All language subtitles for O.J. Made in America - Part 1

As a kid growing up in the ghetto,

one of the things I wanted
most was not money, it was fame.

I wanted to be known. I want the
people to say, "Hey, there goes O.J."

You're approaching five
years now at Lovelock.

Tell us about your work assignments.

How have you occupied your
time for the past five years?

Uh, when I first came
here, I was a porter,

which comprised of cleaning
things in the unit that I was in,

and basically after a
relatively short period of time,

I started working as a gym worker.

I start each day, um, disinfecting,
uh, the workout equipment in the gym,

mopping floors with the other, uh,
group of us that work in the gym.

Uh, I've coached teams, um,
uh, since I've been here.

Uh, and I like to say that
we won the championship,

and we were old guys, a
totally mixed group of players.

I didn't play, I just coached.

I do see that in 1994 you
were arrested at the age of 46.

We... We're talking about this case?

No, the age at first arrest.

How old were you, first time you
were arrested? For any reason.

Um, I think about 46, yes.

With an enrollment of
approximately 16,000 students,

this is the largest and oldest university

of continuous existence
in Southern California.

Its buildings and grounds cover 45 acres

and it has graduated many
thousands of men and women

who are now leaders in the
business and professional world.

I didn't know that much about him.

I heard about his reputation
coming out of junior college.

He was big, fast, powerful, dynamic.

You're awed, because
you haven't seen that.

I was teaching part-time at San
Jose State and a friend of mine said,

"Hey, man, you gotta go check out this
little cat from, um, San Francisco.

His name is Simpson.
Orenthal James Simpson."

O.J. takes the football. Boom.

I think he runs about 90
yards with it for a touchdown.

He ran through 'em like
foreign water through a tourist.

San Jose State was trying to
recruit him, and I asked him,

"O.J., what is it that
you're lookin' for?"

Said, "I wanna be the best.

I wanna go to a school where
I play against the best."

Superstar phenom is coming to USC

and all the buzz that goes around with it.

This is Marguerite Simpson.

She and O.J. have been
married for five months now.

Right.

Are you happy after five months?

Yes, I'm very happy.

And do you like this
campus and everything?

I love it. It's like a
resort. It's beautiful.

Now, you tell us the truth,
Marguerite. What kind of guy is O.J.?

O.J. is very serious. He loves football.

And he's just a serious person.

He has a great running sense.

Uh, as a team man, he's
an outstanding person.

As a citizen, he is a
tremendous boy and, uh,

I don't think we've had a boy around
here who has ever been any better.

Whoo! Get up!

It was pretty obvious early on that
O.J. was a superiorathlete, special,

and Coach McKay was
warmer and closer with him.

He had never had a player of this
caliber. And you didn't mess with it.

He protected him.

Johnny, would you
describe that devastating

Southern Cal offensive attack for us?

Well, Duffy, I don't... I don't know
how devastating it is, but our attack

is built around the, uh, tailback,
O.J. Simpson, running a football.

We think our attack will be able to
let us move the ball on most people.

There was no drama.

John McKay was gonna
give him the football,

and he was gonna give it
to him 35, 40 times a game

and you were gonna tackle him.

And then when you missed, we
were gonna score a touchdown.

So we fed him the football,
fed him the football...

He had incredible stamina,

that he could take the ball
every play and keep on going.

Every game he did something
that was eye-opening.

You... "What? Did I see that?"

He was one of a kind.

This is O.J. Simpson,
USC's junior halfback.

You have been getting an
awful lot of publicity lately.

How does it affect you? Does it bother ya?

Oh, it doesn't bother me at all.

It's... It's a matter of winning, I guess.

If you win, you get publicity,

and they have to give someone in our
offense and on our team publicity,

and, uh, I'm just in a position to get it,

running at the tailback and
carrying the ball as much as I do.

O.J., you've got an awful
big game on Saturday.

It's the big intercity rivalry.
There's just all kind of pressure.

How does the pressure affect you?

Well, uh, I don't know.

I don't think the pressure bothers...

It doesn't bother me and...

and I think most of the team right
now, it's not bothering them yet.

I'm sure it will tomorrow.

We're shooting for all
the marbles this week,

and, uh, I think we'll be
relaxed and ready to go.

USC football is not a
matter of life and death.

It's much more important than that.

Live and in color, you
are looking at this view,

hovering above the Memorial
Coliseum which is jam packed today.

As we look at Gary Beban, a
reminder that college football,

a pleasant and colorful way
to spend an autumn afternoon.

UCLA's quarterback was Gary Beban.

It's gonna be his year
for the Heisman Trophy.

So we have the upcomer running back

against the established
superstar quarterback.

We were ranked number 4,
they were ranked number 1.

The city of Los Angeles, the
two top teams in the country,

and we're fighting for
the national championship.

Today with 10 cameras covering this game,

over 200, uh, newsmen
here, 200 photographers.

There were people out here
this morning at 6 o'clock

trying to get in to the ballgame.

And the ballgame is underway.

I had never been to a college game ever.

And we all wanted to go see O.J.

Offensively now for the Trojans,
watch for number 32, O.J. Simpson.

None of us had any tickets.

All of a sudden, we looked
up and someone had cut a hole

in the Coliseum fence and about 50
people ran through it, including us.

Okay, Bud, we have approximately 9
minutes remaining in the first half.

I'd never seen the
Coliseum full like that.

There was just the colors, I was in awe.

Tie ballgame, and they are in UCLA
territory. Steve Sogge. Simpson.

