Thought you knew the story of the Titanic?
Chris Noth, of “Sex and the City” and “Law & Order” fame, is playing J.P. Morgan in a $30 million miniseries about the building of the so-called unsinkable ocean liner, filming now in Ireland.
“Most dramas have all been about the sinking,” Noth told the Irish newspapers, which have been crammed with news of the filming, which began this week.
“We are about the birth of it, the promise before it,” he said. “The expectation was so intense, of what it was and what it could be, that promise was destroyed.”
Noth is sporting a huge mustache for the role, as well as a blotchy, craggy complexion — to recapture the look of the skin conditions, rosacea and rhinophyma, that marred Morgan’s face in later life.
The miniseries is set to air on ABC in April, the 100th anniversary of the sinking.
Morgan, who controlled the White Star line, which built and operated the Titanic, was supposed to be aboard the Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912 but canceled when he developed a cold.
The series also stars Neve Campbell as a New York reporter who covered the building of the ship and Kevin Zegers (of “Gossip Girl”) as an Irish engineer.