PASADENA, Calif. — When director Robert Dornhelm set out to make the cable movie "RFK," he said "the key . . . was getting the right Bobby Kennedy."
"Of course, casting somebody from England seemed like hiring somebody from Transylvania to tell the story," the Romanian-born Dornhelm said of his choice of British actor Linus Roache to play the title role.
For his part, Roache said he was "overwhelmed" at the prospect of playing "a man who I admired so much."
Admired, but didn't know much about.
"I was 4 when he was killed, and I knew very little about him," Roache said. "I didn't really have a sense of who he was. That's why this was an amazing journey to go through."
"RFK," which premieres Sunday at 6 p.m. on FX, follows Robert F. Kennedy from the day his brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963 until the day RFK himself was assassinated in 1968. Artisan Pictures CEO Robert Cooper, who shepherded the movie for his company and FX, describes it as a movie "about a guy who figures out who he is in the last five years of his life" as he goes from being his brother's "ruthless . . . hired gun" to compassionate politician.
For the most part, "RFK" is a rather straightforward retelling of the facts. It doesn't lionize Kennedy, but it does show him growing into a very different person in 1968 than he was in 1963.
The movie chronicles Bobby Kennedy's battles with Lyndon Johnson (James Cromwell), his successful run for the U.S. Senate, his growth as a spokesman for the underprivileged and disenfranchised, and his aborted run for the White House in 1968.
"RFK's" most controversial move is to personify the late JFK — to include multiple scenes in which the audience gets to hear RFK's thoughts through conversations he has with his dead brother.
"I've tried to understand the human being that must go through some major trauma after the event," Dornhelm said. "I was trying to get into his head. . . . I was nervous at first to deal with Jack as a real actor and character in the film, but I discovered that we can go much further if we introduce him."
Roache said he spent a lot of time reading about the man he played, listening to audiotapes and watching film footage. And that playing a man who experienced great internal and external struggles was a struggle itself.
"What I had to go through every day — which was nothing compared to what he had to do — I felt like I was climbing a mountain every day just to play him," Roache said.
But he found his admiration for RFK growing.
"The more I worked on it, the more I loved him as a man," said Roache. "He was a humanitarian in the greatest sense of the word and a voice we would like to hear today."
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com