Katie Holmes and Matthew Perry Team Up in ‘The Kennedys-After Camelot’

Katie Holmes was “born to be Jackie” said REELZ CEO Stan E. Hubbard as he introduced the cast to the network’s The Kennedys-After Camelot at the Television Critics Association winter press tour this morning. The four-hour miniseries will debut in two parts on REELZ Sunday, April 2, and Sunday, April 9.

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“It’s incredible to work with this wonderful team again,” Holmes said of this followup to the 2011 original eight-hour The Kennedys. “I feel so honored to play Jackie for the second time, particularly this part of her life.”

Director Jon Cassar says the scope of After Camelot is immense, as it starts “right from Robert Kennedy’s deathbed [in 1968] to JFK Jr. getting into a plane [in 1999].”

Matthew Perry takes on what he calls the biggest role of his career as Ted Kennedy. “It was a really good challenge for me,” Perry said. “Some days I didn’t even want to look at it, as I was too scared.” Perry offered an example of his struggles in getting Ted’s dialect just right: “Is that really how he talks to his son when he says, ‘You’re losing your leg’?” Working with a dialect coach, Perry was able to find Ted’s voice and deliver what looks like his most powerful performance to date.

Holmes and Perry both serve as co-executive producers, with Holmes also directing one episode. The miniseries is based on the New York Times best seller After Camelot: Personal History of the Kennedy Family 1968 to the Present by biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli. The cast also includes Alexander Siddig as Aristotle Onassis, Brett Donahue as John F. Kennedy Jr. and Kristen Hager as Joan Kennedy, with Diana Hardcastle and Kristin Booth reprising their original miniseries roles as Rose and Ethel Kennedy.