'People vs OJ Simpson' Cast: Why Courtney B. Vance Is Not Concerned With 'Imitating' Johnnie Cochran
Courtney B. Vance did not want to make his performance as Johnnie Cochran in FX's American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson an impersonation.
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Vance is playing one of the most important roles on The People v. O.J. Simpson. As Cochran, the defense attorney who helped acquit O.J. Simpson, Vance is playing a modern iconic role, but he didn't want it to be just an impression of him.
The actor spoke with The Mo Kelly Show recently about his approach to the character.
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"Johnnie Cochran is iconic and just like Tina Turner and Ray Charles and Nelson Mandela, the actors that approach those type roles, they had to make certain determinations and decisions about how they were gonna do that and still - so that they could be free within the context of iconic status, portraying an iconic person," he explained.
He noted that he did not want to get caught up in "the imitation game" when playing Cochran. So instead of talking with those closest to Cochran, he decided to read up.
"So I said I'm gonna set those aside and I'm just going to read. I'm going to read the Jeffrey Toobin's book, The Run of His Life, I'm gonna read Johnnie Cochran's book, I'm gonna read books that people talk about him in it," Vance explained, "'cause I'm trying to catch his spirit and I feel that if I can catch his spirit then I will allow the audience to enter into the world and then they will not be concerned about, well 'his inflection is not right' 'this and that.' . . . They would not be considered about that because they're involved in this great drama."
So far Vance has not had a lot of screen time considering Cochran was not as involved in the case until later on, but considering the most recent episode ended with him officially coming on board the defense team, we should probably expect more content in the weeks to come.
American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX.
