“I never felt different from anybody else. Until I was in high school, and my English teacher asked me what I knew about Ernest Hemingway.”
In the Ryan Murphy series Love Story, Dree Hemingway is movie star Daryl Hannah, who dated John F. Kennedy Jr. just before Carolyn Bessette (Hannah went on to marry Neil Young). Hemingway knows what it means to carry a famous American name and navigate public fascination with private tragedy. She’s the great-granddaughter of Ernest, daughter of actress Mariel, and her late aunt Margaux who was also an actress and model. Hemingway talks to JANET MERCEL about channeling Daryl Hannah and why we need this Romeo and Juliet story right now.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY KAT IRLIN
I threw a party years ago at the Elizabeth Street Garden and you came. The next day we were all talking about this amazing pink corduroy suit you had on.
Now I want to know what suit I was wearing. God, that was such a fun time. I miss that era, kind of bizarre, 2012 New York. I lived there for 15 years. I’m a New Yorker at heart. I miss it so much. I just got stuck in Los Angeles. We’re unclear how that happened.
It’s uncanny how much you look like Daryl Hannah in Love Story.
I fell in love with Daryl and their characterization of her. I think there were deciding factors between me and other people. I count my stars that I got it. I’ve never been so happy to play a part. I’ve never worked harder. It’s so well written. It’s such an iconic story. And Daryl is such an icon.
Did you hang out with Daryl for the role?
No. I don’t know her. You’re portraying a real person, but it’s also fictionalized. You’re doing a dance of how to really care for this person. It’s a sensitive thing. I tried to portray her in the most beautiful way. Here’s the thing. This is about real people, but it is a drama. It’s the fictional version of real events, because we don’t know exactly what was happening behind closed doors. And I think that Ryan is very good at this.
Ryan Murphy shows are always a cultural event.
He’s the great and powerful Oz. Each of his shows is a beautiful, epic machine. He’s brilliant and he has his own niche in this industry. He knows what he’s doing. There’s no part of him that wants to offend people in any way. Especially for this, because it is so iconic, and a touchy subject. It’s a tragedy. He was very aware of that. That’s why it’s called Love Story. This isn’t American Horror Story, right?
“The family dynamic of making a movie is what attracted me to the business. There’s something so magical about being on a film set, there’s no time for bullshit.”
It’s a great American love story.
We’re in a world today that needs – we all need – love. We need more positive and beautiful stories that inspire us. Carolyn and John’s story may be chaotic, with the paparazzi and all that, but they were our Romeo and Juliet.
Ultimately Daryl and John are a breakup story.
You can see the sensitivity between them, and that they do love each other. It just wasn’t working. And you can’t fight with the fact that John met the love of his life. If Daryl was ‘the one,’ he would have been with her. Hopefully, he had that feeling [with Carolyn]. When you meet that person, and it’s just like, yeah, you know.
It sounds like your mother did a really good job drawing a difference between movie life and real life.
I never saw my mom as a superstar. I saw the behind-the-scenes of film making. To me, she was just working. The family dynamic of making a movie is what attracted me to the business. There’s something so magical about being on a film set, there’s no time for bullshit. Growing up secluded in Idaho, I would go on set with my mom, but I never put two and two together. I never felt different from anybody else. Until I was in high school, and my English teacher asked me what I knew about Ernest Hemingway.
How old were you when you realized that your great grandfather was this huge literary lion?
I don’t think I registered the gravitas of it until my 20s. And then it felt like an old person thing to me. I was like, ‘yeah, yeah.’ Growing up I was more interested in Harry Potter. And Gloria Estefan.
Hemingway is an iconic American name.
It was never: we are Hemingway’s. We are better than anybody. It was never presented that way. My mom was very adamant that I understood, it was you as a person, your attitude — that’s what makes you big or small.