There's his brilliance.
Thirteen yards. Touchdown.

A tremendously gifted athlete,
number 32, O.J. Simpson.

Everybody loved watching O.J. run.

As we look at it in slow motion...

There was something about his style.

... O.J. Simpson.

I said, "Man, if I could but
run half as well as this guy,

I might be all right."

Beban hooking. Deep and long to Copeland.

UCLA has tied it up.

There is Nuttall.

Touchdown, UCLA.

And with 11 minutes and 40 seconds
left in the game UCLA gets the lead.

We were losing. And we were fighting.

O.J. Simpson is deep. Number 32.

And he's determined.

We were outplaying them,

and we were very angry that
we were not winning that game.

Thirty. Moving away,

and sheer sake of effort brings
him out to the 43-yard line.

Things weren't going
our way until that run.

Rose Bowl bid, Bud, is at stake.

Everything that they've
fought for all year,

it's coming down to the wire
now, Chris. These final minutes.

At the 36-yard line, a 4-yard gain,

it'll be third down at
three for the Trojans.

It was a pass play.

They need three yards.

In the audible, and some
guys missed the audible.

I couldn't hear it. I made a
mistake. I stood up to pass block.

The linebacker read me and
backed into his passing zone,

and that opened up a lane for O.J.

And he did his magic.

First down and more. There's Simpson.

Look at that cut! O.J. Simpson!

All she wrote.

64 yards. 64 thrilling, captivating,
collegiate football yards,

and let's look at that one again. Wow.

Don't recall seeing anybody that
can turn it on like this boy, Chris.

If you were a football fan in the
late '60s and someone said to you,

"Do you remember the
run," it was just one run.

That set O.J. apart from everyone.

He's so much faster,
it makes no difference.

That single play is still felt to
be one of the greatest college plays.

He became an instant national star.

A civil rights leader
in Los Angeles has said

if you are going to be
a negro in a big city,

then, Los Angeles is the best place to be.

The image of Los Angeles
was milk and honey.

There's no prejudice in Los Angeles.
Everybody's free to do what they will.

You know, palm trees and sunshine.
It's just the ultimate place.

And anybody who was trying to go
somewhere, at least in my area,

you know, they were going to Los Angeles.

There is no group in America to
whom California has meant more

than it has to the negroes.

In the two decades between 1940 and 1960,

while the population of all
other groups in Los Angeles

went up by 100 percent, the negro
population went up by 600 percent.

Where do the people come from?

People come from the states
of Texas, Louisiana, Georgia...

The hope is that all the
trouble I've known will be gone.

2, 4, 6, 8, we don't wanna integrate!

I will no longer be
held down by this notion

held against my skin and my hair.

More literally, I can get work
because it's growing so fast here.

And I can buy a house,

and nobody's ever gonna come take
it away from me because I'm black.

This is something that you
didn't have in the deep South.

The Simpsons are from Rodessa, Louisiana.

My parents and his parents,
they grew up on a 200-acre farm.

Although they had land, there was
no opportunity for people of color,

so everybody "got out
of Dodge", as they say.

O.J. and I were born
in San Francisco in '47.

He had aspirations.

He knew that he wanted to
better his circumstances,

and LA was the place to do that.

I moved out here looking
for opportunities.

My grandmother gave me
67 dollars for a ticket,

and my mother gave me 65 dollars to spend,

and I got on a plane, one-way ticket.

If I had the money, I
would've gone back home,

'cause it was very, very
troubling once I got out here.

Racism out here was as stark
as it was in Jim Crow South.

You don't really have any more
power out here than you had there.

Everybody was always
conscious of the police.

You a friend of Jack Grant's?

Why?

Jack Grant a friend of yours?

I'm not gonna tell ya.

I grew up watching the Los
Angeles Police Department.

They just were so sharp and
professional all the time,

if you watched things that depicted them.

I'm Lieutenant Moore of the
Los Angeles Police Department.

Hell, no, we won't go.

If you do not leave
now, you will be arrested

for violation of section 602-J.

They were just always squared away.

The institutional
culture was really clear.

We expected you to be the best,
we expected you to be professional.

It's not like it was in the '30s and '40s.

Police officers don't take bribes.

There's none of that stuff, that
had been cleaned up by Chief Parker.

Chief Parker turned a very
corrupt police department

into what was viewed as a
very honest police department,

but with that he brought a
level of being untouchable.

Everything at the
police academy was white,

in the sense of command staff,
officers, all the trainers were white.

Bill Parker was reputed

to have actually recruited police
officers from the Klan rallies,

I think he, at minimum,
was racially insensitive,

at maximum, he was racist.

Police officers under Bill Parker
would respond to a radio call,

they would go snatch the
person who was causing trouble,

put 'em in the car,
take 'em out and leave.

So their interaction with the community

was almost entirely based on apprehension,

and that's where the notion of
an occupying army comes from.

Just getting tired of being pushed
around by you white people, that's all.

You stoppin' us on the
street, kickin' down the doors,

takin' down to the police station,
you're kicking our teeth in.

Well, he took me in the car and,
uh, he just started getting on me.

But was there a fight?

How can I fight with my hands stuck?

The complaint that you hear
everywhere is that the negro

is not getting the same treatment
from the police as the...

Well, I know, but I'm getting
a little bit weary of that,

and I think perhaps the best thing to do

is just to pull the
police out of the area.

I've offered to do that again and again,

but you see how quick they
are to come back and say,

"We can't afford to have that."

