Katie Holmes chatted about The Kennedys in a segment on On Air with Ryan Seacrest Monday, saying that she gained a newfound respect for former First Lady Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis while portraying the American icon in the  controversial  new ReelzChannel mini-series.

The mini-series documents President John F. Kennedy’s time in office prior to his assassination in November 1963, and Greg Kinnear plays John. The Kennedys was originally slated to air on The History Channel, but yanked by the network, who said “this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand.” (Noteworthy is that Seacrest avoided the controversy altogether in Monday’s segment.)

Holmes said she "didn't know that much" about the family, but her "respect and admiration for Jackie just grew with every story I read, seeing the footage of her.

"What we tried to achieve with the miniseries was showing the human side of ... we set out to almost make it, almost like a Greek tragedy," Holmes said of the mini-series.

Holmes said that one of her favorite elements in playing Jackie O was wearing the former first lady's trend-setting fa