Ahead of her turn as Caroline Kennedy in Love Story, the actor reflects on romance, fame, and nostalgia for&rsquo;90s New York fashion&mdash;all while taking the latest American collections for a spin.

PHOTOGRAPHY Celeste Sloman&nbsp;
STYLED BY Anya Ziourova
Grace Gummer has spent the past few years blissfully off the grid. The actor, 39, hasn&rsquo;t done much press since 2022, when she was promoting Showtime&rsquo;s vampire drama Let the Right One In; since then, she&rsquo;s welcomed two children with DJ and producer Mark Ronson, whom she married in 2021. Although she&rsquo;s occasionally spotted on her husband&rsquo;s Instagram feed, Gummer&mdash;the daughter of acting legend Meryl Streep and sculptor Don Gummer&mdash;has mostly kept her private life, well, private. Despite racking up credits on TV shows like Mr. Robot, American Horror Story, and The Newsroom, as well as films like Frances Ha and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, she&rsquo;s never been drawn to the Hollywood spotlight. So while the buzz surrounding Gummer&rsquo;s latest project, Ryan Murphy&rsquo;s Love Story, is next-level, it&rsquo;s the heart of the series that she cares about most.
&ldquo;The world needs a romance right now,&rdquo; she says over tea at the Marlton Hotel in New York City. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s what the show is. It&rsquo;s a love letter.&rdquo; In Love Story&mdash;which chronicles the relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, from their 1992 introduction through their tragic 1999 deaths&mdash;Gummer portrays Caroline Kennedy, the author, attorney, and diplomat who is the only surviving child of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy.

&ldquo;What&rsquo;s important to me, when portraying a real person in a fictional show, is capturing their essence,&rdquo; says Gummer, who hasn&rsquo;t met or spoken with Kennedy herself. &ldquo;A feeling they exude to the world and the people around them.&rdquo; Still, the portrayal required a deep dive into the Kennedys&rsquo; history. &ldquo;I had a very limited understanding of John and Carolyn&rsquo;s love story prior to this show,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;And I had no idea the amount of scrutiny they endured.&rdquo;
As the child of one of Hollywood&rsquo;s most celebrated stars, Gummer is no stranger to public interest herself. Growing up in a small town in rural Connecticut, she and her siblings&mdash;musician Henry, 46, and actors Mamie, 42, and Louisa, 34&mdash;didn&rsquo;t pay much mind to their mother&rsquo;s fame. &ldquo;We were raised in a small town where we felt safe to be free, to be ourselves,&rdquo; says Gummer. &ldquo;I played a lot of sports, camped in the mountains on the weekends, and babysat in the summers. I grew up thinking I wanted to be an Olympic swimmer and was only confronted with the fame side of my life during the occasional walk through an airport.&rdquo; Gummer&rsquo;s quiet upbringing has kept her grounded. &ldquo;My parents are incredibly strong, morally sound people who put our needs first,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;When people ask me how I&rsquo;m so normal, I don&rsquo;t really know what that means or how best to answer&mdash;except to say that I was raised right, by good people who were doing their best.&rdquo;

Although she and her sisters all ultimately pursued acting, that wasn&rsquo;t always Gummer&rsquo;s plan. After studying art history and Italian at Vassar College, she moved to Rome to embark on a career in fashion and costume design. &ldquo;I spoke Italian and had an Italian boyfriend,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;But while I was living in Italy, my brother&rsquo;s friend asked me to design the costumes for a play he was directing, and I had no ideas. I realized that I just wanted to be in it. I couldn&rsquo;t deny my love of acting.&rdquo; She moved back to New York, where she interned for designer Zac Posen&mdash;and when she eventually auditioned for that same play, The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents, in 2008, she landed her first Off-Broadway role. &ldquo;I got a nice little review in the New York Times, and then it was off to the races.&rdquo;
In the years since, getting the parts she wants hasn&rsquo;t come as easily. &ldquo;Forging my own path is something I&rsquo;ve really had to navigate,&rdquo; says Gummer. &ldquo;Who I am has gotten me in the door, but it hasn&rsquo;t gotten me further than that. I think I had to go against what a lot of people thought I was, to sort of defy expectations a little bit and change minds.&rdquo; She avoids reading about herself and her work online, choosing to focus on her own feelings of accomplishment instead: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about getting the role that speaks to you, rather than something that&rsquo;s going to propel you to stardom.&rdquo; Gummer has also learned to stop overanalyzing her career. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t get a part, it doesn&rsquo;t mean you&rsquo;re not good; it just means you&rsquo;re not right for that specific thing, and that&rsquo;s something I wish I&rsquo;d known earlier,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Also, comparison is the thief of joy. That&rsquo;s one of the reasons I'm not on Instagram&mdash;for my sanity.&rdquo; [Editor&rsquo;s note: In the weeks since our interview, Gummer has, in fact, joined Instagram.]

