LOVE STORY Star Sarah Pidgeon on Fame, Pressure and What’s Next for PORTER Magazine

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With LOVE STORY marking her arrival as one of Hollywood’s most compelling new actors, 29-year-old Sarah Pidgeon is steppinginto an intense spotlight. After years of rigorous training, a Tony-nominated Broadway run and now a precise, character-driven and widely celebrated turn as Carolyn Bessette- Kennedy, the actor talks to PORTER about taking on the role, society’s expectations on women, the fascination with the ’90s, her co-stars and embracing what comes next.

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Sarah Pidgeon on her role as Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in Love Story: “I never allowed myself to think ‘Oh, I’ve got her’.People ask, ‘When did you feel you found her? When did you feel like the role really sunk in?’ And the truth is, I don’t know if I’ve ever really felt that way in a job, but I specifically didn’t for this one.”
“I felt a certain onus on understanding Carolyn. I tried to be very careful, knowing that this was someone’s legacy. There was not a scene, a day, a moment or a take where I didn’t feel like I was checking in with myself, to see that it felt in line with the person that I had come to understand. But she never went on record. We had to try and infer what she might have been feeling. She had so many evolutions. She’s unknown.”

On Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy: “She was known for being just this one thing, and she was that, but she was so much more than that.”

On echoes with her own experience: “I want to make it very clear that I know she was a woman trying to live her life, and I’m an actor on a TV show. I’ve been thinking about her a lot. There is this weird sense of art folding itself onto my life. Everything is happening quickly. I don’t have any sense of perspective right now. I don’t know what any of this means to me, in the greater picture.”

On shooting Love Story in New York: “Before the show even came out, we were shooting in New York – which was such a gift, to be able to walk the same streets that they walked together, their old haunts that are still around like the Odeon, Bubbies, Walker’s – but when you’re shooting in the city, there are just so many onlookers. There was so much public interest in our show. I began to understand that I was being… watched.”

On the paparazzi now vs. then: “Everyone has a phone now so, in a way, everyone can be paparazzi. I suppose in some ways you could evade the paparazzi at an earlier time. You could hide out, or take the back door, but now it’s much easier for your immediate location to be shared and therefore, hope of access being granted to people. It’s been lovely to have people come up and say, ‘I really like the show’, but I hope that I will never be in the position that Carolyn was in, where she couldn’t walk her dog down the street without having to run away.”

On the pressures placed on women: “You know, the cultural tide can change very quickly. Our expectations of women in the public eye are aligned with our broader expectations of women. You can’t be too angry, or else you’re a bitch. You have to keep your cool, but you also can’t be an ice queen. You can’t be too meek, because then you’re weak. Whenever there are controversies about public-facing women, I just look at the comment section and think, ‘If it was a man, would we still be talking about this?’”

[Photo Credit: Cobey Arner, Courtesy of Porter Magazine]

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