Paul Anthony Kelly has been waiting for this moment for years: while he always recognised the star power inside, it wasn’t until he scored his first major role as John F. Kennedy Jr. in Ryan Murphy’s Love Story that the world saw it too.

Kennedy’s story captivated a generation: the intensely popular businessman and socialite and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, were a staple of the 90s Manhattan social scene, and met a tragic end when their Piper light aircraft (piloted by Kennedy) crashed on a short flight to Martha’s Vineyard in 1999. Love Story – which debuted this February – is now FX’s most-watched limited series ever.

Beyond a close physical resemblance, Kelly’s uncanny aptitude for mimicry and relaxed, confident performance evidence a deep commitment to his breakout role – one that introduced him to acting legend Alessandro Nivola, who plays Calvin Klein in the series. Nivola sits down with Kelly to learn how he makes playing an icon of American royalty look so effortless.

Alessandro Nivola: What’s going on?
Paul Anthony Kelly: Alessandro, how are you? 

AN: I’m good. I don’t think I’ve seen you since the premiere. I imagine your life looks pretty different right now than it did that night.
PAK: Even that night was pretty overwhelming. A Carnegie Hall premiere, not bad!

AN: I remember we hadn’t even finished the series, we were maybe halfway through filming it, and we were out at dinner at Via Carota and Ryan [Murphy] said he was more certain that this would be a hit than anything since The People v. O.J. Simpson (2016). But even though he said that, I still didn’t anticipate the show catching fire in the way it has. I’m dying to hear about your experience, I’m guessing your path to this point is probably more complicated than anybody can imagine. I’m curious about your childhood, and how you got inspired to be an actor. Were there people, when you were growing up, who put the idea in your head, or was it something like a lightning bolt hitting you where you felt that this is what you were put on Earth to do?
PAK: My childhood was really great; I have wonderful parents. I don’t know if you met them at the premiere. Growing up in a small town with like a population of 1,000, I was always a creative kid. Definitely banging on pots and pans all the time, playing dress up. My grandfather really let that happen, he would dress up with me and we’d play pirates around the house, or play as rock stars with a two string guitar he bought at a yard sale. But I think my getting into acting and finding that I need to do it started with Gene Wilder movies, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Blazing Saddles (1974).

AN: Did you identify yourself as a comic?
PAK: I’ve always loved to make people laugh. I like to have fun and joke around and not take life too seriously. I mean, humour is the cure for most everything.

AN: I got that feeling off you on the set. And you know, there’s a million types of actors and everybody has a different way of being on set and going about their business. There are extremes of the spectrum, like Robert De Niro, whom I’ve worked with a few times. The second they call cut, he tends to disappear. There’s always some private space for him, and he goes and hides out. I think that’s probably to save energy. It probably takes a lot out of him to chit chat about bullshit or whatever. Then, on the other hand, John Travolta, who I was in Face/Off (1997) with, was the total opposite. That was a fun one. I think he needed to be ‘on’ all day in order to get the energy for the actual performance, that he was fueled by the feeling of it. I think he felt looser if he was just talking, joking around right up until the second that the camera rolled, so that it didn’t have this heavy terror of the switch from real life into the imaginary life of the film. And it wasn’t a sudden thing where he had to make a pivot. It was just that the energy that he was putting out all over set would carry on into the performance, and it was almost seamless the moment they called action. I kind of got the feeling that was your vibe. You had a real ease about you on set, and I feel that is the most noticeable thing about your performance, which was so fresh and not self-conscious. Is that how you feel most natural?
PAK: That was probably how I feel most natural, yeah. This is my first big foray into acting, so I wanted to take it seriously but also have fun with it. It’s funny to hear you say that about John Travolta, because, at the end of the day, I was toast. But during the day, I find it exhilarating to break up the seriousness of it all by having conversations with people and joking around and having a blast until they call action, and then you’re right into it. I think this role also allowed me to be personable because John [F. Kennedy Jr.] was so personable and didn’t take things too seriously. I really found myself leaning into that aspect of him.

“I was always a creative kid. Definitely banging on pots and pans all the time, playing dress up.”

AN: That’s true, that’s a good point. From one role to the next, I’ve conducted myself differently on set depending on who I’m playing and the rhythms and energy of the particular character. That tends to inform the way I am on set, and how much or how little I interact with everybody when the camera’s not rolling.
PAK: It’s all tools of the trade.

AN: Had you done acting training before?
PAK: I did audition workshops over Zoom for a few years, and some in person things. I did two or three weeks of the Stella Adler winter intensive.

