When Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette premiered in February, viewers immediately started clocking the “hair acting” of star Sarah Pidgeon, who brings Bessette to life on the small screen 27 years after her tragic death. Videos on social media went viral, articles were written, and Pidgeon was even asked about the movements on red carpets and in interviews, creating a conversation about the way the actress channeled the ’90s style icon for the role.
It’s easy to brush off the topic as just one small part of the zeitgeist-defining show, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about since the early spring. Pidgeon — who has quickly emerged as one of the preeminent rising stars of 2026 — is so intentional in her approach to playing the Calvin Klein publicist that her physicality, be it hair flips or the slow but steady sinking of her shoulders from episode to episode, is exactly what should enshrine her Emmy-worthy performance.
While Pidgeon’s on-screen counterpart, Paul Anthony Kelly, had his own unique catalog of interviews and clips to help craft his turn as the Kennedy heir, Pidgeon notes that much of her own character was pieced together through still photos and first-hand accounts of Bessette’s life and demeanor. That lack of video evidence going into a project that was bound to face some backlash — although it’s worth noting the show made it out relatively unscathed and well-reviewed all around — is just one of the ways in which the actress says she became acutely aware of perceiving the character and herself from scene to scene.
“I think that was the challenge of playing Carolyn, because she is a real person and she’s documented, but not heavily documented or only documented through paparazzi photos. I mean, that was the majority of the material that I had on hand. So I think there was always sort of the seed of doubt,” Pidgeon tells DECIDER in an FYC interview. “I wished I had like, two and a half minutes of her speaking extemporaneously about something as silly as the weather… I wish that I had this like monologue of her speaking so that I could pick up on like the idiosyncratic gestures of like, who knows if she always kept her fingers slightly bent, because I didn’t sort of have that plethora of information. So I was always sort of watching myself in the first couple of takes to make sure that I was [intentional].”
According to Pidgeon, the primary focus for her went beyond thinking about recreating the moments the world was already privy to, and finding a vulnerable, honest truth in the Carolyn Bessette that was known to her friends and family. While she may not have been able to see the exact way in which her subject would smoke a cigarette, react to a joke, or offer someone a hug, she focused on trying to understand who Carolyn was fundamentally and then approaching with care, respect, and a sense of protection that she hoped would translate through her entire presence.
“Working with my movement coach really helped me get to a place where that physical transformation started feeling a bit more natural and less like I was putting something on, so that I could spend that energy thinking about what I wanted to focus on in the scene and what the script was calling for,” she adds, sharing that what resulted is a focus on bringing Carolyn to life in the face as much as she could through her body.
“Her eyes were a really important center. There was so much energy because she was so connected with people. I also wanted those to be her focus, to focus my energy through that,” Pidgeon explains. It happens frequently throughout the series that Pidgeon’s eyes are the only thing doing the talking; Love Story often lends itself to quiet pauses and longing looks, first of lust and hopeful adoration in early episodes and then of sickly desperation as the fairy tale turns into a nightmare. Through each moment, Pidgeon carries the entire narrative in glances both brief and extended, telling the audience everything and making Bessette feel like a woman we know or are.
No conversation about Pidgeon’s well-rounded and groundbreaking performance can be complete without talking about her work in Episode 7, “Obsession,” as the intense scrutiny and vitriol from the tabloids seeps into her marriage and leaves Carolyn feeling isolated and genuinely fearful. Toward the end of the episode, things finally come to a head as she breaks down in John’s arms and sobs uncontrollably over the insistent nature of the paparazzi and the toll it is taking on her mental and physical health. There are actors out there who surely would swing for the fences with a scene like this and make it feel big from start to finish, but what Pidgeon opts for is what makes her performance magnificent. Quietly, she plays the rage and sadness of a person who feels both in love and trapped beyond belief until the final minute when the floodgates open.
It should be regarded widely as one of TV’s best-performed moments of 2026.
“For that particular scene — something I struggled with a bit in the last couple of episodes was how it incenses me to think about how she was treated. And I think, especially towards the end of our season, public scrutiny is a theme that we really were exploring and feeling,” Pidgeon explains. “I felt like Carolyn, being essentially an advocate for her and recognizing that she never went on the record and so many assumptions were made about her, so many insanely misogynistic headlines were written about her, it really fueled me in a way. There were many takes and many tries of that scene where I think she had a lot more vitriol. And sometimes that would be focused at John… I was proud of that moment because I think it hit the right levels of frustration and like exasperation and fear and tiredness.”
For The Wilds alum, it wasn’t all heartbreak and desperation, however, as the task of bringing Carolyn’s joy weighed just as heavily on her mind. Outside of playing the moment that she pictured Carolyn at her smallest (the scene in Episode 7 where she and John emerge from a car after their honeymoon to invasive questions, prompting her to retreat in on herself and clutch her purse for dear life, Pidgeon says), there is also the excitement of bringing a lighter, happier version of someone whose story has a tragic ending.
“I think when she was in Calvin Klein, she felt that confidence of being 26 years old and sort of not really caring what your boss thinks,” the actress says of when she was playing Carolyn at her most untethered. “I found her to have so much swagger and confidence and almost like when your frontal lobe hasn’t totally developed yet, like her risk assessment was just like slightly less.”
It’s a testament to Pidgeon’s performance that you can also see that relief and zeal in the scenes where she gets to play, at the core of the role, a woman who is young, in New York, working a cool job, and dating a man she loves. It’s what endears the audience to her in the moments where she gets to be as big and free as she can be, countered only by the moments where she experiences the lowest lows. Pidgeon hopes fans (and Emmy voters) don’t only remember the sadness and scenes of anguish, though, as there is still so much light to be found in the lighter moments that she feels honored to have been given.
“When Carolyn and John are at home, and they’re planning their wedding, that felt very big,” Pidgeon says of one of her favorite scenes of pure joy. “When they’re planning their wedding is one of the last moments before the rest of the world comes in, which really takes over the last like third of our series.”
She adds, “Having that abandon and silliness with the person that she loves the most, that felt very free.”
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette is now streaming. The Emmy Awards will air live on NBC on Monday, September 14, at 8 p.m. EST.
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