The negroes are stepping
up, they're waking up,

and they're gonna do something
about what the white man did to them.

I'm not afraid of bloodshed. If I
have to die for my rights, I will.

54 square miles in the middle of
the nation's third-largest city.

No one expected the
flashpoint of discontent to be

in the sprawling, bungalow'd
450 square miles of Los Angeles.

This is when a fuse was lighted.

It began with the arrest by white
officers of two young negroes,

one on a charge of drunk
driving, the other his brother.

Their mother came to the scene.

There was an argument,
there was a scuffle.

By then, a crowd of several
hundred negroes had gathered.

The story of police brutality
quickly spread through the community.

The Watts riots. I was 10 years old, man.

It was summer, it was hot,

and white policemen had been
treating us like shit forever.

And we were gonna respond.

The police in their idiocy
responded with too much force

and not enough understanding,
and it mushroomed.

I was nervous.

There were people
screaming, people shooting,

people lying on the ground, not moving.

The police, four-deep in a
car, all holding up shotguns.

The Watts riot was one of the
first major events in the city of LA

that was caught on TV.

People who grew up looking at those
kinds of activities in the South,

they thought that's where
all of the racial divide was.

The only thing was missing
in LA, there weren't dogs.

Hands up there. Get 'em up.
Get your hands up. Let's go.

I got home and my father was
sitting there, upset, and he says,

"You know, Walter,
they're out there, riot."

And he says, "I wanna do that.
I feel that. I feel that anger.

I know it's wrong, so I
can't do it. But I want to."

I didn't think it was a big deal.

I didn't think these people
were, quote, "persecuted".

I didn't think these people had
any problem. Why were they rioting?

I was as naïve as any other white person.

This area is being closed.
Please go in your homes.

The question came down from
white people after Watts.

They said, "Do most black
people feel like this?"

And the answer came back,

"About 99 percent of them feel like
this. And one percent are really mad."

In creating this situation,
where was the failure?

On the part of the city,
the county, the schools?

This, sir, I think, is one of
the difficulties in meeting this,

is that we're trying to find a failure
other than the people themselves.

They came in and...
and flooded a community

that wasn't prepared to meet them.

We didn't ask these people to come here.

So long as this stubborn
attitude is maintained,

I can only see the situation worsening.

I can still smell the
smoulderings of that event.

There was nervousness all over the place

that would ultimately translate into
traumatizing an entire community.

Better to make all the rioting stop.

I don't think it'll ever stop, really.

Ever?

And the institution that gave
life to O.J. Simpson's image

and presence nationally
and beyond was located

right in the middle of
that very same neighborhood.

USC was an isolated, beautiful
school right next to the LA Coliseum

and on the other side were the
slums of LA. Basically Watts.

Everyone was warned not to go
down on that side of the Coliseum.

At the University of Southern California,

they have a living
legend, and at homecoming,

that's all they wanna talk about.

The name of the legend is O.J. Simpson.

When you saw him on campus, it
was like, "Wow! There's O.J.!"

And you might go up and wave
and say, "Way to go, O.J.,"

and he'd give you a big smile,

and you felt like you
were a million dollars.

You felt fantastic. "O.J.
Simpson said "hi" to me!"

Yeah.

Hey, O.J., how are ya? How's it... ?

Working hard.

I hope you're gonna be smiling Saturday.

Yeah, in about four
days or five. I plan to.

For most of the USC students,
I wager, O.J. Simpson

was the first African-American
they really got to see and talk to.

Because most of them didn't
know African-Americans at all,

or any person of color.

We are! SC!

We are! SC!

USC was a football school,
it was a Hollywood school,

it was glamour and glitz,

it was not the University
of California at Berkeley.

It was not San Jose State.

Fight, fight, fight, fight!

It was above and beyond
reach of the movement.

O.J. went to USC in 1967, so he's
plucked out of the black community,

out of black consciousness, and he's
submerged in an all-white university.

And I say this, and I
don't say it facetiously,

but he is seduced by white society.

USC controls TV,
Hollywood, banking, finance,

law and medicine in Los Angeles.

The alumni are very powerful,
and their whole existence

revolves around the success
of the football team.

And O.J. is leading them to glory.

It was that type of school with
that type of power and control

that could be directed towards him.

The black man has been brainwashed,

and it's time for him to
learn something about himself.

The word "black" is a part of the times.

We are succumbing to the demands
of the black man in the street

who says that the negro is
dead and the black man is alive.

It was a condition that I was born into;

the unfairness, the racism, the hatred,

the poverty that we had in this country.

You can't balance that
with being a football hero.

In the '60s, societal issues were
pushing their way into sports.

It has been said that
I have two alternatives,

either go to jail or go to the army.

There was this engagement of the athlete.

Some major athletes stood up.

Nine top negro athletes
meet with Cassius Clay

to discuss his anti-draft stand.

They include Bill Russell, Lou Alcindor,

and former pro-footballer Jimmy Brown.

Every man in that room was a soldier.

Every man in that room, for
nothing other than his beliefs

and backing another brother,
felt that he should be there

and the hell with the consequences.

Jim Brown, Bill Russell,
Ali, for sure, were race men.

They stood up for principle

and damaged their
commercial possibilities.

They pointed to the discrimination,

not only of all blacks,
but of black athletes,

of people who were supposedly
given entitlement in America.

At the time you were supposed
to be satisfied. Or grateful.

Why would someone that's making money

and cheered by 80,000
people be complaining?

For me, it was really a matter
of fairness and what is correct.

