Moment Of Truth

Katie Holmes has played Jackie Kennedy—twice. What is it about this american actress that embodies our first lady of grace, grit, and glamour?

- Adam Rathe

Katie Holmes’s phone won’t stop buzzing. As the sun sinks behind the Hudson River and the clock ticks toward the moment she’ll dash off to a premiere at the Museum of Modern Art, the iPhone sitting between us blinks almost constantly to alert her to the arrival of new text messages. And while anyone who has been paying attention to celebrity news might imagine her private number being deluged with love notes from her Academy Award–winning beau, Jamie Foxx, some upside-down reading reveals the frantic party to be someone even more important: her mom.

The rapid-fire texts turn out to be nothing pressing—gossip from back in Toledo that Holmes makes me swear not to repeat— but the moment encapsulates the dichotomy that renders the 38-year-old Holmes so compelling. Sure, she’s a movie star who seems to have the world on a string, but in a split second she can turn right back into a hometown girl from Ohio without losing even an ounce of charisma. It’s a cocktail of glamour and relatability that has served Holmes throughout her career, and it’s undoubtedly what led her to her latest role as one of history’s most watched and beloved women.

“Jackie Kennedy had these values that we as Americans believe in, but she also had this sense of adventure that made you pay attention,” Holmes says of the late first lady, whom she’ll portray in the limited television series The Kennedys: After Camelot, which premieres April 2 on the Reelz network. “She was so graceful, even when she was scared or sad. I really admire her protection of the Kennedy name, her husband, and how much she wanted her children to be as grounded and normal and successful on their own as possible. Those are the things I love about her—and why I wanted to play her again.”