If O.J Simpson’s prosecution for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman was dubbed “The Trial of the Century” only 20 years ago, it’s a safe bet that FX’s latest 10-hour American Crime Story entry, The People vs. O.J. Simpson (and based on the Jeffrey Toobin bestseller by the same name), will be getting almost as much scrutiny.
And right in the middle of it all, amidst an all-star cast including John Travolta, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Nathan Lane, actor Sterling K. Brown finds himself under the microscope like never before in the high-profile role of conflicted African-American prosecutor Christopher Darden.
It was a wonderful get for Brown, best known for his six seasons as Dr. Roland Burton, the lone male among the military spouses of Lifetime’s Army Wives.
He attended the prestigious St. Louis Country Day School in his hometown before switching from economics to theatre midway though his undergrad years at Stanford. After working to an MFA in acting at NYU, his steadily increasing work in regional theatre and guest roles in drama and film led to recurring roles on Third Watch, Supernatural, and Person of Interest.
And now Darden, the number-two prosecutor behind Marcia Clark in the infamous 1994-95 trial that was as much reality television as a judicial proceeding, looks to be the biggest role yet for Brown—after a surprisingly short audition that led to hours and hours of research, slogging along in the vibe that shaped the prosecutor, and completely flipping his own impression of the trial.
Sterling, what were your memories and experiences of the original O.J. trial? And what came back to you as you prepped and began to live this real-life role?
I was a freshman at Stanford, and I can remember when the verdict came down, and just how polarizing it was: How you reacted to that case was night and day in terms of black and white America, and the divide was so incredibly clear.
And I lived in a black dorm, where folks rejoiced at the verdict—and our white classmates looked at us as if we had a screw loose. And now to revisit that whole thing 20 years later, and my thoughts about Christopher Darden in particular—I thought he was on the wrong side of history: How could he be prosecuting this African-American man?
So, to be a little bit older and a little bit wiser, is to recognize that this man was doing his job to the best of his ability, and did not deserve to be vilified and sort of “ex-communicated” by the African American community in the way that he was, it was a wonderful opportunity for me to bring as much integrity to that role, and to hopefully show him in the best light possible for a new generation of people.
You remember it being polarizing at the time—but it was also just all over the culture, for so long: the “Dancing Itos” on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show mocking the judge, for instance.
Oh, it was huge—it dominated everything. To the point where I remember watching the NBA Finals… and the game gets pre-empted by a white Bronco going relatively slowly down the 405! The fact that THAT happened, that TV executives said, “No, this is bigger than the NBA Finals,” was a tell-tale sign that something was happening that hadn’t quite happened in the modern media, in terms of the way in which we covered crimes.
I mean, people got jobs off of it; CourtTV became a network because of this trial. And especially because I was in California—Californians had a lot of love for this man, the Hertz commercials, and his time at USC. It was crazy!
Given that grounding, what were some of the revelations as you revisited all this—as the actor finding the character of an historical figure, and then as part of this incredible ensemble?
Well, I didn’t know that Darden was from northern California, that he got his job in the District Attorney’s office in Los Angeles shortly after passing the bar, and was torn. He decided to pursue his career, but at the same time almost every weekend he would go back home to be a part of his daughter’s life. And that shapes him, to a great extent. He’s somebody who’s tremendously committed to the law, in its purest form.
And in our cast, let me just start with Sarah Paulson [playing lead prosecutor Marcia Clark], because she’s the one I spent a great deal of time with. She is a perfectionist of sorts, and she does everything she can to serve the character— incredibly specific, and incredibly generous.
I got a friend out of this; it’s so interesting in terms of how Darden’s relationship with Marcia parallels my relationship with Sarah: At the beginning of the trial they were sort of acquaintances, and then they became very, very, very good friends.
I also have tremendous love for my main adversary, Mr. Courtney B. Vance, who plays the late Johnnie Cochran. He was so willing to take me under his wing and share his experience and expertise, and just play.
There’s a ton of people more, but let me touch on the generosity that was Mr. John Travolta, Number 1 on our call sheet, who could not have been a more kinder human being. And he’s a megastar who’s doing his first television since Welcome Back, Kotter.
What kind of prep did you undertake to play Darden as a specific person?
Well, his voice is very specific, and so getting his syntax and cadence and his melody took a lot of time. And it helped me to understand—what’s the right way to say this? —as an African-American male who deals in mainstream society, there are certain things that we often do to make people feel comfortable with our presence— you understand what I’m sayin’?
I can see there are certain things that he did in terms of how he approached people, to let them know he was not harmful or a threat—which is very difficult for him in particular, because he is such an incredibly passionate human being.
Also, this was the first case that I’m aware of that was tried as much in the court of public opinion as it was in between the walls of the courtroom.
The defense “Dream Team” was accustomed to that limelight, and to working in front of cameras and knowing how to manipulate the media; I think the prosecution thought that if they did their job, if they presented their evidence, that’s all they had to do.
Unfortunately, history shows us that that wasn’t necessarily the right strategy, but it was the purest strategy.
Did you get to meet Darden?
I attempted to reach out to Darden. He was never disrespectful or anything of that nature, he just simply declined because he wasn’t eager to revisit it. And after having walked through his shoes, that is an understandable response (he laughs wryly). You know what I mean?
Well, let’s talk about the production, and the pressure of doing an historical recreation across the board—and involving such well-known events.
Top-notch cast! You frequently saw people walking around with some gigantic tome about their characters’ personal experience with the trial. Like, Sarah Paulson would be carrying Marcia’s book around, Courtney B. Vance would be carrying Johnny Cochran’s book around, I’d be carrying Christopher Darden’s book around—it was very hilarious to see all the books.
