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  • Michelle Trachtenberg Talks Playing Marina Oswald

    Michelle Trachtenberg will play the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, Marina Oswald, in the upcoming made-for-TV movie Killing Kennedy. She spoke recently with the L.A. Times about researching the part, as well as how it feels to portray the only main figure in the Kennedy assassination scenario who is still alive.

    Marina Oswald was a young Russian bride 50 years ago when Kennedy was assassinated. This meant Michelle had to speak almost entirely in Russian while filming. This didn’t come with the kind of difficulty some actresses would have faced since Trachtenberg grew up in a Russian speaking family in Brooklyn. She knew very little about Marina Oswald, however.

    “When something so monumental happens in American history and the killer becomes so villainized, you don’t realize that he may have had a home life, a wife or children. When I read the script I was floored at how dynamic a person Marina was. I had no idea she was Russian, so of course I related to that immediately. And the fact that she was still alive and she has daughters in their 50s was mind-blowing,” she said during her interview.

    Most anyone in their mid-fifties and older clearly remembers when President John F. Kennedy was killed. But for Michelle Trachtenberg, who is just 28, her only recollection of the tragedy came from history books. This meant some serious research was required in order to wholeheartedly fulfill the role.

    “I read this amazing book called “Marina and Lee.” It was the only book that Marina sat down for after that assassination. It’s out of print, but I was able to order it off of Amazon. It was really thick, like 600 pages,” she said. “I really was able to get an insight into her from that. In this day and age you can Google and YouTube, the last interview she did maybe 20 years ago for the 30th anniversary. She was still defending Lee.”

    Michelle opted not to contact Marina Oswald as part of her research. Instead she relied on the various forms of media to gain insight into what it was like to be Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife.

    Killing Kennedy is just one of several upcoming made-for-TV movies and documentaries that will commemorate the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s death. It premieres on Sunday night, November 10th on National Geographic. In addition to Michelle Trachtenberg, the movie also stars Rob Lowe and Ginnifer Goodwin. Hype about the movie is drawing lots of Twitter buzz.

    This role is no doubt one of Michelle Trachtenberg’s more difficult endeavors. It will no doubt serve to raise her from the stereotype of films like Harriet the Spy and TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a category with serious actors. Playing Marina Oswald is serious business. Tune in Sunday to see her portrayal.

    Photo via Twitter

  • Michelle Trachtenberg As Marina Oswald

    Michelle Trachtenberg As Marina Oswald

    Michelle Trachtenberg has signed on to play Marina Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife, in the new television movie, “Killing Kennedy”. In recent interviews, she discusses the challenges that have come with playing this role and how she prepared for the part.

    In preparation for her role, she faced many obstacles. Most of Marina’s lines in the film were in Russian. Although Trachtenberg has a Russian background, she had to learn a lot of the words, with help from her mother.

    “Before I’d signed on to it, the script was predominantly all in Russian,” Trachtenberg told Fox News. “My mom actually was my translator and broke down the entire script for me,” she said. “I’m fluent in Russian, but I didn’t grow up, luckily, with sentences like, ‘You can’t see your children. Hide the guns. Don’t shoot the president!’,” she explains. “That was not in my repertoire as a six year old.”

    Trachtenberg also had to do a lot of research into the part. Most of us know who JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald are, but Marina Oswald? Her research included watching many documentaries and reading the actual book titled, “Killing Kennedy” as well. “Marina was a young girl who just wanted to live out the American dream. She just never knew that she would live it out in infamy,” Trachtenberg said of her character.

    “Most of the research was JFK-based. I watched several documentaries about him. Of course I read the original book, Killing Kennedy, and Marina and Lee, which was the only book that Marina ever sat down and gave an interview for,” she said.

    Marina Oswald is the only person in the story that is still living today. This made Trachtenberg really conscious of how she portrayed her character.

    “She, actually, of the four main players—JFK, Jackie, Lee, and Marina— she’s the only one who is still alive. She’s in her 70s,” she explained. “I’m trying to battle with the challenges that she’s still alive, and she may or may not be watching this, and I wanted to honor her living legacy.”

    “Killing Kennedy” will premiere on Sunday at 8 p.m. eastern time on the National Geographic Channel.

    Image via Twitter

  • Lee Harvey Oswald: Wedding Band Up For Sale

    Lee Harvey Oswald has remained one of the most fascinating and mysterious people in our history; as the man who fatally shot J.F.K. from a Texas book depository, he was widely hated, yet many are still curious about what made him the man he was before that fateful day.

    Oswald’s wife, Marina, has moved on from that day and built another life with a family, and now she’s putting up at least one significant piece of history for auction: Oswald’s wedding band. Oswald reportedly took it off before leaving the house the day Kennedy was assassinated, and it has sat forgotten in a file of a lawyer who was once under Marina’s employ. Experts believe the ring could fetch as much as $100,000.

    “It gives you such insight into the mind of Lee Harvey Oswald,” said Bobby Livingston of RR Auction.

    The ring is engraved with a sickle and hammer on the inside and will be among several items up for auction from that time period, including Kennedy’s rosary beads and a hat that belonged to Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed Oswald just after the assassination. The auction is in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the death of Kennedy.

    A television movie will also be aired in November for the anniversary, a film called “Killing Kennedy” which stars Rob Lowe and Michelle Trachtenberg, who plays Marina.

    “I am so excited for the challenge to portray Marina Oswald, and to do my first role speaking only in Russian,” Trachtenberg said. “I’m the only actor playing someone who is still alive, so I want to stay as true to her as possible. This is a story about JFK’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, and his wife Marina. And it is fascinating.”

    The film airs in November on the National Geographic Channel.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons