One Change Made It "Easier" for Sarah Pidgeon to Embody Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy

two side by side photos of Sarah Pidgeon in a white dress in front of the New York City skyline

(Image credit: Olivia McCausland)

The role of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy was a daunting challenge for Sarah Pidgeon, who portrays the late "American princess" in the upcoming FX limited series Love Story.

As such, the actress prepared thoroughly ahead of filming the Ryan Murphy-produced show. That included dyeing her hair CBK blonde, she explains to Marie Claire in our February 2026 cover story.

Before taking on the role, Pidgeon was reluctant to change up her hair in any significant way, due to a childhood bob she calls "unfortunate."

"I credit my ambivalence to changing my hair in my personal life to that, but for [the role of CBK], I didn’t have any real hesitation in changing it," Pidgeon tells senior news editor Halie LeSavage. "Not that hair color necessarily alters your personality, but it felt much easier to become her."

Occasionally, Pidgeon jokes to LeSavage, she didn't even recognize herself in the mirror.

Sarah Pidgeon wearing a black sparkly dress amid fog on a New York City street

But Bessette-Kennedy's signature hair was just the starting point. "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," executive producer Brad Simpson tells Marie Claire.

Of Pidgeon, Simpson adds, "She was scared of [this role] in the right way. She knew what she was taking on."

Sarah Pidgeon wearing a yellow belted coat and holding up a hand

Pidgeon was eager to study everything available about Bessette-Kennedy. Still, footage of the late "American princess" is scant—only 18 seconds of speaking footage exists online, as LeSavage notes in the story. So Pidgeon worked with a movement coach, read biographies, and studied photographs.

"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 of."

In the run-up to the premiere of Love Story, Pidgeon hasn't left Bessette-Kennedy behind. Since she and LeSavage spoke, Pidgeon has "touched up her roots, staying CBK blonde in the photos that surface from her few appearances," observes LeSavage. "Of all the ways this project could change her life, a previously hard-left hair change is the one she’s fine embracing in public."

Love Story premieres Feb. 12 on FX and via Hulu.

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.