Everybody had copies of Jeffrey Toobin’s book, as well. And folks were just constantly watching footage, constantly reading and sharing anecdotes from different people’s autobiographies or accounts of the trial. I can say that there were no egos involved in this whole thing; everybody was about doing the work.
And for somebody who was not a name, they couldn’t have been more inviting and gracious with yours truly. It was a dream-come-true experience, in terms of just being about the work.
So, with all that research, there had to be surprises that added to the texture of your work.
There were so many things—and Toobin’s book was definitely an eye-opener. For instance: They went to visit the site of the crime, Nicole’s residence at Bundy and O.J.’s residence at Rockingham—and he was allowed to be present!
So in Darden’s book, he talks about how he was in O.J.’s house and he was sitting down on a bench, and O.J. comes up to him and says, “Get off my bench!” And he looks at him like, ”What?” He’s like, “I don’t want you sitting on my bench!” Why was he even there?
So I have the utmost respect for Darden. It took a lot of integrity to say yes to this trial: his family warned him that it’d be a difficult situation for him to step into.
But his principles did not allow for him to not do his job—so when death threats came, when he was called an Uncle Tom and a sellout, that hurt him. And if anything, his biggest fault is that he feels too much, you know, and I think the defense was able to exploit it—him wearing his emotions on his sleeve.
I can’t imagine you spending this much time and energy to inhabit these real-life characters over 10 intense episodes and it not affect all of you, in your mindset and your actions.
It went deep, man—it was so invigorating and incredibly frustrating, to feel as if you had all the evidence to prove someone’s guilt—and to not have success.
It’s not an exact science in terms of walking around in somebody else’s shoes, but as actors Sarah and I would both agree that having the experience of being the prosecution on this case was as if we knew that the cards were stacked against us. And it was an uphill battle that we were fighting, as actors, to try to win this jury over—and we would work our asses off.
It’d be like, “C’mon, we can change this!” There would be times when Sarah and I would sit next to each other and be like, “What could we have done differently? What could we do to get a mistrial?”
Because, yes, our characters were pissed off! They just wanted justice for Nicole and for Ron. And that’s the thing that gets lost in all the media hoopla, and the celebrity of O.J. Simpson, and the celebrity of the “Dream Team”: that two people had their lives brutally taken away from them, and had just been glossed over.
All because it was two years after Rodney King, the Los Angeles Police Department had the reputation for police brutality that they did, the community was ripe for a reason to put them under the microscope—and Johnnie Cochran handed it to them .
Some of the principals have passed away, but did anyone else in the project have the chance their real-life namesake? Did Sarah get to meet with Marcia Clark?
She did. They did meet, they struck up a bit of a rapport, and she shared a little bit of her experience with it; she didn’t go into too much stuff.
I don’t know how many of the actual participants will watch this; maybe everybody will, but they’ll keep it to themselves. Or maybe they won’t.
From the prosecution standpoint in particular, I hope Marcia and Chris watch; I hope they like what they see. We can’t get everything right, y’know, because only those two people know exactly what they experienced. But I hope they can see that we tried to show them as fully-formed human beings who were good at their job, who had a very difficult time carrying justice for the dead.
Was that trepidatious for you, having living subjects of your history recreation? After all, you’re not doing Lincoln and his cabinet.
The producers have a tremendous responsibility to get it right—and at the same time, the freedom to carry through with their own creative instincts. My whole take was that if people could believe me as Darden and doing the things the public remembers, then when I take them behind closed doors they’ll be more apt to believe me in the things that were not for public consumption.
So I watched as much original footage as I possible could, paid attention to Darden’s mannerisms, without trying to make it a caricature—but having it be a lived-in experience.
Because he’s going to be watching too, and I want him to hopefully recognize an aspect of himself, a core of himself, in the performance. So yeah—I didn’t try to give myself a debilitating amount of pressure, but I did want to make it good. I wanted to make it right.
Beyond the world of O.J., your role in Tina Fey’s upcoming Whiskey Tango Foxtrot lets you flex some comedic muscles in a film about the 1980s Middle East wars.
It’s a dramedy, and it’s probably Tina’s most dramatic thing so far: she plays this journalist who goes over there to cover the war, and I play a sergeant in the Marine Corps. And I had the time of my life! A lot of improv!
See, I love comedy. I think I’m always seen, to a certain extent, as the heavy—I have a tremendous amount of gravitas and presence, I can be very intimidating to people… and I say all that with my tongue firmly in my cheek!
But any time I have an opportunity to show that aspect of my character, I relish it. So, Darden has his funny moments… and I would like to see, obviously, serious moments for this comedic character that I play, Sgt. Hurd, as well.
With your Christopher Darden and the whole O.J. series finally being seen now, what about all the younger folks who did not live during the trial and the phenomenon: Are you satisfied it’s a reliable representation?
As I would say to Sarah when we were working: The people who lived through it will experience it anew, and get a chance to see the behind-the-scenes things they didn’t know about—and will be shocked.
The people who are experiencing it for the first time will be completely in awe that something like this even transpired in the first place. I have the sense that people with no knowledge of it will be like, “This really happened? Or is this really made up?”
Truth is usually stranger than fiction, and I believe Ryan [Murphy] and our producers and other directors do an excellent job of showing just how strange truth is.
A fitting piece of history, even seen through media eyes, then?
If they are teaching O.J.’s trial in American history right now, this could serve as a Cliff Notes!
For more on The People vs. O.J. Simpson, see "Trial and Error" from the new emmy magazine.
