Christopher Darden was a lawyer on the prosecution team in the case of The People v. O.J. Simpson. Now that FX is airing an American Crime Story miniseries on the trial, Sterling K. Brown portrays Darden. I got to meet Brown at a reception for the Television Critics Association where he showed me a text message he sent to Darden, to which Darden did not respond.
Brown joins a cast that includes Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark, with John Travolta and Courtney B. Vance as defense attorneys Robert Shapiro and Johnnie Cochran respectively. Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays O.J. Simpson. The People v. O.J. Simpson airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET/PT on FX.
Sterling K. Brown Interview:
Does Christopher Darden begin this trial very idealistic?
Sterling K. Brown: “I believe so. He’s told by his family to be wary. ‘You want to stay away from this. O.J. Simpson is a powerful image, a powerful icon of someone who’s made it to the top in the African-American community. How could that be perceived trying to put him in jail, trying to prosecute him?’ But he believes, from reading his book In Contempt and listening to him interviewed, that if people are able to see the evidence presented to them in a logical way, the way in which it was presented to him, that they would be led to the only logical conclusion as he saw it, was that O.J. Simpson was the perpetrator of a double homicide.”
That’s not necessarily the way his bosses pursued it either, is it?
Sterling K. Brown: “No, I believe they recognized once they had a ‘downtown jury’ that the necessity for a black presence on the prosecution team would be something that was definitely necessary.”
Was there a specific point where he realized this is not due process, this is not a real trial?
Sterling K. Brown: “Sure, and he’ll say himself, the day that he argued the usage of the N-word was very clear to him that this case was no longer going to be about a double homicide, about two people having their lives brutally taken away from them. This was going to be a case about race. I wonder, if he was able to be successful on that front, if the case may have gone in a different direction.”
That’s with Mark Fuhrman?
Sterling K. Brown: “Yes.”
How did you portray that inner frustration of having to do his job anyway?
Sterling K. Brown: “Right, Chris will talk openly that he believes Mark Fuhrman to be a racist, but that does not mean that he believes that he planted evidence. So while he had very little that he wanted to actually do with Mark Fuhrman, he didn’t enjoy being in his presence, there was something about him that he found off-putting from the beginning, but he had to interview him because he was asked to do so by Marcia. Ultimately, he asked Marcia to take that witness on herself. It was so complicated because you can consult with other murderers or rapists and use them as witnesses in your murder trial, so in his mind he’s had to consult with the testimony of this racist in order to get his testimony to convict O.J. Simpson.”
The show really captures what a circus this trial was from the beginning. When did it dawn on Christopher Darden?
Sterling K. Brown: “Oh, man. I think after he argued the N-word and then I believe it was the L.A. Times or a local newspaper had an on-the-beat interview about ‘how do you people respond to Christopher Darden?’ An overwhelming majority of African-America thought that he was a sellout and an Uncle Tom. I believe it broke his heart. For someone who saw himself as trying to be an excellent representative of his community, who loved his people, who worked in the special investigations division so that he could prosecute crooked cops who tried to prey upon his community. To be ostracized and maligned in that way was something that I didn’t think he saw as being conceivable. When you don’t see something coming, that’s the knockout punch.”
Darden doesn’t have quite as many well-known soundbites as a Johnnie Cochran does. Does that give you a little more leeway to deliver his dialogue your way?
Sterling K. Brown: “Maybe. I watched a lot of trial footage and I tried to work on the cadence and the timber of his voice as much as possible. The idea is if people do remember the trial and they can believe me within those scenes, then when I take them behind the scenes, they can go along with that journey much more easily, much more readily. So it wasn’t a matter of soundbites per se. My primary concern was if and when Christopher Darden sees it, can he see himself in the portrayal? That was what I was working with in the back of my mind and I hope the answer is yes.”
Did you reach out to contact Darden?
Sterling K. Brown: “I reached out a couple times. I tried to Facebook friend him once. That was ignored. The second time, I thought he was teaching at Southwestern University as a professor but he wasn’t. He’s in private practice now in Culver City. So I did a Yelp search and I found his number. I was going to just see if it was still active or if he had moved on to other pastures. I called the number at 10:30 at night and it was clear to me when I got the voicemail that it wasn’t a landline. I had reached his cell phone. I had reached Christopher Darden’s cell phone. So I hung up, because it was 10:30 at night, didn’t want to leave a message.
I woke up the next morning and saw 20 minutes later that he had left a text, ‘What’s up? Who’s this?’ Then I wrote him this long text saying who I was and I’ll show it to you. He never responded back. So twice, he’s decided to just not respond but I’m not upset by that because I would not be necessarily very eager to revisit this particular epoch of my life.”
[Brown’s text read: “Mr. Darden, please forgive the late night call. I thought I was contacting a landline in an office to see if the number was still active. My name is Sterling Brown and I’ve been tasked with portraying you in a miniseries on the FX network. Would you be open to having a cup of coffee with me? Any input you’d be willing to share will be greatly appreciated. If you’d rather not, no worries. Thanks.”]
I understand you read Chris’s book. Did you become concerned he had any of the events wrong based on the research you became aware of on the show?
Sterling K. Brown: “If anything, it was absolutely the opposite. I feel like when you’re portraying someone, you are their primary advocate. So it was most important that I was able to get Christopher Darden’s voice out and heard in a way in which he sees himself. So if other people had things that conflicted with how Darden saw things, they’re allowed or entitled to that perspective. I need to speak to Christopher and make sure that his perspective is the one that’s illuminated by me.”
