The world of entertainment oftentimes calls actors to pull from an array of emotions in order to portray a character as best as they possibly can. However, sometimes these actors have to dig deeper depending on how complex of a character they are playing. Take Heath Ledger, for example, who lost his life back in 2008 due to his inability to separate himself from The Joker character in The Dark Knight film.
Fellow actor Cuba Gooding Jr. expressed a similar attachment to his portrayal of OJ Simpson on American Crime Story: The People v. OJ Simpson this year. He told The Hollywood Reporter that there are still remnants of Simpson’s character imprinted on him. “It took me a month and half to shake O.J. Simpson from my psyche,” Gooding said. “It really did, because it was the darkest role that I had ever done, and yet I still am proud of what I did even though I still feel the residual in my psyche.”
Gooding provided an example of him correlating an event in his life that mirrored OJ’s almost to the T.
“Friday after we wrapped filming, I got two tickets to see the Blackhawks in Chicago. Saturday, I went to my daughter’s dance recital, she’s 10, my wife and I — she didn’t have a ticket for me, so I got upset. I said, ‘Don’t think about her, just focus on Piper. It’s Piper’s day.’ And then I watched, and then that night got on a plane to Chicago, and it hit me. The Saturday before the murders, O.J. went to his daughter’s dance recital, and went off — he was f—king furious that [Nicole Brown] didn’t have a seat for him. And that night the murders happened, he flew to Chicago.”
It’s all very chilling to think about, but Gooding chops this up to good acting. He explained to THR that actors can get so caught up in their work simply because they want to get he story right. “I think it’s because we as actors try to find an emotional truth to the character in whatever situation we put him in,” the actor said.
What did you guys think of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s performance in American Crime Story: The People v. OJ Simpson? Leave us some comments!
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Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cuba-gooding-jr-calls-oj-901186
