After this week, there are only two episodes left in FX's American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson. Most of the major highlights are now in the rearview mirror: The Bronco chase, the formation of the "dream team," the infamous glove. At this point, the verdict is the only major landmark left, and it's coming fast. But, remarkably, American Crime Story manages to use these landmarks as goalposts while it goes about the work of delving into why what happened during the Trial of the Century happened. It humanizes what came across in headlines as a series of sensational moments, helping viewers understand possible reasons why key figures in the trial did what they did.

article image

How American Crime Story's Sterling K. Brown Humanized the Worst Decision of the O.J. Simpson Trial

Sterling K. Brown, who plays prosecutor Chris Darden in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, talks about empathizing with a much-maligned historical figure, the real-life will-they-won't-they sexual tension with Marcia Clark, and how the show "furthers the conversation about how people experience law enforcement."

One of those figures was the late Johnnie Cochran, who would quickly take over the defense, positioning the case as one couched in race relations and misconduct by the LAPD. Of all the players in the O.J. trial, the role of Cochran is likely the most pivotal (and theatrical)—but also the one most central to why the O.J. trial is worth revisiting today. Some of the very same issues Cochran spoke of have become a national conversation again in the wake of #BlackLivesMatter.

Courtney B. Vance, who plays Cochran in the ten-part miniseries, believes this is no accident. We reached out to him to hear more.

GQ: The People v. O.J. Simpson has definitely struck a nerve in the wake of events like #BlackLivesMatter. Why do you think that is?
Courtney B. Vance: We got underneath the material. Which I think was important to all the actors when we came aboard, to ask the question, 'Why?' And the answer was because we need to talk about it, we need to keep the dialogue going, and we need to know what these lawyers were thinking. And because we asked that question, I think that is the key to why audiences have been glued, just like they were glued to the trial. Because everyone had a lot of questions after the trial, and it was just over! There was no forum for discussion or for a town hall meeting. We weren't as sophisticated as we would be today ... we didn't understand the power of media and television, when everyone is watching one thing.

And then the verdict comes down and everyone quickly goes back to their corners with all of their feelings swept underneath the rug. And we didn't know what to do with ourselves. It just comes back out later, when the dirt piles underneath the rug and somebody trips over it, and we want to hit somebody for tripping us and all of a sudden we're back in it again. We're just hiding it all underneath the rug, and we've got to unearth the dirt, and talk about it.

We're definitely more aware of issues of race now, but do you think we're better equipped to deal with them?
That's the question. That is the question. These issues keep coming up, so I guess the answer would be no.

Black Lives Matter, the fact that it was established, these incidents—'I can't breathe,' the young man who was shot sixteen times in Chicago—as one of the [analysts] on CNN had said, "If it was a young white boy who had the knife in his hand, even though the police men were all over him, and cameras were on him— the thought of shooting him would be the last resort, he would be talked down, he's got a knife, he can't really hurt any of us; we've got guns on him. So there's no need to shoot him."


But the fact that that young boy was shot sixteen times raises the question of 'Why?' What's behind that? Why do you shoot somebody until you unclip? What is that? And the [analyst] said that that happens when you see that person as an animal. And that's when we've gotta talk. Because we're people. Color in that sense is irrelevant. We're people, we're human beings, you don't treat a human being like that, and if you do, something is wrong and needs to be talked about.

It's interesting talking to you about this when you're playing Johnnie Cochran, who built his reputation taking on police brutality cases. Do you think we need a Johnnie Cochran-like figure right now?
If Johnnie was alive, he would be in the center of this, and he would force everyone to table, he would call everyone to the carpet, and we would have sat down years ago. But because there's no Johnnie Cochran, both sides can say 'we're right, no you're wrong' and stay away from the bargaining table, as it were. We need to come to the table and talk about, as Dr. Johnetta Cole says, 'Talk about our differences until our differences don't make a difference.'

We're not one just because the Constitution says we are; you can't legislate morality. We've gotta sit down, and talk about how we were raised and how we can get to the root of this issue that seems to plague us wherever we go. Twenty years ago, when the trial happened and African Americans cheered and white folks were aghast, like Tony Goldwyn and I were when we watched the verdict ... we sat down and talked about it, because we were shocked that we reacted the way we did.

__This week's episode is all about the jury, and the ways both the prosecution and the defense try to manipulate it to turn the odds in their favor. You've said you didn't follow the trial in the past. Did it surprise you to see the way things went down? __
It was all an education for me because I didn't follow it. I was a huge fan of O.J., so I was so hurt. I couldn't stomach it.

"Policemen, 99% of the time, are there to protect and serve. But when a tense situation happens, everyone goes back to how they were raised."

This case is about the nature of this country. We're running from ourselves, and we have to come back to the fact that this case is about America, this case is about a black man, married to white woman, and their marriage was troubled. All marriages are troubled, but we still see an interracial couple walking down the street and we can't help but look.

And it is that, us looking, the fact that it was on television for a year—we couldn't help looking and finding out. And when the verdict went down we went back to our childhood, what we thought and what we were told about what black men were and white women were, the images of blackness, and the images of whiteness. They're so strong, because throughout history we've kept negative images of blackness in our [minds] so that even black folks saw themselves as evil and negative. And the history is so deep and ingrained, it's not as simple as 'We're one.' No, we're not.

There's only one way through this, you can't go around it. You've gotta go through the storm. And the only way through it is to talk it through, and come out on the other side with a better understanding of how each of us were raised with race, to see race. In a tense situation a policeman—and all policemen, 99% of the time, are there to protect and serve—but when a tense situation happens, everyone goes back to how they were raised. I don't care how you were trained—you go back to how you were raised. And unless that training supersedes your upbringing, then your upbringing will win out.

Johnnie Cochran really seemed to understand how this all would play out in the theater of the courtroom.
Johnnie understood the nature of what the case was about. He saw the larger vision. From the very beginning—he didn't need a jury consultant to tell him this case was about race, and race alone. He cut his teeth on cases like this, like Leonard Detweiler, whose only crime was driving while black ... Johnnie, that's how he began his journey with police brutality cases, knowing that the deck was stacked. And that's what African Americans knew, that the deck was stacked.


So knowing that going in, we were anticipating the deck being stacked. When you go into a trial, black lives don't matter, and we were going to end up holding the short end of the stick. So when we looked at our hand and we saw we were holding the long end, we were in shock and that's why we screamed. When you understand the history, you understand that African Americans by and large were not cheering for O.J. Simpson, because O.J. Simpson admittedly said he wasn't black. And even if you didn't hear him say it, you saw his life.  Once he left USC and went pro he never looked back, or he never looked black. So we knew the cheering was for Johnnie Cochran, and how he worked the system in our favor, in the biggest case in history in terms of legalese. And we cheered him for his acumen.

So once you understand that, you understand the cheering. It wasn't personal; we weren't cheering that Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman were dead. That was painful, the injustice of all of that. But we were cheering for finally, on the biggest stage in the world, a black man had worked the system, and won.