The United States has
hypocritically put itself up

as the leader of the free world,
while right here in this country

there are 22 million black
people who are catching more hell

than anyone in any communist
country ever dreamed of.

Black men and women athletes,
professional and amateur,

have unanimously voted to
fully endorse and participate

in a boycott of the World
Olympic Games in 1968.

The movement on the West Coast recently

in which Lou Alcindor supposedly said
he might not play in the Olympics.

What are your thoughts?

Well, um... Well, this is his prerogative.

I'm not too well
enlightened on the situation.

I don't know exactly what
they're trying to do, you know.

The whole idea behind the
Olympic Project for Human Rights

was to escalate the relationship
between elite athletes

and the civil rights movement.

Let me say that I absolutely
support this boycott.

I would also like to commend
the outstanding athletes

who have the courage to make it
clear that they will not participate

unless something is done about
these terrible evils and injustices.

O.J. was approached because he was

the biggest name in collegiate
athletics at that time.

He was also a world
record-holding track star.

That's O.J. Simpson...

So here we got two for one.

... and Lennox Miller...

When I asked him, I said we
were trying to get black athletes

to understand they have a role in
the current civil rights movement,

his response was, "I'm
not black. I'm O.J."

What they think is right, I guess,
they must follow their beliefs.

Well, uh, right now I don't
wanna be involved in it, because,

uh, I'm not in track. You know,
I'm running track, but when it...

when it comes to Olympic
time, I'll be in football,

so I have no comment on the matter.

O.J. was saying, "I want to be
judged not by the color of my skin,

I want to be judged by
the content of my character

and. Most of all, the
caliber of my competence.

I think I'm the greatest football
player that this country's ever seen.

That's all I wanna be judged by.

Don't tell me I've gotta
do this because I'm black."

I think football is a great sport.
It teaches a person an awful lot.

I would say there's less prejudice in
sports than any other field anywhere,

because, uh, it just... you're
accepted as what you are,

you know, an athlete and what you can do,

and I think this is good for anyone.

Simpson rushed for 1709 yards in 1968,

more than any other back in history.

His durability is almost as
legendary as his speed and moves.

Simpson scored 22 touchdowns.

He carried a record 355 times and
proved himself nearly indestructible.

He was in a different
world than the rest of us.

There was an O.J. cult. It was
building, building, building.

When you bring a student athlete in
there on a visit, they wanna see O.J.

The community leaders, for speaking
engagements, they wanted O.J.

They wanted a role model. They
wanted the young black kids to see.

When I was 16 years old, I made an
all-star team down in Los Angeles

and they had a banquet,
and while we were eating,

the guy who was running
the whole show, he says,

"Okay, I wanna introduce the guest
speaker tonight, O.J. Simpson."

And I was like, "Wow!" I said,
"O.J.'s here. This is unbelievable."

O.J., when he walked up, he said,

"First of all, before I
start, is Ron Shipp here?"

I put my hand up. I was like,
"Is this... ? Is this for real?"

And he goes, "Are you the brother
of Michael Shipp?" And I say, "Yes."

And he goes, "Hey, everybody,
I just wanna tell you about,

uh, Michael Shipp, his brother,

we played against each
other, he's a great guy,

so on and so, Ron, if you're anything
like your brother, you know... "

and, like, he made me an
instant hero in that room.

I mean, I fell in love
with the guy right then.

This is the most incredible human being.

Here is the star of our show, Bob Hope.

I don't have to tell you it's
a pleasure to be here at OJU.

But it's wonderful to be here at USC.

You haven't had a riot, a
demonstration or even a sit in.

Are you sure this is a college?

I have some very sad news for all of you.

Martin Luther King was shot and
was killed tonight in Memphis.

I tried to talk to O.J. before the show,

but I guess he has something on his mind.

He kept referring to me as Mr. Heisman.

RFK, RFK, RFK!

Pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs!

O.J., you've had quite a season.

Well, I have gained a few yards.

A few yards? You've gobbled up
more real estate than Howard Hughes.

When you think of 1968,
what do you think of?

1968, I think of winning all
the games, getting O.J. famous,

everybody on campus thinking
it's the greatest thing on earth.

That's all we thought about.
There was nothing else going on.

Several European
newspapers today condemned

the International Olympic
Committee for sending home

two militant negro athletes
from the United States.

The two, Tommie Smith and John Carlos,

who ran first and third
in the 200-meter dash,

were banished after they raised
clenched fists in black gloves

during the playing of
The Star Spangled Banner.

Uh, with your bad self!

Say it loud!

I'm black, and I'm proud!

I didn't believe in the national anthem,

but I stood up anyway, because
I didn't want no static,

but those days are gone.

Right on.

Brother Tommie Smith, Brother Johnny
Carlos and Brother Harry Edwards

join the ranks of Brother Muhammed Ali,

because we want black people
who are concerned with us first

and with sports second.

Yeah!

Say it loud!

I'm black, and I'm proud!

At about, uh, 10 o'clock this
morning, we were notified that,

uh, a Heisman Trophy
winner comes back to USC

and, as you all know, it's O.J. Simpson.

Thank you. Well, I... I
don't know quite what to say.

I'm, uh, certainly
proud, and I'm very happy,

and I'm... I'm taking it as a team
award and all the other guys did as much

if not more than I do,
for me to get the award,

and I'll be glad to see all the guys,

'cause I know they're
just as happy as I am.

As you can see, the Heisman
Trophy award ceremony is over,

and O.J. Simpson, number 32, the
University of Southern California,

has been beset by autograph hounds.

