One of the most headline-grabbing bits of casting from Ryan Murphy's acclaimed American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson was David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian.
Playing a Kardashian comes with plenty of cultural baggage these days, but Schwimmer was drawn to the complexity of Robert, who was a longtime friend of Simpson's and served on his defense team.
"For me, the real appeal of the role was Robert being the heart and conscience of the whole thing," Schwimmer explained to reporters at the TCA press tour last month. "He's the only one of the key players who has nothing to gain.
"Robert was not a criminal defense lawyer, he was a business lawyer, so he was really only on the defense team to babysit OJ, and represent him and look out for his best interests."
Schwimmer also discussed the "chilling" experience of shooting in Robert Kardashian's real house - specifically for episode one's pivotal scene where Simpson threatens to shoot himself in Kim Kardashian's childhood bedroom - and his conversations with Kris Jenner in preparation for the role.
"She was incredibly generous with her time," Schwimmer said of Jenner, ex-wife of the late Kardashian, who is played in the series by Selma Blair. "The greatest thing I got from her was the insight about how religious Robert was. He had a very personal, strong relationship to God, he prayed every day, several times a day.
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"That helped me understand the decisions he was making at the time, and the question of whether that faith was challenged [by the trial]. Did he have any kind of crisis of faith? Did his beliefs waver at any time, did they change? That's what the series dramatizes."
American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson debuts tonight on FX in the US, and will air on BBC Two in February.
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
