Angel Parker moved to Orange County, Calif., with her mother following the Los Angeles Riots. She attended a school with little diversity except for the kids whose parents were stationed at Camp Pendleton.
Parker still remembers hearing the verdict read over the loudspeaker at her high school on Oct. 3, 1995 - O.J. Simpson not guilty for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman - and then hearing the immediate reaction.
"I remember the black kids cheering and the white kids gasping and a couple teachers crying. It was crazy," Parker told Headlines & Global News in an exclusive interview. "School just paused and didn't really continue."
More than 20 years later, the "Trial of the Century" returns to the spotlight in Ryan Murphy and FX's new anthology series "American Crime Story." The first season focuses on the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, adapting Jeffrey Toobin's book "The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson."
Parker portrays Shawn Chapman-Holley, a member of Simpson's defense team under lead attorney Johnnie Cochran. A former public defender, Holley later went on to represent celebrity clients such as Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
Despite the producers discouraging the actors from meeting their real-life counterparts, Parker reached out to Chapman-Holley, but their connection came in a strange twist of fate through hairstylists. Explaining to her beautician how she wanted her hair to match Chapman-Holley's, a nearby stylist told her that the attorney was actually her client.
"From that moment on I was like, 'Tell me everything. Tell her I love her. Tell her I can't wait to meet her,'" Parker said. "It still took me a couple of months to actually reach out to her for lots of fears - nervousness about what I would ask her and also honoring what the producers had asked us to do," which was staying true to Toobin's account above all else.
Parker not only dove deep into her character but the entire trial. For nine months - three months prior to filming and six months of shooting - she streamed the entire trial online and listened to it on long car rides. She read Toobin's book, and photocopies of the actual court documents were used on set.
"The files that we were looking at were copies of the actual files. We were reading the depositions. We were reading the testimonies that were word for word. We would watch the scenes that we were about to shoot right before we shot them," she recalled.
HNGN spoke with Parker about living through the actual trial, how it reshaped America's news culture, what new information the show will reveal and which of her co-stars she believes went through the greatest transformation for their character.
What are your first memories of the O.J. Simpson trial?
I'm from Los Angeles, so I was here, and it was huge. I remember most of it. I remember my mother watching it. I can't imagine life before that moment. It was very much a part of the conversation from that point on. People would watch it all day and just have it on in the background. It was very much a part of the culture at that time. Then once the verdict was read, it was all over 100 percent of the time. I really think that news media changed here in America. It became an all-the-time news culture, and I believe the O.J. Simpson case was the beginning of that.
There were a lot of talk shows at that time, and they all shifted focus into that Court TV mentality - behind the scenes, behind the players, behind the witnesses and the trial. The picking apart of Marcia Clark's physical appearance - that was news. She's on the cover of National Enquirer and nude pictures of her being sold by her ex-husband. These are real people, a real murder trial, but characters in a story that the world was telling.
Did you and your castmates discuss watching the trial and your opinions of the verdict?
All we did was talk. We had great conversations about the story we were telling, about our opinions and what that means. It's a lot of the same conversations that any actor would have, but we were all very open with each other. We all knew this was something special that we were doing and everyone was at the top of his game, from John Travolta to Nathan Lane. It was one of the most amazing projects I could ever have gotten my sea legs from, and to watch Sarah Paulson work was an education you couldn't pay for.
"The People v. O.J. Simpson" will introduce a whole new generation to the trial, but what will this show offer people who lived through the actual trial?
The fact that they got this incredible cast makes people a little more curious that it's not some terrible story that's been told a hundred times. This is meant to be a little bit different if you got these people to sign on. Some people will just be curious to see John Travolta on TV and then hopefully they'll stay because the story we're telling has a lot to do with race in America, which is very poignant and very current. It has very much to do with the sensationalism of journalism, which is also very current, and there's a verdict that changed the landscape of America.
People know the ending. It's not some cliffhanger. Our story is telling the journey of how we got there. That's what is going to keep people interested. Like one of the ads said, "You've seen the Bronco, but you did not see inside the Bronco." It's true. We are inside the Bronco, and no one ever got to see that. No one ever got to hear the conversation that Al Cowlings (played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner) and O.J. Simpson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) were having inside the Bronco and what that must have been like. We took a little bit of artistic license, but not too much.
How much of this series takes that artistic license?
We really did stick to the book a lot. They had to write the dialogue for the actual conversation, but every conversation we portray was had. Every writer that was writing the scripts read every book that was ever written about this case. Every player [involved in the case] pretty much wrote a book. So the writers read every single book to get everyone's opinion and put them all together, but it's based on Jeffrey Toobin's account.
It's a fascinating ride, and I really hope that people enjoy it and it causes some conversations that need to be had right now, especially about race and American culture.
Of the people involved in this saga, the millennial generation probably knows the Kardashians best or Shawn Chapman (Holley) because of her connection to Lindsay Lohan.
Definitely. The younger generation knows Shawn because she represented Lindsay Lohan and so many celebrities. She's the one that continued to be a defense attorney for high-profile cases and celebrities, and she's good at it. She definitely learned a lot from this trial. It was the beginning of her career in this arena. And of course, the Kardashian name, it's famous. We know a lot about their lives, but they started as Robert Kardashian's daughters, and he was best known for being O.J.'s friend and being on the defense team. He's passed away and so has Johnnie Cochran, so I'm sure if they were still alive, we would hear more about them.
This trial was so sensationalized that a lot of people wanted to put it behind them. They didn't want to be known for that. Rob Morrow plays Barry Scheck, who now has the Innocence Project where he's freeing inmates that are innocent given DNA evidence, and that's going to be his legacy.
Which of your co-stars most shocked you with their physical transformation?
Hands down Nathan Lane! Nathan Lane! Nathan Lane! I kept joking with him that I only knew him as this old man. He had to shave his head. He had to wear a wig. There was stippled redness on his face because [his character] F. Lee Bailey was a notorious drinker. [Bailey] wore these suits and was very much a grumpy man, and that is not Nathan at all. He is quite joyful, quite funny, telling amazing stories, but I would always joke, "You're this 70-year-old man!" and he would pull up pictures of himself on his cellphone to show me, "I swear, I swear, I'm not an old man."
Also Sarah, her transformation into Marcia Clark was riveting. Sarah is a vibrant talent, a force of nature, and Marcia is a force of intellect. Believe me, Marcia Clark is the smartest woman in any room, but Sarah Paulson is also this gorgeous actress, and to see her dive into this woman who was so ridiculed for her physical appearance each day, definitely bullied, takes a toll on any person. It definitely took a toll on Marcia Clark, and Sarah was able to dive right into that, and you'll be amazed by her performance.
Be sure to check out HNGN's exclusive interview with Sarah Paulson.
"The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" premieres tonight, Feb. 2 at 10 p.m. EST on FX.