Mrs. Simpson, I wonder if you'd
be good enough to come over.

Your tears only registered your
pride, and it's a very great pride,

and you should enjoy it, because
this is a very great young man.

O.J., the congratulations of all of
us to you for a truly remarkable season

and more importantly for
your impeccable character.

Thank you, Mr. Cosell.

So that's the story.

The Heisman award proceedings,
number 32, O.J. Simpson.

Perhaps the greatest running back
in the history of college football.

When I met him, I was
quite taken with him.

This is kind of a warm June night in 1969.

Howard Cosell took O.J.
and me to Bachelors III,

which was Joe Namath's bar.

He was telling a story about being
at a teammate's wedding with his wife

sitting at a table of
mostly, as he said, negroes,

and you overheard a white
woman at the next table saying,

"Look, there's O.J. sitting
with all those niggers."

And I remember in my
naiveté, saying to O.J.,

"Gee, wow, that must have
been terrible for you."

"No, that was great. Don't you understand?

She knew that I wasn't
black. She saw me as O.J."

And... And really, at that moment,
um, I thought he was fucked.

Our first guest today is one of the
greatest running backs I've ever seen.

I met him when he was still in
college at Southern California,

and he's not only a hell of a
football player, he's a hell of a guy.

The winner of the Heisman trophy,
the finest college football player

in the country last year,

the Buffalo Bills' great
rookie, O.J. Simpson.

Thank you, Joe.

Now, with all that money you
got for signing with Buffalo,

I wanna know if you're gonna help
me out in some business interests.

How's business?

Oh, it's pretty good.

I, uh, I'm under contract with... I
don't know if I can say it. I'm here.

Yeah.

Well, I'm under contract
with Chevrolet and RC Cola,

and I'm working with,
um... What network is it?

ABC.

And, uh, they're keeping me pretty busy.

The pitch to Chevrolet was

that this would be the first
national black spokesman.

You've got a black market.

He's not gonna be a negative
in any way to the white market,

but you're gonna get a lot of
brownie points just for stepping up.

O.J.? It's a real satisfaction
to me to be able to introduce

a great ballplayer like you

to an equally great group
of Chevrolet salesmen.

My pleasure, Chris.

At the time, athlete endorsements
were virtually non-existent.

And for them to sign him, a
black man, a football player,

was ground-breaking.

They tell me that the
Chevrolet selling team

is the greatest in the
country. I believe that.

That's what made perfect sense.

O.J. Simpson was the
counterrevolutionary athlete.

White America is looking for
somebody who can erase the threat

of these seemingly angry
principled black athletes

who are going to create
a revolution in sports.

O.J. made people feel good.

It was clear once you
spent some time with O.J.

that the Carlos, you know, fist
pump, and those kinds of, uh,

situations were not gonna be, you
know, present in... in dealing with him.

He just gave you that confidence that
he understood what this was about.

I'd like to welcome a new member
of the ABC sports commentary staff.

It is O.J. Simpson.

Uh, well, Jim, I'll be doing
basically sports work with the, uh,

ABC radio networks and the TV
nextworks... networks. I hope...

O.J. was very, very rough and needed
a lot of coaching in the early years.

It's pretty interesting, and
I'm really looking forward to it.

We obviously wanted him to be
able to speak proper English

and eliminate slang, and he
didn't ever take offense at that.

It was, "Thank you." You
know? "Okay, I got it."

He realized that his Horatio
Alger story was based on

him being a pleasing
person to white people.

I really had the sense that he
was enormously self-conscious

of who he was and who he
needed to be to get over.

That there was this character,
O.J., which he was creating.

What does O.J. stand for?

Oh, Joe.

Come on, tell it. Tell me.

Orenthal James Simpson.

Good.

Now, that's a nice name, Orenthal.

Yeah.

It's a good name.

You... You never got in any
arguments over that, did ya?

No, no, I had, uh... I had some pretty
good friends, pretty big friends,

and they were the only guys
who could tease me about it.

Well, in your movie career,
uh, motion picture industry,

are they gonna call you
Orenthal James or... ?

They're gonna call me O.J.

I was taken by O.J. as a character,
as somebody to write about,

that somebody was so self-aware
and so obviously ambitious.

The question in my mind
then and still now is

where did this imagination come from?

Where did he begin to write
this novel about O.J. Simpson?

Everybody looks at San Francisco
now, "Oh, it's this cosmopolitan...

Oh, you know, everybody
loves everybody gooshy goosh."

It's not. It wasn't like that, man.

Potrero Hill was
predominantly African-American.

Public housing, the old
barracks from the navy.

When the navy left, the city
turned 'em into low-income housing.

It was a rough area.

The Simpsons lived at
the top of a big hill.

Carmelita, his younger
sister Shirley had a room,

and Melvin and O.J. had a room.

We crawled around on the floor together

before we ever learned how to walk.

Four months apart. I'm born
in March, he's born in July.

We'd spend a lot of time
at each other's house.

We're a close-knit family.

The mother worked at night, so they
were responsible for themselves,

and sometimes he would
open the refrigerator

and there just wouldn't
be nothing in there,

and I'd say, "Well, come on, let's
go to my house and eat dinner."

O.J.'s mother, my aunt Eunice,
worked the graveyard shift

at San Francisco General Hospital.

She was a provider, she was steady,

but if you're in a single-parent
situation, you know,

there's never enough money.

I mean, we were poor kids, you know.

