Law & Order: Criminal Intent alum Courtney B. Vance is back on the legal beat with a starring role as defense attorney Johnnie Cochran in FX’s miniseries American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, and is receiving a lot of media attention.
On playing Johnnie Cochran:
“I read as much as I could,” said Vance. “I wasn’t going to imitate his mannerisms. I didn’t want to spend my time imitating, so I read as much as I could and then jumped in. And doing that freed me up to the prodigious amount of work that was the role entailed.”
The story is mirrored after the Jeffrey Toobin’s book The Run of His Life The People v. O.J. Simpson. Vance believes that everyone around the country took a stance during the O.J. trials.
“I think one of the things that is interesting is that we as people looked at this case as a watershed for our country and we based our lives on what happened with it. That’s the problem with today, we didn’t resolve so much during the trial and it’s coming back to haunt us,” said Vance.
The limited series, which premieres in February on FX, will explore the events that followed the murders of OJ Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Check out the trailer:
