“It was overwhelming, initially.
I won’t lie,” the actor tells EW.
Josh Riverawalks differently when he’s in New York City.
Josh Rivera in ‘American Sports Story’ season 1, the real Aaron Hernandez.Eric Liebowitz/FX; Al Messerschmidt/Getty
He’s not necessarily conscious of it.
It’s more a force of habit.
“She still sometimes teases me about it.”
Josh Rivera plays Aaron Hernandez in ‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez’.Michael Parmelee/FX
It’s something that dates back to his high school days in Boulder, Colo. As with the real Hernandez, the character kills himself in jail after he’s outed in the media.
All of this leads to the fateful moment when he murders Odin.
“This is our sport as a country,” Jacobson says of football.
Aaron Hernandez (Josh Rivera) in ‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez’.
“We’re the only ones that are really into it.
It’s a humongous part of the economy and of our identity.
Rivera has a “little conspiracy theory,” as he puts it, for why he was cast.
Initially, the fear set in.
Rivera was (and still is) very mindful of walking the line between imitation and emulation.
He wanted the latter, not the former, with his performance.
Imitation, he says, doesn’t benefit the story.
I won’t lie.”
The season is an adaptation of theGladiatorpodcast, and every adaptation comes with certain creative liberties.
It’s a different story.
It’s an adaptation, it’s not a documentary."
Rivera was also tempted to dust off those football skills he had growing up.
“It made me feel like, ‘What happened?!'”
“‘I’m going to do the stunts, I’m going to do the football.’
And I got my butt kicked, man,” he remembers, laughing it off.
Football’s pretty hard.
American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandezpremieres on FX and Hulu Sept. 17.
