It’s the tightness around her lips, the glassiness of her eyes and the way her eye makeup smears as she fights back tears.
When Constance Zimmer breaks down in the final episode of FX’s “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette,” every inch of her face exudes that painful mix of sorrow and fury that often accompanies grief.
Zimmer soars in Episode 9, “Search and Recovery,” as her character, Ann Marie Messina, deals with the cruel shock of losing both of her daughters in the plane crash that also killed JFK Jr. Zimmer worked hard to capture the aggravation that Ann feels — including the smothering effect of the fame and notoriety that envelops the Kennedys, which is one of the central themes of “Love Story.”
“I’ve never poured more of myself and my own trauma and grief into a character in order to make it feel so raw,” Zimmer tells Variety. “I didn’t care about what I looked like. I just cared about giving people who deal with grief every day a space to cry. I really wanted people to have it. It felt like it was something we all need.”
The most powerful scene, which runs eight minutes, comes when Ann unexpectedly runs into Caroline Kennedy (Grace Gummer), at the apartment of Kennedy Jr. and Bessette after the tragic crash. Ann palpitates with anger and starts to tell Caroline how devastating it is to see Lauren, in particular, reduced to a footnote in the overall tragedy.
