By Jim Servin
PURIST: Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette was a television event.
LEILA GEORGE: Gosh, everyone watched it. I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of something consumed this widely. It was everywhere. I don’t know if it’s true because of my algorithm, because I’m in it, but all my favorite podcasts were advertising it. Alessandro and I both knew from the get-go that this show is about Carolyn and John. We are a little spice added to support the show. Playing Kelly was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. Who doesn’t love Kelly?
Have you met her?
LG: We’re in touch now, but it wasn’t until I wrapped the show. She’s been so lovely about it. We’ve decided to try and meet up for a coffee at some point, if we’re both in the same place. She refers to “us” in the show: “It’s so nice to see us,” like we’re the same person. I take that as a compliment.
Did anything about playing Kelly Klein carry over into your life?
LG: Her fashion sense. I’m obsessed with The RealReal. I go on there and search for vintage ’90s clothes, like Calvin. Usually for me, it’s hairstyle and clothes that I end up walking away with for a while.
What have you learned from the stories of JFK Jr. and Carolyn, Kelly and Calvin, as well as your own family—your actor parents, Greta Scacchi and Vincent D’Onofrio—about handling fame in a healthy way?
LG: The only comparison that I could draw is that obviously Carolyn and JFK Jr. were hounded by the press, and they lived in one of the biggest cities in the world. Their front door led right onto the street. There were always people waiting for them.
When I was born, my mom, who had been working in Hollywood, moved us to the middle of nowhere in the English countryside, where growing up I would have to walk at least 30 minutes to get a bus to take a train to see friends. Asking for a ride to the station was usually based upon how well I had behaved that day, which was about a 50-50. Looking back now, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve just slowly kept learning more and more that my mom was right about everything. She’s such a great, strong woman. Going back to the English countryside now feels like a safe haven. The older I get, the more important for me it is to be close to real friends and family. That is the medicine.
I was 8 months old when my parents separated, so I don’t have memories of them together. Watching their films—The Player, Fires Within—makes me know where I belong. My dad is based in New York. When I’m traveling, I’ll watch him on reruns of Law & Order. It’s a comfort thing.
Your father cast you in the 2019 film he directed, The Kid, based on Billy the Kid. You co-starred with your mother onstage in The Seagull and in a 2024 drama, He Ain’t Heavy, for which you received a Best Actress nomination from the Film Critics Circle of Australia.
LG: Neither of them pushed, or even talked about it. There was this unspoken agreement: “We will not talk about her being an actress. We don’t want her to feel pressure.” But I knew that I wanted to do something in the film industry, because I loved the community of it. I loved being on set, the traveling circus of it. I took some production assistant jobs, and then my dad asked me, “What are you most afraid of doing?” I said, “Acting.” At the time, he was teaching at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York. I enrolled there, and stayed two years. Once I decided that I was going to Strasberg, Mom and I had a glass of champagne. She said, “Welcome to the club. We always knew.” They never said anything until I decided, and then it was like it was always meant to be. In 2014, I left acting school and moved to LA. My plan was to give it 10 years. In October 2024, Disclaimer came out, a pivotal change in my career.
Has any part you’ve played especially benefited your well-being?
LG: Growing up, I was a dancer. I’ll still look up a dance class in every city I’m working in. I just finished making Road House 2, which involved a lot of training. For the first time, I followed a strict diet and workout regimen. I didn’t know it was going to be so hard. It’s easy to lose weight, but to gain muscle is so difficult. I learned that the more you eat, the more you burn. Eating enough of the right foods is essential. Don’t be eating too little, and don’t be eating the wrong stuff, like sugar, which I’m addicted to.
My clinician in London introduced me to the Emface and Emsculpt machines. We had both on the set of Road House 2. I noticed such a difference; my core still feels so strong. I was fighting in that movie, not like Jake [Gyllenhaal] and the real UFC champions, but I can throw a punch.
George is your middle name. JFK Jr. named his magazine George—it’s a subliminal reminder of you throughout the series.
