EWWhat was your initial reaction when you were approached to play the Presidents brother?
Barry PepperI was very flattered.
Hes legendary, a member of American aristocracy, a political dynasty.
Credit: Kennedys Productions (Ontario) Inc. and Zak Cassar
I thought, what have I done?
How will they pull it off in four months?
Its three feature films in four months.
EWWhat did you do to prepare?
PepperI was very nervous about the accent.
I knew my first request was to bring in my makeup team to design and build a look.
We owed him as much respect as we could give him.
He had those prominent Kennedy pale blue eyes, hooded eyelids.
Bobby had more of a pugilist nose, like an eagles beak, so we had a nose built.
I dont know, I think we had 70 noses built.
It was so fantastic.
I had a month or two before production so I could really focus on the accent.
EWAs an actor, do you think you should have concerned yourself with whether the miniseries was historically accurate?
I was terrified throughout the entire production.
It was so daunting, so nerve-racking, not wanting to let the family down.
We were deeply concerned about accuracy, and respect for the family.
The fact remains that we had to have a First Amendment lawyer to get production assurance.
We couldnt go haphazardly into this project.
Its not only our careers at stake.
Thats not something we entered into lightly.
PepperSadly, we all form opinions based on misinformation.
He is a very misunderstood person.
People dont take the time to look beyond the labels that have been attached.
I think for some reason being conservative has become a bad word in Hollywood.
I did want to know what was going on, though, based on everything I was reading.
Boy was the script really salacious or slanderous?
What created such shock and awe?
By the time I was given the script, I never read that particular version.
I dont believe any of us did.
For some reason an early draft leaked out.
EWHow did you feel when History passed on the project?
PepperWe were flooded with emotion.
We felt like, gosh what is it that we did that was so offensive?
We were really taken back.
We really dont know what the reasons were.
You feel like you failed, but you also realize that you did everything you possibly could.
The series will contain elements that might upset Kennedy loyalists.
But as Americans we immortalized them.
Like all of us, they did things that were incredibly admirable and also, not so admirable.
EWHad you heard of Reelz?
PepperI knew of them.
We were very fortunate they bought it.
Camelot found its knight in shining armor at the last minute!