We would steal cars, we would
break into somebody's house,

take all the women's purses
and stuff like... You know.

We would be called criminals.

From the time we were 10 years
old, you know, we were hustlers.

You know, you'd go to the
football game, scalp tickets,

and everybody had their own technique.

Yeah.

I would... I can recall crying
in front of a cat, you know.

"Oh, I need it." "Please let
me have that ticket." You know?

"I wanna see... I wanna see
Hugh McElhenny play," you know?

Cats break down, give you the ticket,

I would go on the other side
of the stadium and sell it.

Why didn't I think of that?

Did you ever see him in any fist fights?

O.J. didn't fight.

No?

No. O.J. was boisterous.

When you say he was boisterous,
did you ever see him,

uh, talk himself out of
a... a fight situation?

I've seen O.J. fight... Talk
himself out of a lot of situations.

There was this one incident at school.

Myself, Al Collins and O.J., we were
all in the bathroom shooting crap.

We were cursing and talking
loud, and I was shaking the dice,

and, all of a sudden, these big
wingtip shoes slide in the circle,

and I looked up, and it was Coach McBride.

We were all on the football team.

We're like, "Okay, Mr. McBride,
we're busted. Let us go to class."

He's like, "No." He's gonna take
us to the principal's office.

O.J. stays in back of the
pack. I could hear him,

"Oh, come on, Mr. McBride. You
know we're gonna be suspended."

So we get in the principal's office.

Coach McBride says, "I caught these
guys in the bathroom shooting dice."

And then he turned and walked out.

So O.J. turns and walks away.

Dean Smith says,
"Simpson, where you going?"

He says, "Oh, I was just helping
Mr. McBride bring these guys down."

And Dean Smith let him go.

Self-preservation. It was
just that kind of smooth talk

that O.J. would do in
all kinds of situations.

Do you think he was
shown a little preference

because of his football ability?

Oh, yes.

You said you had seen Simpson talk
himself out of lots of situations.

Oh, yeah, talked himself... with me.

When we were younger, Al
Collins used to stutter,

and he never was good
with talking to girls.

Marguerite was the nice girl
from the other side of town,

but Marguerite liked Alan,
and they wound up going steady.

There was some party,
and O.J. came and got me.

I thought we was going
straight to the party,

but we pull up in front
of Marguerite's house,

and he tells me to get in the back,
and I'm, like, in shock, like, you know,

I seen her with... you know,
walking with... with Alan.

We go down to where the
party is, and Alan spots us,

and he starts shaking his
head and, "No! No way!"

He is furious, and Al is a big guy.

And he grabs the car, and he's rocking it,

rocking the car back and
forth, just rocking it.

And Marguerite gets out of the
car, she says, "Alan, stop it."

And he stops. And we were
like, "No, he didn't."

How could O.J. keep getting
out of these situations?

He stole his best friend's girl.

Later on, you see the three of them
together. Alan went to USC also.

They were as thick as thieves.

Everywhere he went, A.C. was with him.

Football really was
what brought us together.

We were really braggadocious, you know.

We were like, "I'm gonna
be a pro football player,"

and O.J. said something
that really struck me.

He says, "Man, let me tell you
guys something. One of these days,

your children are gonna be fighting
over who wants to be O.J. Simpson."

He knew that he was going to be somebody.

He was self-assured. I'll
just... I'll just put it that way.

O.J. has always wanted to be a hero.

If it was looking at Burt Lancaster
on The Man on the Flying Trapeze

or Burt Lancaster playing Jim
Thorpe, he always wanted to be a hero.

An American hero.

The Buffalo Bills select as their
first choice in the first round,

halfback O.J. Simpson, the
University of Southern California.

It was the last place you'd wanna be.

It was just like being sent to Siberia.

There was some players that
said, "Oh, Mr. Hotshot."

He understood that people
around him was envious

what he was getting and what he was doing.

Stand by and go whenever
you're ready, O.J.

Well, there was never much
doubt about missing him.

Uh, that was O.J. Simpson. O.J. is
now a professional football player.

The Buffalo Bills is his
home, and the question is

how many professional defensive
tacklers is he going to get by?

So what kind of an attitude

must O.J. Simpson have to
play professional football?

Well, he's gonna have
to be strong-willed,

uh, in many different ways,

because he will have a lot of people
picking at him, he'll have a lot of...

We had a couch, John Rauch,

which I've considered the
worst coach that we ever had.

Blocking, he will have to block,

because other people
are ball carriers also.

He tried to make O.J. a
receiver, more or less.

What we call tosses,
quick, uh, opening plays.

And O.J. could not catch a ball.

He couldn't catch a ball if they paid
him to catch a ball, which they was.

They was paying him.
They was paying him a lot.

O.J. hated Buffalo. He hated the weather.

It's a blue collar town. Hard working,
blue collar, factory-working people.

O.J. was nothing of that.

And plus, we was on a losing team.

The first couple years of his pro
career were very frustrating for him,

and they were disappointing
relative to the huge expectations

that everybody set for him.

I mean, they were saying he was a bust.

If it had have stayed the same as it
was when he first got drafted in here,

he would have been a nobody,
I honestly believe that.

He'd have been a nobody.

Best thing happened to O.J.
was John Rauch got fired,

and Lou Saban took over.

Lou Saban was a person who
believed in the run game first,

the pass game second.

I tell you, if Lou Saban
hadn't have came in,

we wouldn't be doing this story right now.

'73 was the year we
opened the new stadium.

So we had a 80,000 seat stadium,

and they brought in all
these young offensive linemen.