LG: I like that. The only thing I don’t like about it is, I feel very Italian. I love my Italian roots. With a last name like Alessandro’s, you know he’s Italian. I wish mine was a bit more Mediterranean. He’ll hate me for saying this, but Jurassic Park is one of my favorite movies. And as soon as I realized, Oh my god, he’s in Jurassic Park III, it’s like I was a constant fangirl over him. I loved working with him so much. In the show there are so many party scenes. What Alessandro and I would do is say our lines and then one of us would ad lib, “I just need to show you something…” so we’d get ourselves out of the scene, and wouldn’t have to stay the whole night. They’d say, “We need you to stick around because you’re in the background of the shots.” “No, no…We’re in the kitchen.” We’d be partners in crime, trying to get each other home early.
Alessandro Nivola
PURIST: Were you part of the ’90s NYC scene?
ALESSANDRO NIVOLA: I moved to New York in 1994, after graduating from Yale. I’d been living here a couple of summers before that, when I was still in college. So, 1992 was really the first summer I was living here, which is the year this series takes place. The ’90s were the beginning of my acting career. I got a Broadway show right after I arrived, a Turgenev play with Helen Mirren called A Month in the Country. There were a whole bunch of other young actors who were making their Broadway debuts around the same time—Jude Law, Damian Lewis, Billy Crudup, Rufus Sewell, Robert Sean Leonard. We got together on a photo shoot for Vanity Fair, and started meeting up after the shows every night, just going hard until the sun came up, then sleeping all day and doing it again. I’d dreamed of living in New York and being on Broadway, and there I was.
What can be learned from that time?
AN: Information cycles are so quick now. In the ’90s, there was more sustained scrutiny and focus on celebrities like JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. More of the population was directed toward all the same focal points, whereas now there are so many distractions. My son, Sam, was in the last White Lotus, and that was the first time I really paid attention to how much of an impact a show had when it was playing. There’s the same feeling with this.
How aware were you of Calvin Klein then?
AN: The ’90s was the era of Marky Mark and Kate Moss, which was not Calvin’s first go-round—he had an earlier burst of fame with Brooke Shields. This was his comeback moment. I got a Calvin Klein tuxedo for an event that I had to go to in the 1990s. I still have the suit in my basement. I dusted it off and wore it to the premiere of this show.
Are there any lessons about fame from this series that might apply to your own experiences being in the spotlight with your wife, actress-writer-director Emily Mortimer?
AN: These are different times. Emily and I have a much more domestically focused kind of life, certainly, than Calvin and Kelly did. We’ll have periods where we’ll be promoting something, and then have long stretches where we’re almost in hibernation. We both prioritized family over a lot of the trappings of celebrity.
What are your favorite wellness practices?
AN: I do 10 minutes of exercise every day, physiotherapy stretching, to get the blood flowing. And then I speak Italian for 10 to 15 minutes a day on Duolingo, the language app. My father was Sardinian. I have a lot of cousins over there, and visit every summer. Willem Dafoe has it figured out. He’s got an apartment in Rome, a farm about 45 minutes outside of Rome, and an apartment in New York. And he only works with the coolest filmmakers.
Playing Calvin Klein, did any style details make their way into your wardrobe?
AN: My boots. The boots I wear in the show are black and pointy, with a big heel. He is tall like a string bean, and I’m average height. I kept the shoes, and wore them the night of the premiere. It’s funny, this show had a very inauspicious beginning. Photos got leaked from our camera tests, and some people were very upset with the hairstyling and clothes. The expectation was that it was going to be a disaster. I think the fact that it was good, and got some of the style right, came as a surprise.
What upcoming projects are you excited about?
AN: There’s a really funny and sweet indie I made with Amanda Peet called Fantasy Life. It won the audience prize at South by Southwest, and she won the best actress award. I’ll be doing The 99ers, a Netflix movie about the 1999 U.S. women’s national soccer team that won the FIFA Women’s World Cup and changed women’s sports forever. King Bee Productions, the production company I started with my wife, has about 15 projects in development, two of which are being made now. Emily has just written and directed her first feature, Dennis, coming out later this year. I’m going to be directing and producing a feature that I wrote called Orion, probably the biggest endeavor that I’ve ever taken on.
Have you heard from Calvin?
AN: Not at all, and I haven’t made an attempt to be in touch. I’d love nothing more than to spend an afternoon hearing his stories. He’s had one of the most fascinating lives of anyone in the past few decades. I’m sure he’s a great raconteur.