How Grace Gummer, Meryl Streep’s daughter, is carving out her own niche: ‘Her mother’s gift is now also hers’
In an era of nepotism, the actress has built her own career, most recently dazzling audiences with her portrayal of Caroline Kennedy. Approaching her 40th birthday, critics are already touting her as an Emmy favorite
“How have you managed to be so normal?” This is the question that, according to her, Grace Gummer is asked most often. “And I don’t really know what it means or how to answer, except that I was raised well… I was raised by good people who did the best they could.” In an industry where “nepo babies” have unabashedly embraced the privileged position their pedigree affords them, Gummer—who will turn 40 in just a few weeks—stands out as a discreet exception to the rule. After 15 years of a solid career, with films like Frances Ha and television series like The Newsroom, and American Horror Story, there are still people who are surprised to find out that this reserved, talented actress is the daughter of Meryl Streep and is married to one of the most influential musicians on the current scene.
“Her mother’s gift [...] is now, entirely also, her own,” “her mother’s soul has possessed her,” “she proves that Meryl Streep’s lineage is strong and her performance, worthy of an Emmy.” These are some of the reactions her latest work has elicited, bringing Caroline Kennedy to life in Love Story, the series that has narrated—with record-breaking audience figures—the tragic story of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. It is precisely in the final episode, which recreates the plane crash that took the lives of the couple and Bessette’s sister, where Gummer displays her full acting potential: a woman devastated by grief, carrying on her shoulders decades of family tragedy, myth, and the persistent idea of the Kennedy curse. Variety magazine has heaped praise on her and is already placing her in the conversation for the upcoming awards season: “Gummer, 39, may have not inherited her mother’s name in Hollywood, but she’s earning her own,” When asked about the inevitable comparison to the three-time Oscar winner, the actress admits that it used to bother her, but she tries not to think about it.
Following in her mother’s footsteps wasn’t part of her initial plan. Far from the glitz of Hollywood, Gummer grew up in a small Connecticut town with her mother, her father—sculptor Don Gummer—her brother Henry, and her sisters Mamie and Louisa, both also actresses. At just six years old, she had already made her film debut playing the child version of her mother’s character in The House of the Spirits, although her family never considered turning her into a child actress. “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,” she recalled in an interview. Her mother once joked that, after trying so hard to keep her children out of show business, she had achieved just the opposite.
She studied Art History and Italian at Vassar College—the same university as her mother—and later moved to Rome to train in costume design at the Tirelli workshop, responsible for the wardrobe of films like Marie Antoinette and Maleficent. Her work at that time was far removed from the image one might expect of the daughter of fashion editor Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada: hemming, sewing buttons, and ironing hats. Back in New York, she interned with Zac Posen, where she worked on the costumes for Michael Jackson’s tour before his sudden death. Shortly afterward, a friend of her brother suggested she design the costumes for an independent play. She read the script, but instead of imagining looks, she discovered that what she really wanted was to act in it. She auditioned, got the part, and thus began a career that, even today, she is forced to defend against suspicions of nepotism.
Her connection to fashion, however, remains strong. A regular at Paris and New York Fashion Weeks, thanks to Love Story she has worn vintage 90s pieces from Valentino and Michael Kors. Even so, she insists on prioritizing her work and privacy over media exposure: “I just want to be mutable and shiftable and known for my actual work, rather than, for example, where I was seen or what I wore on the red carpet,” she told W Magazine. However, that interest in fashion—“it’s crazy how much I think about clothes,” she has admitted—is palpable in her looks. A lover of the understated elegance of The Row, the very expensive label by the Olsen twins, in her most recent appearances she has completely disregarded method dressing, distancing herself from the sober and classic style of her character in Love Story. At the last New York Fashion Week, for example, she attended the Calvin Klein show pairing a coat with a headscarf, the Khaite show clad in head-to-toe leather, and the Michael Kors show in baggy trousers and a plunging neckline. There’s nothing she can’t pull off, and she seems capable of making any trend, design, or brand her own. At the Vanity Fair Oscar after-party, she demonstrated this with a dazzling silver Balenciaga dress, confirming her status as a legitimate star. A tuxedo transformed into a dress by Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford and a couple of all-black looks by Celine further illustrate why she has one of the coolest wardrobes in Hollywood.
Gummer acknowledges that she has also influenced the style of her husband, Mark Ronson, the father of her two daughters. The producer, responsible for some of the biggest hits by Bruno Mars, Amy Winehouse, Dua Lipa and Miley Cyrus, has “elevated” his style thanks to the influence of his partner, whom he married in New York in an intimate ceremony with few guests due to the Covid pandemic, in the summer of 2021. Before that, the actress was briefly married—for barely a month and a half—to fellow actor Tay Strathairn. Despite her inclination towards discretion, Gummer, who legally now uses the surname Ronson, doesn’t hesitate to proclaim her affection for her husband. “I would shout my love for this man from the rooftops. I’ve always considered myself a romantic, but I didn’t know how much until I met him,” she said about her particular love story.
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