When Sarah Pidgeon signed on for Ryan Murphy’s series Love Story to play the reluctant ’90s It-girl Carolyn Bessette as she meets and falls in love with JFK Jnr, she never could have guessed how much her life was about to change. Halie Lesavage meets her on the cusp of cultural domination
By the series’ pre-Valentine’s Day premiere, Pidgeon’s chances of going unnoticed in the West Village, or outside her apartment in Brooklyn, are slim – something she’s already had a glimpse of. The show’s attempt to chronicle “American royalty” as they met, fell in love, and died before their time generated viral backlash the moment Pidgeon’s first in-costume photo appeared online mid-last year. The styling was all wrong. The casting was not quite right. It’s a topic she faces with equal parts steely determination to show how much she poured into her performance, and shrug-emoji resignation that she can’t control what anyone has to say anyway. “It was just a question of what I could do,” she says. “And that was focusing on making this [situation] what I needed – to do my job as well as possible.”
Pidgeon, 29, tells me she’d never been part of a project with so much immediate public interest, and ironically, that gave her a deeper understanding not only of CBK, whom Vanity Fair and other outlets frequently referred to as the “private princess”, but of herself. “I really like my life as it is,” she says with a half smile. “I think anonymity is wonderful because you can get lost in a role.” She wants to be an actor, not a celebrity.
Pidgeon has been training more than half her life for a challenge like playing a beloved cultural figure. She acted in Detroit-area community theatre productions of Beauty and the Beast and Willy Wonka alongside fellow star-on-the-rise Chase Sui Wonders. Her parents first enrolled her in summer camp at Interlochen, a prestigious Michigan school for the performing arts, around the same time. By her second year of high school, she’d transferred from her local public school to attend the academy’s term-time program.
Somewhere in between studying movies like Legally Blonde and My Big Fat Greek Wedding and spending hours with “really serious” kids in musical and theatre training, she decided acting was her only possible career path. In her version, the epiphany didn’t come with begging her family to move from Michigan to Hollywood. She finished high school and then matriculated to Carnegie Mellon, where she graduated in 2018 with a BA in acting.
photographY OK McCausland
STYLING Bailey Moon/Brigade Talent.
HAIR DJ Quintero/The Wall Group.
MAKEUP Shayna Goldberg/The Wall Group.
MANICURE Jin Soon Choi/Home Agency.
CREATIVE DIRECTION Montse Tanus.
LOCATION The William Vale and Westlight.
Pidgeon tells me she’s still sometimes stunned that this passion can pay her bills. She’s also wondering where to draw the line between work Sarah and everything-else Sarah. “Now I’m getting to this point in my life when I’m asking, ‘Who am I outside of this thing that was very much how I formed my identity when I was a child, before it ever became a career?’”
She looks at her empty pasta plate as if an answer might materialise in the smears of sauce. When it doesn’t, she quickly presses on. “I think it can be really difficult when that form of self-expression, whether it be writing or acting, becomes something that’s not just for your own self-fulfilment; when its reception is tied to your livelihood, you can start looking at it in a different way,” Pidgeon says.
Francesco Murano top, $697, and skirt, $1029; Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, POA; Chanel Bouton de Camélia Fine Jewellery earrings, $23,450, Comète Fine Jewellery Couture ring, $185,900, and Bouton de Camélia Fine Jewellery ring, $12,450.
“I remember running to my assistant and saying, ‘Oh my God, this girl is incredible.’ There was an immediate spark – she felt like a livewire” – Naomi Watts
Pidgeon, however, seemed primed for the part. Her uncanny resemblance to Bessette-Kennedy got her noticed, but it was the depth she brought to a reading of a first-date scene – clever but withholding, clear that she wasn’t waiting around to be swept off her feet, wide, expressive eyes – that made her casting “undeniable”. Showrunners could see she respected the material, the person, in the ways that would make the playing of a beloved figure a success. “She was scared of it in the right way,” Simpson says. “She knew what she was taking on.”
The weeks before filming were Pidgeon’s master’s-level course in crafting her version of CBK. She worked with a movement coach to pick up gestures she brings with her to our lunch: running her hands through her hair, giving a touch on the shoulder when she’s making a point. (When there wasn’t video, still photographs were sometimes enough of a starting point for her scenes, Pidgeon says.) She read every biography she could get her hands on. Where history didn’t leave enough details behind, Pidgeon’s research empowered her to fill in the blanks. “What was so exciting in taking on this role was this freedom I had in learning about this person and then creating this character,” she says. “[I wasn’t] necessarily limited by something so literal, because there wasn’t a ton to go off.”
Some things weren’t negotiable – like a stitch-for-stitch recreation of CBK’s Narciso Rodriguez wedding dress or her signature shade of blonde hair. And so, Pidgeon dyed her brunette hair in what she calls her first major beauty transformation since an “unfortunate” summer-camp bob when she was 12. “I credit my ambivalence to changing my hair in my personal life to that,” she says with a laugh, “but for this [part], I didn’t have any real hesitation in changing it. Not that hair colour necessarily alters your personality, but it felt much easier to become her.”
