Grace Gummer 'filled with joy and compassion' now she's hit 40
Grace Gummer, the actress daughter of Meryl Streep, is currently starring as Caroline Kennedy in Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. Carolyn Bessette, and opened up about how her life trajectory is going after hitting the landmark age last month.
Grace Gummer has insisted she’s “exactly where I want to be” now she’s turned 40.
The actress daughter of Meryl Streep is currently starring as Caroline Kennedy in Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. Carolyn Bessette, and opened up about how her life trajectory is going after hitting the landmark age last month.
She told AwardsRadar: “I have arrived. I’m so happy to be 40. I feel like I’m exactly where I want to be.
“Coming off the heels of this show I’m filled with joy and compassion for myself.
“I’m filled with confidence for what’s next, and I’m also really happy in my life. I think 40 is good.”
While Grace has been an actress for years - starring in movies such as Larry Crowne and TV shows including Mr. Robot and American Horror Story - she added that “everything in my life” has “primed” her to play someone like Caroline Kennedy with “integrity, dignity, class, and formidability”.
She said: “I feel like everything in my life so far has led up to this perfect moment where I can portray this woman loving and losing almost everything that she holds dear to her.
“This part asked a lot of me. It asked to give my entire heart, soul, and body to it, and I feel really proud of it.
“I really do think her forbearance, strength, and wisdom garnered through unthinkable tragedy are beyond admirable.
“As a sister, wife, and mother, I think she’s incredible, and I’ll take so much of her strength with me throughout my life.
Elsewhere in the interview, Grace - whose dad is American sculptor Don Gummer, who split from Meryl in 2023 - spoke about how she felt growing up in the spotlight.
She said: “I can relate to her [Caroline] on a lot of levels. For one, growing up in the spotlight. My childhood was nowhere near the Kennedys or the kind of spotlight they were under, but I can relate to being a very private person and feeling like people think they know who you are.”
Taking on the role of Caroline wasn’t easy though, as she had some difficult scenes to film.
So when it came to going home at the end of the day, Grace found herself relying on different methods to “come down” from the part.
She explained: “I had to do a lot of work to not only warm myself up and get to the place where I can access those feelings, but I had to work to come down from that, otherwise I would bring those feelings home, and I never want to do that.
“Meditation and body work are important to me.”