Coach Saban built the team to run.

When I got there during exhibition season,

I saw him doing things that... I
said, "Wow. Homeboy's pretty bad."

Lou Saban started selling them
on the idea that we can get 2,000.

You can get 2,000. We can do this.

You can get it done. What's
more, you gotta get it done.

And in that first game,

we turned out the lights and
started it and never looked back.

First game I ever played in
the NFL, O.J. got 250 yards.

O.J. Simpson could run sideways faster

than most men could run forward.

And he hit the line, and he'd go

that quick, then up the sideline.

He was amazing.

I've been around a lot
of good ballplayers,

but I've never been around
anyone that was as breathtaking

or as captivating as he was.

He would, like, glide.

He never really picked his feet more
than a couple inches off the ground,

so he was, like,
slithering through a hole.

When he'd hit a hole
sometimes he'd turn sideways

and kind of leap through it sideways.

Then if he broke open into the open,

then you'd start seeing the
knees go up in the stride.

That's when he was buttery.

He's the one who sucked me
into being a rabid Bills fan.

Let's hear it for the Bills.
Let's hear it. Come on! Let's go!

Let's go, Bills!

And once we got to the seventh game,

it was a Monday night game,
O.J. went over a thousand.

Everybody said, "Hey,
we have a shot at this."

Two thousand yards in 14 games.

That was like somebody breaking
Babe Ruth's home run record.

That was unheard of.

What was going through
my mind at the time is

he might have a chance of
breaking Jim Brown's record.

I never thought that
he would go 2,000 yards.

Why are you so much
better than everybody else?

I think... I think the offensive
line is so much better than everybody.

Hey, you guys!

We're gonna turn it on.

All of a sudden, we got a
nickname: "The Electric Company."

And, wow, this is pretty cool.

The nickname came from the
PR director of The Bills.

There used to be a cartoon
called The Electric Company,

and his son watched it all the time.

He said, "Hey, Dad, why don't you
call 'em 'The Electric Company'?"

They turn on the juice.

♪ The Bills they got
that Electric Company ♪

♪ Montler, Foley, Big Joe D ♪

♪ They turn on The Juice ♪
♪ They turn on The Juice ♪

♪ They cut him loose ♪
♪ They turn on The Juice ♪

♪ You know I love to
see my Electric Company ♪

♪ Turn on The Juice ♪
♪ Turn him loose ♪

O.J. just couldn't be stopped that year.

♪ Throw that switch, boys ♪
♪ Turn the power on ♪

There were times when the quarterback

would only throw six
passes in the entire game.

♪ There goes The Juice ♪
♪ There goes The Juice ♪

The entire offense was O.J. Simpson.

♪ There goes The Juice ♪

♪ 30, 40... ♪

Nobody actually thought
he was gonna go for 2,000.

With only, uh, two games to go, he
was still 400 and a few yards short.

Go, Juice!

Come on, Juice!

During the games, I never took
a minute off from the offense.

♪ Do you want The Juice
to put a move on you? ♪

I never made it to the bench.

♪ Turn on The Juice ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

I didn't wanna miss any of it.

♪ Turn on The Juice ♪

It was the most exciting
thing that I'd ever seen.

♪ Turn on The Juice ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

When we got to New York, that last game,

he was going for Jim Brown's record.

With 60 yards needed, and everyone knew

that The Jets didn't want
him to get the record.

I was actually there. The Jets had
no chance of making the playoffs.

The only interesting thing about that day

was whether O.J. was going to break 2,000.

It was a really snowy, cold day.

Hm, a little bit similar to today.

So a lot of people were worried

that he wouldn't have
a lot of rushing yards

because of that, a lot
of slipping in the snow.

He was nervous that day.

We had a little chat,
and I told him, I said,

"Hey, homes, this is just
another week for you."

I think he knew that "This
is gonna make or break me."

He knew that in order for him
to write his name in the book,

he had to be exceptional.

He was living a very comfortable life,

but he wanted to live an exceptional life,

and this was his exceptional feat.

I remember just about
every play in that game.

Every time Simpson got the ball,

everyone was rushing to their,
uh, notepad to write it down.

And the announcers kept counting it down.

Well, gentlemen, we are coming
upon it, and, uh, The Juice should

break the National Football League
rushing record in this next series.

Simpson running left, Simpson
breaking loose, and there it is!

All right! All right!

He needed four yards, he
got five and this crowd,

his whole team is gathering
around and congratulating him,

hitting him on the head, there
isn't a person sitting down.

He got the 1,863 pretty early in the game.

And they said, "Okay, now
we're going for the 2,000."

And now it's for the 2,000, Floyd.

More than 100 yards,
O.J., O.J. cuts inside,

O.J. gets wide, this is on!

Now a race he's at midfield and he's
inside Jets territory at the 43 yard line.

100 yards. How many games did
he get to 100 yards? Eleven?

Once he got over 100 yards,

a different excitement
started to hit the game.

Well, he might do this. He
might actually hit 2,000.

You had Jets fans who were
basically rooting for O.J.

because they wanted to be part
of history, and I think, you know,

I was basically a little kid,
but I think I felt that way.

Who cared if The Jets won?

Everybody loved O.J.

O.J., he's got five yards,
and O.J. running left,

O.J. five more. Maybe more. I don't know.

They did it. They did it. Yeah!

And when he did it, he was on my shoulder.

I knew how important it was.
I contributed to that also.

The defense has to give
the ball to the offense.

