From June 1994 through early October 1995, there may have been no more notorious man in the world than O.J. Simpson. The infamous murder trial of the NFL’s first 2,000-yard rusher was a staple of television screens over that stretch. FX gave people a refresher on the whole circus with their “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” limited series in 2016.
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Renowned actor Sterling K. Brown played a key role – prosecutor Christopher Darden – in FX’s dramatization of the event. Brown revealed during a recent episode of The Pivot podcast that embodying Darden taught him a major lesson he carries with him into newer gigs.
“I read his book… you can’t judge someone and play them at the same time… whatever I felt when I was 18, 19 years old, [if I] brought that to the character, that wouldn’t have worked. You don’t have to love every character you play, but you have to understand why they do what they do… in that way, each character allows me to release a little bit of judgement about what I may have had towards them.”
When the trial was developing, Brown admitted he held some ill will toward Darden. That preconceived notion is ultimately what led him to pick up the lesson in preparation for the position.
Brown: O.J. Simpson’s trial was a “microcosm of America”
The O.J. Simpson trial may have been the most popular “reality TV show” of its era. Simpson’s prior status as a football star only fueled the investigation’s flames. Darden, an African American prosecutor of an African American man, gained several haters in the process of doing his job. Brown, a Stanford college student at the time, admittedly was one of them.
“Christopher Darden was persona non grata… ‘you on the wrong side, bruh. What are you doing? You’re trying to take down one of the heroes?! We only have so many!'”
The tension Brown alluded to put Darden in a difficult spot. When Simpson’s not guilty verdict came in, his mission got marked a failure. Other African Americans, including Brown and his college classmates, rejoiced.
“It was a microcosm of America… they announce the verdict… Black people were like ‘Ohhhhhhhhhhhh yeah!’ And all the non-Black people were like ‘Oh what?!’… that happened all across the country. There was no understanding from everybody else that ‘we’re not used to the justice system working on behalf of anybody that looks like us.”
Brown hadn’t ever stepped into Darden’s shoes until the FX series came along. That new perspective opened his eyes to a viewpoint on the case he had not previously considered. In the process, it helped him better “understand and relate to people.” And that improved skill has allowed him to more effectively personify characters he’s been tasked with since then.