Top, dress, and skirt PROENZA SCHOULER Shoes TORY BURCH

The main reason she stayed off Instagram is more logistical: She&rsquo;s legally changed her last name to Ronson, and because her driver&rsquo;s license doesn&rsquo;t match her Instagram handle, she wasn&rsquo;t able to verify her account. &ldquo;I wish that it was easier and that I didn&rsquo;t feel so Boomer about it,&rdquo; she laughs. When it comes to discussing her marriage, Gummer is surprisingly chatty. &ldquo;We indulge in celebrating our love,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Despite my desire to remain private, I will scream from the mountaintops my love for this man.&rdquo; Five years in, Gummer&rsquo;s very own love story is still going strong. &ldquo;I really am a romantic, but I didn&rsquo;t know just how much until I met my husband, who&rsquo;s very romantic,&rdquo; she says, adding that she and Ronson make sure to carve out alone time despite their hectic lives. &ldquo;We love sitting at the bar at Raoul&rsquo;s, seeing a movie at Film Forum, or having a steak uptown at Le Veau d&rsquo;Or. You have to prioritize taking each other out and having a real conversation that doesn&rsquo;t involve poop or sleep schedules.&rdquo;

When she&rsquo;s not dressing up for date night, her wardrobe is chic yet practical. &ldquo;I have a problem when it comes to The Row, because I like modern, elegant, comfortable, and effortless stuff,&rdquo; says Gummer, whose love of fashion developed early. &ldquo;When I was a kid, I would lay out my clothes for the next morning in the shape of a person on the floor, right down to the headband and socks. It&rsquo;s always been my favorite and most important form of self-expression&mdash;although it&rsquo;s really quite fucked up how much I think about clothes.&rdquo;
Even so, she&rsquo;s a selective shopper. &ldquo;I only buy things I can wear a lot, not just once to a party,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;And I also wear a lot of vintage.&rdquo; While she&rsquo;d gladly swap wardrobes with Bianca Jagger, Tilda Swinton, or her stylist best friend Gina Aglietti, some of Gummer&rsquo;s favorite pieces came from one legendary Hollywood closet in particular. &ldquo;When I was 18, Carrie Fisher gave me some of the most cherished pieces I own&mdash;a silk jacquard Valentino blazer with pearl buttons, an amazing Anna Sui silk dress with a pattern of dancers doing pirouettes, and an animal-print silk suit,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;They were hers, so I treasure them. A lot of the other stuff I treasure is my mom&rsquo;s from the &rsquo;90s, like a beautiful Armani jacket and a perfect pair of gray Levi&rsquo;s.&rdquo;

I had to go against what a lot of people thought I was, to sort of defy expectations.&nbsp;

Given her latest role, it makes sense that Gummer is very much here for the resurgence of &rsquo;90s Americana. &ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s nostalgia right now for the &rsquo;90s, especially &rsquo;90s New York,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It reminds us of a time that doesn&rsquo;t exist anymore&mdash;a time before our phones, when life was to be lived and not incessantly documented. Not to be pessimistic, but I feel like it was the end of living freely and moment-to-moment with each other&mdash;creatively, artistically, musically. It was also the last time we believed in a collective greater good, politically; the Kennedys were, obviously, the last sort of American royal family that we had to revere and look up to.&rdquo;
On Love Story, Gummer collaborated with costume designers Rudy Mance and Lou Eyrich to get Kennedy&rsquo;s looks from the decade just right. She even incorporated her own pieces into the mix, from a Cartier diamond necklace to suede loafers from The Row. &ldquo;During that time, Caroline was a more elevated, classy version of me,&rdquo; says Gummer. &ldquo;And I just have an immense amount of respect for her as a mother, an author, a diplomat, an attorney, a sister, a wife, and a daughter. What she has managed to overcome and achieve in her life is beyond admirable. I&rsquo;m in awe of her.&rdquo;

Since the birth of her second child last year, Gummer has gained fresh perspective on juggling her own priorities. &ldquo;You realize that you don&rsquo;t have to be laser-focused on everything,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Not everything is a Greek tragedy or existential crisis.&rdquo; She spends her free time with her husband and kids upstate, going out dancing with friends, and avidly reading (she&rsquo;s currently enjoying Patti Smith&rsquo;s latest memoir and The Power Broker by Robert Caro), and on her last birthday, she experienced what she&rsquo;s now declared to be one of her favorite days, thanks to a chance run-in with actor Frances McDormand at the Met. &ldquo;We ended up going out to lunch after bumping into each other at the John Singer Sargent show, and we sat for hours, talking over a bottle of wine while it rained outside and my [then] three-month-old daughter slept in the pack,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Then I went home, put on a pretty dress, and went to dinner with all my friends.&rdquo;

I feel like I&rsquo;m exactly where I&rsquo;m supposed to be at this moment of my life.

Ahead of her upcoming 40th birthday, Gummer is feeling just fine. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel any imminent feelings of dread or regret,&rdquo; she laughs. &ldquo;My twenties were fun; I was still a child. My thirties were the best and hardest years of my life&mdash;my past relationship fell apart, and I thought my life was over. But it&rsquo;s led me to where I am now. So I&rsquo;m grateful for all of it, and 40 feels right. For me, timing was everything, and everything happened exactly when it was meant to.&rdquo;
On the career front, Gummer has one hope for the decade ahead: more creative control. &ldquo;I hope to get to a place where I can be more selective in choosing the work that I want to do,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;And I would really love to be the center of something, the protagonist facing all the adversities. Being a mother has deepened the well and opened up doors within myself that I never knew existed.&rdquo; Even as she manifests a lead role, Gummer isn&rsquo;t stressing about what&rsquo;s next. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;m exactly where I&rsquo;m supposed to be at this moment of my life,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m not bullshitting you, either. I&rsquo;m genuinely just really happy.&rdquo;

HAIR: Tommy Buckett TRACEY MATTINGLY&nbsp;
MAKEUP: Andrea Tiller&nbsp;
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Sean Moser&nbsp;
STYLING ASSISTANT: Amanata Adam&nbsp;

Grace Gummer Is Right Where She Wants To Be

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