GQ South Africa — May 2017

70 GQ.CO.ZAMAY 2017

Cuba Gooding Jr (as OJ Simpson)

I had an opinion when the trial came out

thatIdidn’tcareifhediditornot.Ijust

didn’t want another black man railroaded.

AsIresearchedthisrole,Iwouldgo

through all of the documentaries that

proved his innocence, and all the

documentaries that proved his guilt. And

now I’m overrun with information from

almost every perspective and point of

view.[Producer]RyanMurphyandIgotto

apointwherehewouldsay,‘Dothistake

where Simpson is struggling with the guilt

of what he has done.’ And then, ‘On this

takeIneedyoutodoitwherehe’sinnocent

andhe’sfeelingthefrustration.’

It’snotmyjobtoclaim[Simpson’s]guilt

or innocence, because I don’t want people

toseemyperformanceandthinkitwas

basedononeconceptortheother.here’s

stillquestionseitherway.AndIthink

anybodywhobelieveshe’sguilty–there’s

nothingI’mgoingtosaythat’sgoingto

sway them. Or anybody that thinks he’s

innocent–ifhecameoutofjailandsaid,

‘Ididit,’they’llbelike,‘Jailmusthave

brokehim.’WhatIdon’twantisforpeople

nottotuneinbecauseit’slike‘thatactor’s

giving that performance’.

SarahPaulson(asMarciaClark)

DoesitmatterwhatIthink?Idothinkhe

didit.IthoughthediditbeforeIplayed

the part. But, in all fairness to him,

Ithoughthediditbasedonmyloose

understandingofwhathadhappened–

because I wasn’t that focused on the trial.

Iwas19atthetime.Nowmyopinionis

onebasedonwhatIthinkareirrefutable

piecesofevidence,plainandsimple.hat

comesfromhavingplayedMarcia.But

Ihadamomentof,wow,Ididthinkthis,

and I had decided

on this without

examining the

facts. But given

what Marcia went

through and given

what I was asked to

do [in playing her],

perception was

very much in the

forefrontofmy

mind – and how

decisions are made

basedonverylittle

information.

John Travolta

(as Robert

Shapiro)

I think that the

evidence feels

overwhelming that

hedid.ButIcan’t

declare that. I

think my character

thought he did –

Inevertalkedto

Shapiro, but all the

recommendations

he was making...

Toobin wrote the

book [on which

the series was

based] with the

declarative. And

Ithinkhewrote

my character with

that declarative.

It’s hard, when you

put all the pieces

together, to not see

that [Simpson’s

guilt] is a strong

possibility. But

could I absolutely

say?Ican’t.Ithink

the implication

is there. here

was too much

[ev idence] for you

not to come to that

conclusion. But the

win had so much

more to do with

other things, as the

show explained.

To do with the race

situationatthe

time and the mistreatment of earlier

people.Sothiswasalmostamaking-up.

‘It’snotmyjobtoclaim

Simpson’s guilt or

innocence.here’s still

questionseitherway’

–CubaGoodingJr

SterlingKBrown(asChristopher

Darden)

Forme,withalltheevidencethatIsaw,

and playing Christopher Darden, it’s

hardformenottothinklike[Darden]

thought. The evidence led to one person.

A lot of people have questions as to

whether somebody else could’ve possibly

been involved, which is possible.

Anything’spossible.ButIdefinitely

think he was present at the deaths of Ron

Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

CourtneyBVance(asJohnnieCochran)

Idon’tknow.Idon’t.It’slike,‘Whoshot

Kennedy?’ I think we will find out in the

byandby.Iknowhe’sinjailnow.

Andtherewassomeangstthereabout

something. Only he knows. There’s

something about our American psyche –

there’s a river of discontent that’s going

through our country. And it was always

going through our country, from the time

we began. The slavery issue, our issues

of sexism, and racism... But that’s life.

We’re always going to be battling against

something. The question is: are we going

todealwithit?Arewegoingtolookatit?

Or are we going to continue to bury it?

AndIthink[producers]Murphy,Brad

Simpson and Nina Jacobson brought the

projecttotheforeattherighttimeto

continue our discussions. The madness

of our country, but the beauty of it, is

thatthefabricisstretchy.Itstretches,

butitcannotbreak.Wecannotallowthe

fabric of our society to tear. And some

things are worked out in the courts, and

in the Congress, but some things are

workedoutinthehumanheart.

KennethChoi(asJudgeLanceIto)

Ithinkthatthehardevidencepointsto

DID HE

DO IT?

the fact that he did

it. And there’s so

much damning

evidence that he

had to have done it.

Bruce Greenwood

(as Gil Garcetti)

The evidence is

beyond clear. Yes.

David Schwimmer

(a s Rob e r t

Kardashian)

I’m not going to

answer that. I

mean, I definitely

have an opinion.

It seems that

Kardashian had

his, his doubts

that he himself

expressed in

other interviews

after the trial.

Specifically, with

Barbara Walters.

That there was

a lot of the blood

evidence was

something that he

could not get his

head around. So

I think even

one of Simpson’s

closest friends had

reservations and

was conflicted

about his

innocence.

We ask the cast of h e

People vs OJ Simpson:

American Crime Story

the question everyone’s

still wondering about