AN: When you were preparing to do the role, were you trying to apply certain techniques? Because, again, there’s this freshness to your presence, and you’re wide open, which is really the greatest quality that one can have as an actor, inviting the audience into your mind and heart. You seem to do that really naturally. For some people that comes with a lot of torturous preparation, and some other people are just graced with it.
PAK: I think that the more I get out there as Paul, the more they’ll realise how much work I actually put into it. There were a lot of things I had to get into. I mean, the first couple weeks of filming, every day I was crapping my pants a little, getting the jitters. Thankfully, Max Winkler is such a giving and solid and supportive director.

“This role also allowed me to be personable because John [F. Kennedy Jr.] was so personable and didn’t take things too seriously.”

AN: How did you handle those physical manifestations of stage fright and anxiety? I’ve battled that my whole life in a big way, and I’m always curious to hear how other people approach that problem.
PAK: I just kind of bullheaded it. I wanted it so bad, and I finally got it. You have to be careful what you wish for, because sometimes you really do get it, and then you have to do the work! You’re doing this thing that you’ve prepared for privately, and then you get to work with your scene partners but there’s also like 120 other people around and they’re all watching you do this thing over and over and over again. You’re like, “Did I do it right? Is it good?” I don’t know. Max really built my confidence up, and Sarah [Pidgeon, who plays Carolyn Bessette] as well. She’s wonderful.

AN: But when you’re on set and feeling that tightness in your chest I know I get all these physical manifestations. I shake, sweaty palms, I feel my heart going fast, my jaw gets tight, my legs feel stiff, my ass clenches together… Do you feel those things? And if you do, what do you do?
PAK: I did, but then I would do something physical, like push-ups or breathing exercises. In between takes or setups, I would do a lot of Wim Hof breathing, and I felt that settled the cortisol levels of it all. And then I was more ready to accept mistakes in order to get it to where it needed to be. It was through the mistakes that the character came alive as it became easier to play and explore. I leaned into being scared of it all, because I knew that I was growing.

AN: In a way, it’s almost better to be thrown off the deep end the way you were. More than in a movie, when you’re the lead in a television series, there are so many moments and so many lines, so each one of them individually has less importance. I don’t think you fucked any scenes up, but if you ever feel like you fucked up a scene, there’s still a hundred more tomorrow.
PAK: Well, that’s it. It was pretty often I came home thinking that I didn’t do my best, but it turned out they got what they needed within the timeline. But Syd [Paul’s wife] really leaned into that as well, reminding me it’s like ten seconds of a nine hour movie. No one’s going to notice unless it’s a major thing, like if I laugh instead of cry!

AN: It’s like a tennis match. Certain points are more important than others, there is a real similarity. In fact, it’s so similar that when I was growing up, I took a bunch of acting classes and more than once they had required reading this book, The Inner Game of Tennis (1974), which is all about focus and quieting the voices in your head and finding relaxation, allowing all of your preparation to flow without you getting in the way of it. Are you taking time now to sort of just do this victory lap and allow the world to get to know you? Or are you wanting to get through this and then get away to catch your breath a little?
PAK: I’m really stuck in the middle of it. On one side of the spectrum, I really am enjoying this time. I was traveling around for fashion week and photo shoots and interviews and all the press that comes with a show like this, and that’s exhilarating and fun, but it takes me away from my family and home, which I need to recalibrate. But I’m definitely enjoying the victory lap and having this moment to enjoy the show for what it is, and not be too critical of my own work, which is tough. But everyone else in the show is so good. You’re phenomenal in it. It’s fun to get to enjoy it at the pace that everyone else gets to enjoy it. It feels like a real cultural moment. But I am dying to get back to work, I loved it, I found it so exhilarating. I want to do something different, just to see what’s out there, where this whole acting career takes me.

AN: We mentioned Face/Off a while ago, and that was really my first big movie. I remember Nic Cage said to me, “Alessandro, who do you want to be?” I didn’t know how to answer that question, but I think it was answered for me with the course that my career took. If there’s a defining quality to it all, it was its variety. I never really had a defining role, so I was never pigeonholed and that in itself became a kind of identity for me that I hadn’t necessarily engineered for myself, but that the world engineered for me. Now that you’re going to have all these avenues open up, I’m curious if you feel a responsibility to curate your career a certain way and shape yourself into a certain kind of actor or personality. Or do you just want the winds of fate to blow you where they will?
PAK: I’m open to experience. I think variety is the spice of life. I’m really intrigued by exploring humanity and all of its facets. But if I really had to pursue one kind of individual character, it might be someone like Cary Grant, for instance. You know, he does that kind of comic, suave debonair thing, but he’s self-deprecating and doesn’t take it too seriously. I’d love to do something like that, and also Gene Wilder again. I like a lot of older generation stuff, but I also really want to find myself doing a kick-ass action movie or be a barbarian in the year four. I just want the opportunity to create different characters. I don’t know how quickly I want to jump into a real life individual again. Certain individuals I’d jump right into though. I would love to do a biopic of Dean Martin.

