Matthew Perry says his first effort at doing Ted Kennedy’s accent for his role in The Kennedys: After Camelot made him sound like Foghorn Leghorn.
The actor told the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour that a dialect coach tried to teach him how to mimic the former Senator.
But after being told incorrectly to be hugely over-the-top, he said: “I sounded like Foghorn Leghorn!”
And he admitted he had to tone down his delivery for his role in the four-episode mini-series, which premieres on REELZChannel on April 2.
Perry was speaking on a panel at the TCA press tour, alongside Katie Homes who plays Jackie Kennedy Onassis — and is also an executive producer and director of one episode — and director Jon Cassar.
Perry revealed both of them sent him the same note while he was preparing for the role, saying: “Just be a little smaller.”
Meanwhile, Holmes said it was “an honor” for her to play the former First Lady again. She said: “I feel so honored to play Jackie for the second time, particularly this time in her life, the 70s.”
The four-episode miniseries is a follow-up to 2011’s Emmy-winning The Kennedys, and also stars Alexander Siddig as Aristotle Onassis, Kristen Hager as Joan Kennedy, along with Diana Hardcastle and Kristin Booth as Rose and Ethel Kennedy,
It is is based on the book, After Camelot: Personal History of the Kennedy Family 1968 to the Present, by J. Randy Taraborrelli.
The miniseries is directed by Jon Cassar (The Kennedys) and Katie Holmes from scripts by Stephen Kronish (The Kennedys) and Sandra Chwialkowska.
The Kennedys: After Camolot premieres April 2 on REELZChannel.