It's not often John Travolta delves into television, and when he does you can bet it has to be something special. As was the case with "American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson."
The 10-part series documenting the behind-the-scenes of the one of most-watched televised court room battles in history has become a ratings blockbuster for the FX Network, drawing in 12 million viewers over last Tuesday's premier and subsequent encores.
In the series, Travolta plays Robert Shapiro, a no-frills civil litigator enlisted to represent football legend O.J. Simpson after he was accused, and arrested, for the brutal murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman at her Brentwood, Calif., home.
The trial became a national phenomenon, with millions of global viewers glued to what would become known as "The Trial Of The Century." For his part in the TV dramatization, Travolta underwent an astounding transformation, to both his appearance and voice.
You are getting great reviews for this, but how much do you internalize what people say about your work?
I usually don't try to seek out criticism unless it's constructive. If it has an advisory element attached, great, I learned that from Pauline Kael many years ago; she believed any criticism should be slightly constructive, perhaps if the actor did this or the director did that, it added a little hope to any declaration of negative. I've always never arbitrarily sought out opinions, I try to seek out educated opinions.
You bring some real empathy to the character as well.
Especially when he gets demoted later on, this is him saying... I hope this stays in the show, there's a scene where he's in a temple and he's pissed because they asked him to hold the Torah, this really happened, I think it's in episode eight or nine. I really fought to keep that in because I wanted some semblance of humanity, the only time he shows it is with his wife and the implication that he loves his kids. That's the only time you see him crumble. I don't know if it's in there, but I do hope it is because I love the idea.
Are you younger than Robert Shapiro was?
About the same age,
Were there any debates or discussions on set about the evidence and the guilt?
No, the writing was so thorough with each character and what each one was thinking. I'm wanting to settle, and Cochran is wanting to go for the win, it was so clearly delineated that we didn't need to have any debate because it was so well written.
After playing Shapiro, do you feel connected to him?
Not really, and when I played Clinton, and when I got "Hairspray," how connected am I to that? It's an actor playing a role, there is a moment in episode seven where I literally blackmail Robert Kardashian, it was the most despicable thing I've ever played in my life. It felt dirty, and it felt very close to me being affected by it. I hated my character for doing that.
Why did you blackmail him?
I want him to talk the group into settling. He wanted to do it, and I suddenly start to leverage him and start to make him think he may get put in jail for it. It's awful what he does at that moment, so that was a moment where I was somewhat comfortable playing him, but it was one of the best scenes in the whole series. You just can't believe he's actually doing that.
Did this change your perspective of the whole O.J. situation?
Not really, it just enlightened me. Every week we'd get the script, and we'd be dumbfounded. The week that the [Mark] Fuhrman tapes came out we couldn't believe it, because this had not been admitted to court, so it's the first time we are looking at it, and now we're going to play it. So we were both an audience and actors in the revelation of discovering what's next? As much as you learn in every episode, we were learning, and so what you hope for the end of it is that people understand how it ended up that way. You know how they always say the Oscar was one for the wrong performance; you have O.J. winning this when it should have been Rodney King. It's an aftermath of a bigger picture that this had to happen because of other reasons. That's a tricky thing.