“If I really had to pursue one kind of individual character, it might be someone like Cary Grant… he does that kind of comic, suave debonair thing, but he’s self-deprecating and doesn’t take it too seriously.”

AN: Have you always been a good mimic?
PAK: I feel like I did a lot more mimicry when I was young. As I’ve gotten older, maybe less so. You know, life hardens you a bit. But now I have this opportunity to be childlike and play again and explore and make mistakes.

AN: It’s interesting being able to imitate voices and accents and all that. Some people who are great actors are not good at that, and other people are. It’s not necessarily something indicative of whether you’re a quote-unquote ‘good’ actor or not. But if you can, and you clearly can, it’s a particular talent that can be applied to a lot of roles that aren’t real people, even. It doesn’t seem learned. You either have an ear for that or you don’t. But you do.
PAK: Thank you. If you get the job to play a particular individual, you have to really learn and work at getting it right, mimicking their mannerisms or vocal patterns or tics. If you’ve done it for one person, then you know all the steps to do it for another person, another individual. Or you use those steps in your imagination and create a totally different character. They’re tools in the toolbox that are fun to explore and utilise.

AN: Do you feel that coming into this moment of notoriety at your age as opposed to younger makes you more able to process it because you’re more grown up and have had more life experience? And can recognise that the stuff of life is kind of completely separate from all the circus and everything? Or do you also feel sort of like, “Shit, I got to make up for lost time?” Like, “Oh, clock’s ticking.”
PAK: That is exactly the position I find myself in, where I’m so thankful that it took me this long auditioning and going through life. Had I been in this position at a younger age, with a different role, being a working actor thrust into the limelight, the outcome would have been vastly different than it is now. Now I’m more secure and confident in who I am. I’m getting more confident as an actor, which is exciting, because I’m ready to take bigger swings. But there is that making up for lost time aspect of it, too. I knew I was capable of doing it for so long. I just needed the opportunity. And then this opportunity came. It’s a heck of an opportunity. I’ve got some skills. People can see what I’m capable of. I’m like, “Let’s go, come on!”

AN: But it’ll come all in due time. Do you feel like performing is a compulsion for you? Some kind of lifeblood for you? Or do you feel like this is a good time, but you could take it or leave it.
PAK: There is a performative aspect that subconsciously I think I always knew was something that kept me going. Even when I was living in Los Angeles with my wife, I got a small role on a show but never made it due to the strike, and then from that I joined a community theatre because I had to do something. Even if it was just that, I needed to see if I could do it. I had this aspiration that wouldn’t quit. And I had the best time being up on that stage. It’s like 100, a small thing, but it was like, “Okay, cool, I’m doing it. I’m actually doing it, even if this is as far as the dream goes, at least I’m out there with like-minded individuals and having fun every day and putting on a show.” So it is lifeblood, and I don’t think I really realised it until I took it upon myself to seek it out in that way. It was like, “Wow, okay, this is something I have to do.” As a young actor, when I was starting out, it really was like some sort of therapy for me.

AN: It is very therapeutic. It was the one place where I could be my truest self, or let my emotions out and all that. I was just completely shut down when I wasn’t acting. Acting was equivalent to suffering for me, and yet I couldn’t not do it. It was all very painful. I don’t mean that I was always playing tortured people. Even when I was doing a comedy, I had that same feeling of a comedian and also suffering at the same time. The older I’ve gotten, the less I feel that way, and the more joy I’m able to take in working. Most of my life, I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed working. It just felt like a compulsion. I felt not particularly happy when I was on jobs, and of course I was even more unhappy when I wasn’t on a job! That’s one of the biggest things that has evolved for me over the course of my career and you seem to have figured that out. Maybe that’s the result of you getting these big opportunities at this particular moment, but I really admire your attitude about it, and your humility and openness, and I think that’s going to take you far.
PAK: Thank you. I hope so.

AN: I wish you so much luck, and I hope we get to cross paths again.

photography FABIEN KRUSZELNICKI styling JERMAINE DALEY grooming ADAM MARKARIAN using ORIBE HAIRCARE and DIOR SAUVAGE; fashion assistant FELICIA DISALVOphotography FABIEN KRUSZELNICKI styling JERMAINE DALEY grooming ADAM MARKARIAN using ORIBE HAIRCARE and DIOR SAUVAGE; fashion assistant FELICIA DISALVO