While she studied for her part, she also practised reading with dozens of potential JFK Jnrs. Paul Anthony Kelly, a former model, landed the role. Once his part was confirmed, they’d get lunch at the Odeon, a New York staple frequented by their on-screen counterparts.
Thom Browne jacket, $2400, and pants, $1460; Chanel Coco Crush Fine Jewellery ring, $5550, Camélia Fine Jewellery Bloom ring, $67,450, and Ruban Fine Jewellery Crawling earrings, $18,250.
Above: Stella McCartney top, $1695, and skirt, $1125; Chanel Première Ceramic watch, $14,950.
Above right: Chanel shirt, $6950, and skirt, $6950; Bouton de Camélia Fine Jewellery earrings, $23,450, Comète Fine Jewellery ring, $126,700, Coco Crush Fine Jewellery bracelets, $26,450, $26,450 and $18,100, Première Iconic Chain Double Row watch, $12,200, and Les Infinis de Camélia Fine Jewellery necklace, $100,500.
Hermès jacket, $47,250, top, $4725, and shorts, $4515; Michael Hill earrings, $2299 each, necklace, $16,999, and ring, $2499.
Marina Moscone dress, $1450, and camisole, $990; Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, POA; Chanel Bouton de Camélia Fine Jewellery earrings, $23,450.
What Pidgeon hints the public may be missing is that she cares, too. This isn’t a project she took just to boost her own résumé; she wanted to honour the woman she’s portraying. “She’s become so incredibly important to me, and I revere her and everything that I’ve learnt about her and her legacy,” she says. “I understand people also have that affinity and care and investment in her, and I think that’s true of anyone who plays a real person. I certainly felt the responsibility of playing Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and I carried that every day.”
In Hollywood, the burn of success is short, and already there are thoughts of what could come next. Pidgeon’s open. She could try another period piece; alternatively, she’d love to “get really buff” for an action movie. One thing’s for sure: she won’t make her decisions based on Love Story’s eventual IMDb rating. “I think people see your career sometimes based on the reception of the projects that you did,” she says, “and I think something that’s motivating me is just following things that feel inspiring and exciting.”
photographY OK McCausland STYLING Bailey Moons
We continue our easy stroll up picturesque Hudson Street, where November leaves fall in slow motion like paid extras, and we eventually sit down at Anton’s, a wine bar and cafe where the head waiter does know Sarah by name (she’s a regular) and who interrupts our meal three times with reminders to eat the bread. Pidgeon and I chit-chat about where she grew up (a suburb of Detroit); her first adult pet (Tinky-Winky, a kitten that now lives with her mother in Ann Arbor because filming got too busy); her recommendations as an Anton’s aficionado (one of the pastas). It’s all so normal that I almost don’t want to draw attention to why we’re really here: the project that’s about to blow Pidgeon’s anonymity.
We’re meeting five days after she’s wrapped Love Story, the Ryan Murphy-helmed FX series chronicling the romance between John F. Kennedy Jnr and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy before their untimely deaths in a 1999 plane crash. It’s only because I’ve been studying Pidgeon ahead of our sit-down that I recognise she’s still halfway in CBK mode. Her hair is dyed light blonde, with the faintest hint of her chocolate roots creeping into view. Her tiny black sunglasses match the slim frames her character wore in the same neighbourhood 30 years ago. (Later, she’ll admit that she took a pair home from the Love Story wardrobe department.) Even the black turtleneck and bootcut jeans she wears are reminiscent of her character’s closet.
“Now I’m getting to this point in my life when I’m asking, ‘Who am I outside of this thing?’”
Her breaks have become successively bigger each year since. First there was the survivalist Amazon Prime Video series The Wilds, in which she played one of several teen girls in a staged plane crash turned social experiment; then came a sombre character study as a young Kathryn Hahn in the Hulu series Tiny Beautiful Things. Her first Broadway role, portraying a Stevie Nicks-inspired band leader on the brink in Stereophonic, also landed her her first Tony nomination, for Best Featured Actress, in 2024.
Whether she was belting it out in a faux recording studio six days a week or executing underwater stunts, Pidgeon approached each of her past roles with an academic dedication to the craft. “In a lot of what I’ve done, I’ve pushed this emotional endurance,” Pidgeon says. “I have no real limits. I just want it to be a challenge.” She even taught herself to crochet for Stereophonic, so her alter ego could have a believably 1970s distraction during tense group scenes.
