Michelle Trachtenberg has signed on to play Marina Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife, in the new television movie, “Killing Kennedy”. In recent interviews, she discusses the challenges that have come with playing this role and how she prepared for the part.

In preparation for her role, she faced many obstacles. Most of Marina’s lines in the film were in Russian. Although Trachtenberg has a Russian background, she had to learn a lot of the words, with help from her mother.

“Before I’d signed on to it, the script was predominantly all in Russian,” Trachtenberg told Fox News. “My mom actually was my translator and broke down the entire script for me,” she said. “I’m fluent in Russian, but I didn’t grow up, luckily, with sentences like, ‘You can’t see your children. Hide the guns. Don’t shoot the president!’,” she explains. “That was not in my repertoire as a six year old.”

Trachtenberg also had to do a lot of research into the part. Most of us know who JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald are, but Marina Oswald? Her research included watching many documentaries and reading the actual book titled, “Killing Kennedy” as well. “Marina was a young girl who just wanted to live out the American dream. She just never knew that she would live it out in infamy,” Trachtenberg said of her character.

“Most of the research was JFK-based. I watched several documentaries about him. Of course I read the original book, Killing Kennedy, and Marina and Lee, which was the only book that Marina ever sat down and gave an interview for,” she said.

Marina Oswald is the only person in the story that is still living today. This made Trachtenberg really conscious of how she portrayed her character.

“She, actually, of the four main players—JFK, Jackie, Lee, and Marina— she’s the only one who is still alive. She’s in her 70s,” she explained. “I’m trying to battle with the challenges that she’s still alive, and she may or may not be watching this, and I wanted to honor her living legacy.”

Sweet dreams tweeps! Only a few more days until #KillingKennedy airs on @NatGeoChannel!! #MarinaOswald

— MichelleTrachtenberg (@RealMichelleT) November 7, 2013

“Killing Kennedy” will premiere on Sunday at 8 p.m. eastern time on the National Geographic Channel.

Image via Twitter