FX's Love Story Almost Pushed Back Filming Because They Didn't Have a John F. Kennedy Jr. Then Came Paul Anthony Kelly

It was three weeks before filming was scheduled to start for Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, and the team behind FX's new anthology series was still searching for one of their leads. Sarah Pidgeon had been cast as Carolyn Bessette, but the hunt for her husband John F. Kennedy Jr. continued. "We were going to have to push the shoot," executive producer Brad Simpson recalled. "It was very dramatic, high-stakes for us," executive producer Nina Jacobson added. "Because if we can't cast him, we can't make our show. And we'd seen so many people." 

Love Story, which premiered Feb. 12, dramatizes the romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Series creator Connor Hines did not expect the casting process to unfold the way it did. "We felt that Carolyn was going to be more difficult to cast," he shared. "And Sarah Pidgeon just very quickly emerged as the perfect person for the part." Hines said that Pidgeon embodied the power, intelligence, and magnetism the Love Story team envisioned for Carolyn. 

ALSO READ: Love Story review: Nothing is illuminated in FX's saga of Carolyn Bessette and JFK Jr.

"John proved to be harder to find," he continued. "I think we did see over 1,000 actors." Hines explained why casting JFK Jr. was such a challenge. "You have one of the most handsome men in the world, People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive, who also happens to be virtually a prince who attended exclusive academic schools," he said. "And so there's quite a bit of boxes that that actor has to check."

"That was very hard, finding his kind of handsome, his kind of charisma, and then also a person who would be at home at any table with any dignitary around the world, as his mom had raised him to be," Jacobson added.

When newcomer Paul Anthony Kelly arrived for an in-person audition, everything clicked for the team. "When Paul walked in, we thought, 'Oh, there it is,'" Hines shared. "Because it's not just enough to look like [John and Carolyn] — these are two of the most iconic and magnetic people of their time. So they have to have that sort of moxie, that you understood why people were so drawn to them." Kelly had the X-factor the team was searching for. "We were overjoyed when we finally found him," Jacobson said. 

The first three episodes of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette are available to stream.