Along the way, she’s caught the attention of designer labels like Chanel (she’s becoming a front-row regular) and industry veterans like Naomi Watts, her co-star in the 2024 drama The Friend. After their first scene together, Watts sensed Pidgeon had that something everybody in show business wants but can’t always define: the It-factor. On set, “I remember running over to my assistant between takes and saying, ‘Oh my God, this girl is incredible,’” Watts tells me in an email. “There was an immediate spark – she felt like a livewire.”
Chanel trench coat, $34,390, Bouton de Camélia Fine Jewellery earrings, $21,900, and Première Iconic Chain Double Row watch, $12,200. Below: Chanel shoes, $2650, sunglasses, $1100, Coco Crush Fine Jewellery ring, $5550.
On a typical set, Pidgeon’s interpretation would be largely out of sight until a series trailer dropped. Love Story filmed on location in New York, where set-crashers are an occupational hazard. Ryan Murphy tried to get ahead of the tabloid headlines by sharing early camera test shots of Pidgeon and Kelly in costume on Instagram. Instead, a firestorm lit up the comments section. Everyone from established fashion editors to armchair commentators picked apart the styling. Their tone insinuated Murphy had danced on the late couple’s graves by, say, handing Pidgeon an Hermès Birkin 40 when CBK always carried a 35 (obviously). Bessette-Kennedy’s former colourist, Brad Johns, spent a Vogue interview bashing the “totally wrong” shade of Pidgeon’s hair. Even members of the Kennedy family disavowed the project.
Matters didn’t improve when paparazzi caught on to the shoot dates. Images spread online, and commenters lobbed critiques like “cheap” and “lazy” and “wrong” at Pidgeon’s look – and, by extension, her performance. Never mind that no-one had actually seen it yet.
“I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily glad for it,” Pidgeon says of the controversy. “I don’t think it was super-shocking that people were invested in Carolyn Bessette- Kennedy and had strong opinions on what we were doing. But it was a real opportunity to understand what it might have been like for her, and that’s always helpful.” CBK, after all, was relentlessly hounded by photographers and scrutinised by the media in her own lifetime. Pidgeon decided to turn any hurt or frustration into fuel for her performance.
“It wasn’t lost on me that there were so many parallels,” Pidgeon says. “Granted, I’m playing a character and acting. Carolyn and JFK Jnr were trying to live their lives. But it did give me a sense of what her lived experience was, and it wakes up the things happening physically in your body – what it feels like in your chest, what’s going through your mind.”
Max Mara top, POA; Chanel Camélia Précieux Fine Jewellery necklace, $27,850, and Comète Géode Fine Jewellery necklace, $18,000.
“I think anonymity is wonderful because you can get lost in a role”
“I have no real limits. I just want it to be a challenge”
Toward the tail end of shooting the ’90s horror remake I Know What You Did Last Summer in early 2025, Pidgeon received an email that would change everything. It was an invitation to self-tape an audition for a series inspired by the biography Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, which would track Bessette-Kennedy’s ascent from Calvin Klein sales associate to publicist and, eventually, wife of America’s most eligible bachelor (JFK Jnr). Pidgeon was reading for Carolyn’s half of what would become the titular Love Story.
Of all the roles that had come her way, this one would be Pidgeon’s most daunting. First, because of the scant source material: only 18 seconds of speaking footage exist of CBK online, and Pidgeon couldn’t consult her subject on her performance. Then there was the fandom. Nearly 30 years after her untimely death, CBK is revered as an ultimate It-girl. Whoever got the part out of the hundreds auditioning would be put under a microscope. “It isn’t lost on me what a challenge that is, emotionally, physically and psychologically, to embody something that everyone has projected so much onto,” says Love Story executive producer Brad Simpson.
“What was so exciting in taking on this role was this freedom I had in ... creating this character”
“Something that’s motivating me is just following things that feel inspiring and exciting”
Right now, that’s not even working, necessarily. “I remember when actors would come to my school and ... would be asked: ‘How do you become a good actor?’ They would always say go travel, have experiences, you’d draw on all of that.” To dive just as deep into the next role that comes her way, “I really need to live a little bit.”
Our call ends, and I set a “Sarah Pidgeon” Google Alert to keep tabs on what might come next. She goes on a solo holiday to Australia. She pops up at a fashion party in Los Angeles and in pre-premiere interviews for Love Story; otherwise, she’s off the grid.
All I know is that she’s touched up her roots, staying CBK blonde in the photos that surface from her few appearances. Of all the ways that this project could alter her life, a previously hard-left hair change is the one she’s fine embracing in public. If there’s anything else, she knows now that keeping it to herself is a right worth protecting.
Love Story is streaming now on Disney+.
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o-one really knows her name just yet, or recognises her face, so Sarah Pidgeon and I walk like two friends recording a “Spend a Day in New York City’s West Village With Me” TikTok. We duck into a basement-level crafts store where she holds up to her face different colours of yarn for a scarf she hopes to make. I offer suggestions that seem to match her bright-blue eyes. When two shopkeepers chime in, she goes with their advice and lands on a steely grey.
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