"American Horror Story: The Hotel" has just finished wrapping up, but that doesn't mean the job is done for Executive Producer, Ryan Murphy. Murphy has a successful history of creating TV shows that create a worldwide phenomenon:
"Glee," "AHS," "Scream Queens" and now "The People V. OJ Simpson"
Twenty years later and the OJ Simpson trial still holds to be quite controversial in our society today. For those who are unaware, OJ Simpson was a football legend who was charged with the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Though everyone knows how this story ends with Simpson being acquitted of all charges, it is safe to assume that the estimated 100 million viewers will seat on the edge of their seats on February 2nd, to pick apart the deepest and darkest secrets of the trial.
Besides the critical plot line, Murphy and other members of the crew have decided that every season of "American Crime Story" will cover legendary crimes but the first season screams legends when taking a look at their Grade-A casting choices. From John Travolta playing Simpson's attorney, Robert Shapiro and David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian, things only look even more golden with the choice of Cuba Gooding Jr. as OJ Simpson.
When it comes to producers and directors, they only hope and pray for their purpose to serve the story well and the impact it has had on society but the one who might feel the pressure the most is the Oscar Winner, Cuba Gooding Jr. himself. According to "The Hollywood Reporter," Gooding's take of the character had taken a toll on him mentally, Gooding stated,
"'There was one day after filming that I went to my trailer and I couldn't stop crying because I realized I never [even considered the loss] for the Goldman or Brown family... Back then I was just so relieved that another black man got away from the injustice that was LAPD. I was just so relieved they didn't screw us over again.'"
Though Cuba Gooding Jr. wasn't alone in that thought process, him and the rest of the cast have learned about the dark secrets hidden behind closed doors of the trial; only wanting to bring what isn't known into our own homes as well.
Each actor and actress has done their own research of the case and though the actors were discouraged to contact the person they were portraying, certain meetings had fallen into place. For example, though Gooding had no desire to contact Simpson, he refused to speak with Simpson while he was in jail. He explained in "The Hollywood Reporter" interview that he has personally had family members in jail and he didn't want Simpson to taint his state of mind.
On the other hand, David Schwimmer has been in contact with Robert Kardashian's ex-wife, Kris Jenner. The two spent more than two hours on the phone with one another and Schwimmer explained that he learned ,
"'How much a man of faith Robert was, how he prayed at every meal and before every big business meeting and how he was this very compassionate, generous guy..."The producers of ["Keeping Up With the Kardashians"] had asked me if I wanted to talk to the daughters, too, but I didn't feel that was necessary. And they wanted to do it on camera."
Not to mention, Selma Blair who plays Kris Jenner [Kardashian at the time] has been in contact with the family matriarch as well.
Though one may never learn every single detail about the trial, viewers at home can only hope that when we tune in on February 2nd at 10 p.m. on FX, we will gain clarity of what occurred and why it happened that way. I'm sure it is safe to say that Ryan Murphy has yet let us down, and it may be quite impossible to do so.
