The Paul Anthony Kelly Code of Cool

There’s John F Kennedy Jr, the son of United States President John F Kennedy, and there’s John-John, the ’90s’ most iconic fashion poster boy. As Ryan Murphy’s Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette tightened its grip this spring, sending audiences into a black rollneck, undone tailoring and backwards-tilted beret fever dream, leading man Paul Anthony Kelly rises as America’s new, and most impeccably dressed, boyfriend. He sits down with Man About Town to unpack the fashion and flair of it all.

Have you ever been asked this much about clothes in your life, even though you’ve been modelling for 13 years? People are obsessing over the wardrobe. It’s amazing.

Paul Anthony Kelly: The wardrobe is incredible. Rudy Mance, the costume designer, just really knocked it out of the park. And he is… I cannot speak highly enough of this gentleman. He’s amazing. Him and his team are just lightning in a bottle, and it’s every single person from the top to the bottom, and then some. Everybody was amazing. But the costumes, in particular, were so spot on.

Did you enjoy the process of assembling the outfits with Rudy? 

PAK: I love playing dress up. I love clothes. I like to dress up and present myself in a particular way. My grandfather always said, “The better you dress, the worse you can act.” I’ve taken that to heart my entire life.

Did you get to keep anything?

PAK: Not yet. I don’t know, we’ll see… There may have been a few things that disappeared, [laughs]. But nothing major.

And how did the costumes inform your performance?

PAK: Getting into the costumes and the wardrobe was transformative and transportive. It really brought me into the character, and everyone else as well. But then it also transports you to a different time. It’s so quintessentially ’90s, and in the best way. And then we were in that world, because New York looked like the ’90s in the parts that we were shooting. The art direction was incredible. The art department really just smashed it. The props department smashed it. We were in that world. It was hard to escape, and that’s honestly definitely for the best.

Is there any part of JFK Jr’s style that you think you’re going to keep with you moving forward?

PAK: Well, I’ve adopted a wallet chain, and I wear that all the time. That was actually the first thing when I got the role. I was like, ‘Okay, well now I gotta get a wallet chain.’ I wanted one, but now I’m like, ‘Heck yeah, got it.’ Now I know where my wallet and my keys are all the time.

Growing up, did anyone ever mention to you that you looked like JFK Jr?

PAK: Yeah, early in my modelling career. I would work with Brooks Brothers a lot, and they would do me up pretty nice and push my hair back and whatever, and say, “Oh, you know what, you really look like a young JFK”. And I was like, “I don’t look anything like JFK… but his son, a little bit.” 

Do you think charm is something you can learn, or do you think you just have a Kennedy-esque magnetism in your back pocket?

PAK: I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I guess you can learn charm. But from what I’m told, that’s just something that I brought. That’s something I think I’ve found that he and I had in common. I don’t know, it’s hard to talk about yourself like this, like, “Yeah, I’m a charming guy”. But I think it’s more so being present with people and giving them the time and listening and paying attention and [making] eye contact, and being empathetic and a little self-deprecating. And just finding the light and joy in every situation, highlighting that and making people feel comfortable. I think that that’s something that my upbringing really instilled in me. 

You spent so much time with this character. If you could have a day with him today, what would you do? What questions would you ask? 

PAK: I don’t know if I would ask him any questions. I would just talk to him. I feel like I would just glean everything I need to know from him, from just, ‘Hey, how are you? What’s going on? You want to grab a beer? Cool,’ and just shoot the shit. And I think I’d give him a big old hug.