'The People v. O.J. Simpson': 'We Scored!' Says Cuba Gooding Jr.

David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian and John Travolta as Robert Shapiro

The cast and creators of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story seemed startled at how current a 20-year-old case seems today when they took the stage for their Television Critics Association panel in Pasadena Saturday. When the writers began the script three years ago, Ferguson had not yet happened and the true crime phenomena of Serial and Making a Murderer hadn’t yet captured the public imagination.

“I was fascinated by [Making a Murderer],” said executive producer Ryan Murphy, who also created American Horror Story, Scream Queens, and Glee. He found himself asking, “How is the judicial system so broken?” — a question that gets answered in multiple ways during The People v. O.J. Simpson, including an episode seen from the POV of the jury.

Jeffrey Toobin, who wrote the book that this series is based on, The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, said he was surprised it took this long for the trial to be dramatized. “This is a story about everything that obsesses the American people. This is a story about race, sex, violence, sports, Hollywood, and the only eyewitness is a dog.”

Related: Inside TV’s Retrial of O.J. Simpson: A Saga of Race, Redress, and, Yes, Robert Kardashian’s Kids

Executive producer Larry Karaszewski — who co-wrote the series with Scott Alexander — was glad that they had 10 hours to tell the story, since a 2-hour movie would only be enough time to “tell everyone what they already know.” But it could have been 15 hours. The writers’ room was run like a salon, where they would just sit and discuss issues. That led to interesting lines or ideas for scenes. “If anything, we were accumulating too much,” Alexander said. “There’s an entire other universe that we could have packed into this project.”

The excitement of the actors was palpable on stage. Executive producer Brad Simpson explained it this way: “I’ve never had the experience, as a producer, of the reaction you get from agents when you call saying Ryan Murphy’s interested in working with your talent. It is immediate. His reputation precedes him with actors.”

John Travolta — who plays Robert Shapiro — did his research before committing to the project and only agreed when, as he recounted, “I found out it was not going to be a guilty [pleasure]; there were messages on many levels.” He took on the role of producer as insurance, worried that the story would be sensationalized. But, he said, “I never needed to assert that producer card because everybody was so excellent.” There was never any doubt that the show “communicated something to an audience that was enlightening,” he added.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. as O.J. Simpson and Joseph Buttle as a polygraph examiner

“I knew I was on the right path when John got involved and said yes,” said Cuba Gooding, Jr., who plays O.J. Simpson. “'We scored, motherf–ker!‘”

Though some of the cast reached out to the real-life people they were portraying, Gooding said he had “no desire to visit [O.J.] in his present condition being incarcerated, being a shell of a man.” The role he was playing was the Simpson of 20 years ago, a “flamboyant, charismatic movie star/marquee athlete.” Though, if Murphy were to do a sequel about Simpson today, “I’ll sit with him everyday as research,” Gooding said.

Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark and Christian Clemenson as Bill Hodgman

Sarah Paulson is the only actor Murphy had pre-cast, playing the role of Marcia Clark. “It’s one of the more rich, complicated, nuanced, rich characters I’ve had the opportunity to play yet,” said Paulson.

So much so that she was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to pull it off. “But there’s this magical thing that happens some times, which is, when Ryan believes it, you tend to believe it yourself. If he thought I could do it, I figured, he’s been right before, so I trust him.”

EP Simpson also heaped praise on her for her work ethic; he didn’t realize that she was also cast in Murphy’s other show that was shooting at the same time, American Horror Story. “I’ve never seen anybody work as hard as her,” he said. “She’d be at 2 a.m. wrapping Horror Story and back at 6 a.m. shooting for us.”

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story premieres Feb. 2 at 10 p.m. on FX.