Friends star Matthew Kennedy is diving into history to play Senator Edward Kennedy but has said it is the toughtest part he’s taken on.
Matt is joining the cast of The Kennedys – After Camelot, a follow-up to the controversial mini-series that starred Greg Kinnear as JFK and Katie Holmes as First Lady Jackie.
Katie reprises her role as Jackie for the new series, which sees her married to second husband Aristotle Onassis after the assassination of President Kennedy.
However, newcomer Matt said that between a dialect coach who told him to exaggerate the famous Kennedy accent and his recent experience on the London stage that required him to loudly project his voice onstage, he was a little over-the-top when he began filming.
“I sounded like Foghorn Leghorn,” he told the Television Critics Association before adding: “I took this job because it scared me.”
The series will cover the Chappaquiddick incident – the car accident which left Ted Kennedy’s companion Mary Jo Kopechne dead.
The Kennedys — After Camelot premieres April 2 on the Reelz channel in the US. The first series aired on the UK History channel and BBC Two in the UK.
