Kate Mara and Ed Helms Join Ted Kennedy Film Chappaquiddick

Photo by Charles Sykes / Bravo

Kate Mara and Ed Helms are the latest stars to join Chappaquiddick, the upcoming film about Ted Kennedy’s 1969 automobile accident on Martha’s Vineyard.

According to Deadline, the pair will play pivotal roles in the project opposite Zero Dark Thirty actor Jason Clarke, who was previously cast as the late Massachusetts senator.

Mara is set to star as Mary Jo Kopechne, the 28-year-old campaign aide who was a passenger in Kennedy’s car when he drove off a one-lane bridge and into a channel. Kopechne was killed in the incident, which Kennedy failed to report to police until the following morning.

Helms will star as Joe Gargan, a cousin of Kennedy who played a key role leading up to and after the situation. Gargan attended the party on Chappaquiddick with Kennedy prior to the crash and tried to help the senator find Kopechne during a return to trip to the site of the accident.

Directed by John Curran, Chappaquiddick is one of several projects about the Kennedys that’s currently in production.

Matthew Perry and Katie Holmes are set to star in The Kennedys — After Camelot, a sequel to Reelz’s 2011 miniseries The Kennedys. Emma Stone has also been recently cast as Rosemary Kennedy in the upcoming movie Letters From Rosemary, while Natalie Portman will be playing Jackie O in next year’s Jackie.