‘The Blacklist’ Star James Spader Once ‘Threw up’ During Dinner With the Kennedy’s and Jackie O’s Reaction Is Pure Gold
James Spader‘s role on NBC’s The Blacklist isn’t the only fascinating part of his life. Throughout the actor’s teens, he spent a lot of time with his friend, the late John F. Kennedy Jr., and the Kennedy family. Years ago, Spader attended one family dinner he’d probably love to forget about.
James Spader and John F. Kennedy were friends long before ‘The Blacklist’
It’s been stated in many different interviews through the years that James Spader might be one of the most mysterious and charismatic actors in Hollywood. The notoriously private star rarely opens up about his personal life. But, every now and then, he offers up a story that sounds too absurd to be true.
Such is the case with Spader’s longtime friendship with presidential royalty, John F. Kennedy Jr. The two attended Phillip’s Academy with Kennedy a year behind The Blacklist star.
Spader dropped out of school at 17 and moved to New York City to pursue acting, but his friendship with Kennedy remained.
Kennedy, who died in a 1999 plane crash at the age of 38, often invited Spader over to family dinners. The star reminisced about one dinner, in particular, that didn’t go so well.
Spader threw up at a Kennedy family dinner party
Having friends in high places comes with a lot of pressure. Years before Spader’s career took off, he and Kennedy had a “festive afternoon,” according to an interview with The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.
Spader said the family kept a bowl of pistachios out and at the time, he felt hungry. Before he knew it, he’d finished the entire bowl. By the time Kenedy’s mother, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (aka Jackie O.) called the two down for dinner, Spader, “started to think, I’m feeling a little nauseous.” He then threw up all over his dinner plate.
While some might react in horror, Onassis rolled with the punches.
“Good shot, Jim!” she said, as he recalled.
He went on to say that Kennedy was laughing so hard at the incident he fell back in his chair despite his mother reminding him not to do that (because they were expensive).
Spader remembered Kennedy absent from view, still laughing, when Onassis scolded him.
“’D*mmit John, if I told you once, I told you a dozen times,'” Spader said. “‘Do not lean back in those chairs. Now see what’s happened. Look what you’ve done. It’s just so rude.’”
Kennedy hopped up from the floor without missing a beat.
“’Jimmy just threw up at the table!’” he said in response.
Spader’s memory of the event is clearly one he holds dear. But it’s not the first, or last, good memory he has with the Kennedy family.
‘The Blacklist’ used to prank JFK’s secret service
While both Spader and Kennedy attended school, Kennedy was already equipped with his own team of secret service members. Spader recalled in an interview with the Today Show that they kept their headquarters across from Kennedy’s dorm.
He admitted he and his other friends would occasionally burst into Kennedy’s room and tackle him to freak out the secret service.
“We may have projected more of that freaking out than there may have been,” he said. “They were probably used to that sort of behavior.”
From the sound of it, Spader and Kennedy had quite the friendship — one that provides fans with a closer look at who Spader is beyond his roles.
