JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s Battery Park fight in ‘Love Story’

(This story contains spoilers. love story, Episode 5 ‘Battery Park’)

while Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette is romance at its core, and it doesn’t shy away from the couple’s most painful moments.

Thursday night’s episode, “Battery Park,” revisits one of the most infamous heated arguments that took place in 1996 after the couple left their Tribeca apartments at 20 N. Moore St. and walked to Battery Park. It was a time before smartphones and TikTok videos, but paparazzi captured the fight on camera and the footage made the front pages of tabloids.

to love storyThe episode imagines what might have led to that public unraveling. Over the weekend of July 4, 1995, John (Paul Anthony Kelly) is Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon) on a fishing trip on Martha’s Vineyard. She doesn’t accept it right away. I’m not sure she’s ready to be a wife. JFK Jr.Carolyn asks for time.

The pressure of constant tabloid scrutiny and sudden public attention intensifies her hesitation, and her belief that John allows people to walk all over him begins to strain their relationship. Things get even worse when John issues a statement denying her suggestions. The episode hints that the mistrust ultimately erupts into the now-famous Battery Park brawl, in which the two scream at each other and John appears to pull off Caroline’s engagement ring before she lunges at him. caught on video.

Still, Pidgeon acknowledges that viewers will have to take the reimagined dialogue with a grain of salt.

“Who knows what they actually said at this moment?” Pidgeon says The Hollywood Reporter. “It was a private moment that was unfortunately captured on film.”

Regardless of the exact accuracy of the scene, Pidgeon explains that filming the scene is a rewarding challenge.

“As an actor, it was very exciting, especially approaching Carolyn. There was a lot of mystery in her voice and the way she walked when she knew she wasn’t in the photos taken by her friends and the paparazzi,” she says. “There have been moments where we’ve actually shot video footage, whether it’s Battery Park or the first public photos of a couple out on North Moor (Street), and it’s been really exciting to come to the scene through the physicality of it.”

After moving from a park to a bench and eventually to the curb of a nearby road, the episode shows the couple talking through the rift in their relationship. not emotional zone Why can’t we love each other? Why does it have to be this hard?

They ultimately confront what each of them needs for the relationship to work. Carolyn struggles to adapt to the public eye, and John insists he doesn’t want to change her.

“I don’t want to bring you into my world. I want you to take me out of it. I want you to be my family,” he tells her.

Carolyn experiences a breakthrough when she gets assurances from John that he does not want to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue the presidency. Although she never imagined herself as someone’s wife, she realizes that she wants that future. Because the future is with him. The episode ends with Carolyn accepting his proposal and crying in his arms, reflecting another iconic image of the couple.

speaking neck Ahead of the series premiere, Pidgeon reflected on filming both emotional lows, such as the Battery Park controversy, and joyous highs, including the wedding depicted in next week’s episode.

“I think an uplifting, vibrant, joyful scene can be just as difficult as an emotionally charged cry – the lowest point,” she says. “Emotional extremes can be difficult. Being completely joyful is quite vulnerable, because when you’re joyful, you don’t really watch yourself laugh. It’s different when you laugh.”

Executive producer Brad Simpson also I discovered an unexpected similarity Between the actors’ experiences and the real-life investigations Carolyn and John faced. Even during filming, paparazzi surrounded the area.

“It was really difficult for us actors because, like Caroline, we were being stalked by the paparazzi. There were 17 paparazzi in front of us,” he says. “If you watch their first date scene in the first episode, you have to realize that there are photographers seven feet away, frantically taking pictures outside our walls. It was a lot for her to go through, and strangely enough, it mirrored Carolyn Bessette’s journey from obscurity to suddenly being criticized for all her actions.”

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The first five episodes of love story Now streaming on Hulu and Disney+, new episodes of the nine-part series premiere Thursdays at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET. FX/Hulu. read neckCheck out our interviews with stars and creatives here, Featured on Sarah Pidgeon’s Next Big Thing, Paul Anthony Kelly’s Episode 3 Postmortem and You can get more information here.