Aaron Hernandez Actor On Role: ‘They Want It To Be Painted a Certain Way’

Actor Josh Rivera, who portrays the disgraced NFL star Aaron Hernandez in FX’s new biopic series American Sports Story, tells Newsweek that contacting anyone from the New England Patriots franchise or the late tight end’s family in preparation for the controversial role may have “complicated” things.

Before the first two episodes of the Ryan Murphy drama premiered on Tuesday, Rivera, 29, told Newsweek that he had limited knowledge of Hernandez’s fall from grace before accepting the role in the show which “charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez and explores the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide, and their legacy in sports and American culture.”

When asked if the West Side Story alum reached out to anyone who knew Hernandez personally or professionally, Rivera responded, “I didn’t have that resource.”

“I also felt like there are elements of that that might have made it just a little bit more complicated to proceed because when you have advisors and consultation for such a complicated story already, it’s kind of like you have people with skin in the game that want they want it to be painted a certain way,” he continued.

“It was kind of nice to not really have the ability to do that because that just sort of let me take all the information I had and try to mold it in the way I saw it,” Rivera explained, admitting he was initially “really nervous” to take on such a heavily scrutinized figure.

“I saw it as objectively as I could. Coming into it, I didn’t really know that much about it so I was seeing a lot of this information for the first time, which was, I think, helpful to kind of experience that in a vacuum without the input of people who are very passionate about it.”

Rivera continued, “The way that I see it is, I was given all of this information and I learned about this person, and my job is to just do the best that I can do at portraying this story That’s kind of the beginning and end of it for me. I just hope people can understand that I did my best.”

History of Aaron Hernandez

Hernandez was one of the most promising tight ends, forming one of the most dangerous tight end tandems in NFL history with Rob Gronkowski catching passed from legendary Tom Brady on the Patriots. But his football career came to an abrupt and shocking end in 2013 when he was arrested and charged with the murder of his former friend Odin Lloyd, who may have known Hernandez’s deep dark secret that he was attracted to men. Following his arrest, the Patriots released Hernandez from the team.

In 2015, Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Two years later, Hernandez was acquitted of double homicide charges related to a 2012 case, but just days later, he was found dead in his prison cell, having died by suicide.

Hernandez was implicated in the July 2012 murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, who were shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Boston. Hernandez was eventually charged with the murders in 2014, but he was acquitted in April 2017, just days before his death. The prosecution argued that Hernandez had shot the men after one of them accidentally spilled a drink on him at a nightclub.

Social Media and Aaron Hernandez

Social media was not as prevalent as it is today when Hernandez committed his crimes. There was merely no mention of any social media in the advance full screenings of American Sports Story provided to Newsweek.

When asked how the footballer’s life could have been different in the age of social media, Rivera hypothesized, “I imagine that he probably would have been suspended a little bit more often from college and from professional games.”

“Maybe people would have been a lot less shocked and blindsided by the whole thing if more people had been recording all the time,” he continued. “I think that was a big part of what made the story so complex is that it seemed like nobody had any idea that something like that was remotely possible, let alone likely.”

“Judging from the impulsiveness of the character, I don’t know if that would have greatly changed his actions, but I think the public perception of it all might have been a little bit different,” Rivera concluded.

Any Similarities With Aaron Hernandez

“We both smile a lot. Something I locked in on really early is that I use smiling as kind of a defense mechanism. That’s about it,” Rivera grinned, adding that he channeled “a real boyishness” in his portrayal of Hernandez.

New episodes of American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez air on FX at 10 p.m. every Tuesday until its season finale on November 12. Episodes can also be streamed on Hulu.

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