Vogue: I know the casting process was very different for the two of you—there was one day of reading Carolyns, and thousands of people read for John. But in both cases, what do you think made you stand out?
Paul Anthony Kelly: [Laughs.] We’re very lucky to have been cast. In my case, I sent in a tape, they asked for another tape several months later, and that snowballed into a chemistry read with Sarah, who was already cast. The following day, we did a screen test, and then they told me I had the job on the spot, which was amazing. But I went from thinking I was out of the running in February, and then in May, I had it.
Sarah Pidgeon: For me, it’s hard to think of what I brought to it because I had a much better idea of what I was trying to bring to Carolyn after I learned more about her. My initial tape was based on whatever quick research I could do within the day and a half of getting my audition and putting myself on tape. But also, in the script, she was so three-dimensional. There were two scenes—of their first date and then walking home after. This woman, who’s known primarily, for a lot of people, through still images… she had so much personality. There was also a guardedness and a real sensitivity, which makes it so easy for her to connect to people. But that’s also why she had this trepidation—you could feel it on the page—in terms of fully giving herself over to a stranger.
How much did you both know about them before you came onto the project?
SP: I was familiar with them, but I was quite young in the ’90s—born in 1996, so three when they died. Luckily, there are a lot of books that used interviews with people who knew Carolyn and knew about her time at Calvin Klein. That was really helpful in establishing who this person was because, really, there’s a lot written about her from 1994 and 1995 onward, when there was speculation about her and John dating, and the depiction of her in tabloid culture, but that never really rang true for me. I learned what an exciting, vivacious, and incredibly intelligent woman she actually was, and then it all made sense why these photos of her are so enduring—it’s because there is that energy that lives beneath these clothes. It’s about the woman wearing them.
PK: I was lucky in that John is a very well-documented individual, so I had a lot of material to go back to, review, analyze, and interpret. One of the most helpful things, which I would go back to a lot, is that he narrates his father’s book, Profiles in Courage. I’d listen to that every day before set or in between takes or at lunchtime, just to get into his cadence and flow. He does a proper narration, but you can still hear where he comes from in his vocal pattern—that he’s this cool guy, lackadaisical, and very New York.