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How Brett Stimely Became Hollywood's JFK for Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Watchmen & More
Talk about finding your niche!
Whether he's shaking hands with Doctor Manhattan on the White House lawn or surviving to make it out of that fateful Dallas drive, President John F. Kennedy remains a popular figure throughout speculative fiction. More than six decades after assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald, the 35th Commander-in-Chief continues to hold a mythical, larger-than-life status within America's collective imagination.
One can't help but wonder what the man might have accomplished on behalf of the United States, had he not been cut down in his prime. We'll never know for certain, of course, but that doesn't stop versions of JFK from popping up in everything from Watchmen to Transformers: Dark of the Moon (the latter is now streaming on Peacock). And when Hollywood decides to take a little peek into the multiverse, they call Brett Stimely, an actor who has cultivated quite the sterling reputation as a Jack Kennedy lookalike. Talk about finding your niche, right?
"You discover somebody that you look like or could possibly portray," Stimely tells SYFY WIRE. "And then I always do a little research on that kind of thing — whether it's a president, senators, lawyers. It's just good to have that up your sleeve, just in case, and it paid off in this case."
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How Actor Brett Stimely Became Hollywood's Go-To Stand-In for John F. Kennedy
Stimely's dependability as a JFK for all occasions began with Zack Snyder's 2009 film adaptation of Watchmen, which takes place in an alternate timeline where masked vigilantes (and one super-being) exist. The movie brilliantly eases the audience into its parallel reality with a slow-motion montage of pivotal, yet slightly modified, watershed events of the 20th century. Among these little tableaus, we see President Kennedy shaking hands with the omnipotent, blue-skinned being known as Doctor Manhattan (a motion-captured Billy Crudup).
When it came time to film this particular meeting, however, the crew suddenly realized Crudup was several inches shorter than Stimely. "Now, I like that, but Manhattan is supposed to be the ultimate guy," recalls Stimely. "[They’re like] ‘Let's get a half apple box over here and put him on that... okay, we need another full apple, too.' So, they made him taller than me." He quickly goes on to add: "It was a really wonderful experience to work with Billy there and shake the hand of the most powerful being in the universe."
Seconds later, the film's montage shifts to the tragic day of Kennedy's death, with a major twist: the fatal shot comes not from Oswald, but from the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), perched on the grassy knoll and puffing smoke from his cigar. Stimely says he watched the Zapruder film "probably 50 times" to accurately recreate the moment.
Two years later, the actor reprised the Kennedy persona for the opening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which posits the United States didn't send astronauts to the Moon because of the Cold War, but because the government wanted to investigate a crashed Autobot spaceship. Stimely's performance, which required four hours in the makeup chair, is intercut with actual footage of JFK during his "We Choose to Go to the Moon" speech. "He was always a favorite of mine," the actor admits. "I'd listened to many of his speeches before. I really liked [the Moon address] ... I was young when the assassination was announced, and it was quite a moving event."
Several months before filming began on Dark of the Moon, Stimely was called in for a wardrobe fitting, during which director Michael Bay insisted a custom suit be made for Kennedy's brief appearance. "So," the actor remembers, "they sent me George Clooney’s tailor."
Since Watchmen and Dark of the Moon, Stimely has played President Kennedy in two non-fiction films, both of which released in 2013: Kill the Dictator (about Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo) and Parkland (about the immediate fallout of JFK's death). When we ask why this particular figure continues to inspire so many depictions, especially in the realm of alternate history, Stimely flags several factors. "He was young," the actor concludes. "He was very handsome, he had a beautiful wife, he had the legacy name."
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is now streaming on Peacock alongside Transformers and Transformers: Age of Extinction. Want more Kennedy-related content? Be sure to check out JFK: A President Betrayed and Killing JFK: 60 Questions Answered on the streamer, as well.
