just got a sense of how protective and, to some extent, obsessed people still were with the two of them. I’ve been living with this show for four years. I did not think anybody was going to care about it until it came out — and that’s the best case scenario. To have the internet create this massive dialogue surrounding their aesthetics before we even started shooting and have paparazzi show up week one, I was just sort of like, “Oh god, I can’t believe how much people still care about these two.” If anything, it gave me a hope that there was an audience that would be waiting for us when the show came out.
I was shocked at how large that, specifically, the Carolyn Bessette Kennedy fandom is. There are Instagram accounts devoted to her with like half a million followers. Were you aware of that when you decided on her as your point of entry?
I was aware there remains this evergreen presence in the fashion world. She’s a very unique. There are not many people that became as famous as she did that had no interest in fame. We’re so accustomed to people capitalizing on fame, monetizing fame. She was the antithesis of that. She wasn’t going to let you in. She did not give interviews. She did not pose on the cover of any magazines. She did not capitalize on it. If anything, she married him in spite of it. It only adds to the mystique of this woman that, on top of being classically stylish, we never really knew her.
And, despite all that, she remains this hugely famous figure.
But one of the more intriguing parts of telling this story is that she’s so memorialized as this one-dimensional fashion icon. There was just a giant life behind this person and an incredible career and friendships and relationships and a city that she loved and made her own. She was so much more. I appreciate the fact that her legacy has lived on, but she should be remembered for a lot more.This is a rare Ryan Murphy production in which he does not have a writing or directing credit. Knowing that, and knowing that this was something that he was very interested in, what did he tell you about how he envisioned this project? He was very influential from the beginning. He just really responded to it, and our visions for the show really aligned. When I gave him the first couple scripts, he was very supportive and encouraging. I think he has a dedication to his audience and that our ability to entertain them is a privilege that shouldn’t be wasted. He just has his finger on the pulse in that he’s well aware that when people are watching a show, they could be turning the channel at any moment or picking up their phone. We have a responsibility to keep people engaged. And when it came to the style and the aesthetic of the show, that’s just Ryan. He’s an incredibly visual person. I was very much fixated on the emotional beats of the show. But when we would meet and talk, he sees everything so vividly in a way that I don’t. In that way, we complemented each other. Ss soon as I would give him pages, he knew exactly how he wanted it all to look.
This is a high-profile project that, in many ways, is introducing you as a writer. And it is a huge moment for your two leads, who were in no way household names going into this. How were they prepped for all of the attention that was going to be on them? On my drive in today, I passed five billboards, that I counted, bearing their images.
That’s certainly not me preparing them. (Laughs.) I have no idea what this must feel like [for them]. That’s more Ryan’s wheelhouse: preparing people for stardom. But I can’t tell you how many days I sat on set, watching the two of them and thinking, “Oh, they have no idea how much their life is going to change.” People are going to want to watch the two of them for a very long time. I’ve never had that experience — working with someone that you’re friends and then thinking, “Oh, these people are going to be superstars.” But they’re taking it all in stride. All they wanted was for people to feel that they did justice to John and Carolyn, because they knew it was a very high bar. And I think people are responding positively.
Paul was cast like at the 11th hour, right?
I was literally asking Uber drivers and people on the street if they wanted to read for John. In my mind, if we didn’t find this person, then this show that I’d spent three years working would not come to fruition. We weren’t just looking for somebody that looks like John, which is hard enough as it is. You have to find somebody who looks like they vacation on Cape Cod, launched a magazine, can command a room and hold court with dignitaries. And their mother is Jackie Kennedy. There were so many variables that an actor had to possess in addition to looking like him. But when he came into the room and people saw him in person, it was like, “Oh, this is what we had in mind.”
You were originally an actor before you started writing. What do you consider yourself at the moment?
I grew up doing theater. I studied at a conservatory in New York after college. Performing on stage was always my first love. But, as you know, you very quickly realize how hard it is showing up to auditions for student films — that you weren’t being paid for — with tyrannical 18-year-old directors from Columbia and NYU. I was thinking to myself, “Oh, I don’t know if this is going to be for me.” Even the things I was booking I didn’t want anyone to see. When I started writing, it flipped a switch. It’s like I get to play every character in the script in my head.
Do you know what’s next for you?
I do, but I’m scared to say it out loud in case it doesn’t come into fruition. But it’s a different genre. I don’t know if I could write another love story right now, because I was so in love with the two of them and this project. I feel like I’m reeling from a breakup.
Love Story releases new episodes Thursdays at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on FX/Hulu, streaming on Hulu.