I felt it. It was mine, too.

Right after the game, there's
"Gotta get O.J. to the interview,"

and he said, "I'm not coming in
unless you bring in all the guys."

And we were in a tiny room. We
could barely fit in that room.

He brought in all the offense. He
refused to go in that room without us.

O.J., you brought 'em all with you.

Yeah. Hey, they did the job, all of you.

I want you to meet the boys. Here.

Mike Montler, our... our... our center.

Jim Braxton, Bob Penchion, Joe Ferguson.

Didn't throw many passes this year,
but ball-handling is the thing.

Donnie Green, Bobby
Chandler, Paul Seymour,

Dave Foley, a former Jet.

All right, all right!

This is a guy, through the long winter

wasn't supposed to play
any football this year.

He had a heart problem, but you
came back, and you see what we did.

JD Hill, "Crackback" Hill,
my main man Reg McKenzie.

He was the most generous
guy you'd ever meet.

When we broke the record, he
bought us a gold wristband.

And on the back of it is,
"We did it. The Juice. 3088."

He didn't say "2003", he said "3088",

because that's how much the team rushed.

I hope to stay in the, uh, league
long enough for, uh, you know,

'til all these guys
get old so no young back

can get behind 'em and break my record.

'73 was like a rebirth of his celebrity.

I was 22 years old, I thought, you know,

"This is like being on
a team with Babe Ruth."

Mentally, I think he was
ahead of, uh, a lot of people.

From watching how he handled
himself, how he operated,

my whole demeanor changed.
I began to wanna be like O.J.

He was Baryshnikov. When somebody
is that great at something,

when we see those
people, they are special.

They just can do stuff
that other people can't do.

You expect it of yourself. You hear
the crowd, but you don't hear it.

I mean, you know they're cheering,
but that's the way it should be.

When I'm in the open, I'm running,
this is how it is supposed to be.

This is correct. This is
the natural state of things.

I know whenever I've done it,
my feelings have always been,

uh, that's nothing.
Uh, this is nothing yet.

Yeah, I'm gonna do it again.

Orenthal James Simpson had that shine.

The sun hit him, and there
was this thing about him.

Because he really was that great.

He really was that great.

Football has been my vehicle
to come out of the ghetto,

uh, to give everything I've got.
I think I have a lot more to offer.

There's a lot of things
I need as a person.

You know, I need, uh...
I need that recognition.

I think that, uh, what...
what is driving O.J. Simpson

is that need to be number
one, that need to be liked.

That need to be said,
"Hey, that's O.J. Simpson."

When I walk down the street,
I want people to know me.

♪ Let Hertz put you in the driver's seat ♪

♪ Let Hertz take you anywhere ♪

We had done a survey
asking the customer base

what was the most important attribute
of the rental car experience?

And the most important
attribute was speed of service.

So we went to the agency,
and they showed a storyboard

of a businessman with a briefcase
running through the airport.

Our marketing guy said,
"Frank, it doesn't work.

That's not realistic to think
a businessman's gonna do that.

We need somebody that connotes speed."

And I said, "Like what?" He
says, "Like O.J. Simpson."

Juice comes off the blocks,
immediately goes into the lead.

Steve Smith running in second place.

Right now it's Mark Gleason,
but here comes Hancock.

He moves past Gleason.

O.J. looks back, sees Smith
running at his shoulder,

steps on it a little bit,
and The Juice puts him away.

It was one of the clients who said,

"Did you see the ABC
program The Superstars ?

O.J. just lit up the screen.

His personality came out, and
he just made everybody smile."

You gave him about a yard and
then you took a look at him.

What's happening?

Well, I was out there cruising.
I figure I'd coast it on in.

I saw Steve pull up on me, you know,
and my ego got a little ruffled there.

I said, "I'd better
get out in front again."

I called him, and his first comment was,

"Hertz is the number
one rent-a-car company.

If I'm ever going to do anything
in advertising in a big way,

it's always gonna be for
the number one brand."

When you're in a rush,
take it from O.J. Simpson.

There's only one superstar
in rent-a-car: Hertz.

The first ad was filmed in Newark Airport.

He was very professional,

he was anxious to make sure
that he did things correctly,

that his diction was appropriate.

Others claim to be fast, but
nobody has more to do it faster.

More pros to execute the
toughest performance standards.

More cars, more locations, first with
every good idea to speed up service,

like the Number One Club.

Before you get there, your form's
filled out, car's preassigned.

Go, O.J., go!

Rent a Ford fast from Hertz,
the superstar in rent-a-car.

I thought it was perfect.
I mean, it just made sense.

You're trying to portray speed of service,

and you've got the fastest guy in
America running through the airport

and a little old lady yelling, "Go, O.J.!"

Go, O.J., go!

It was perfect.

It tested so well that they decided
to use him for the print work,

promotional work, and
they did the right thing.

He made that company successful.

He became the image for that company.

We started in September of '75.

By two years of the campaign
running, O.J. Simpson

was the star presenter of
the year for Advertising Age.

There was never a story
that was written about O.J.

that didn't mention Hertz.

Coming or going on a business
trip, you've got no time to waste.

I can see him right now
flying through the airport.

Whether it's picking up or dropping off...

I was proud. It made me want that.

Go, O.J., go!

It gave me hope.

There you are with super-speed

This is an important moment.

The young black kid seeing a
black man running on television.

That's all he sees. He says,
"He looks like my uncle Reggie."

You know it.

That's something I could do. I
wanna be like O.J. on television.

Hi. Ever need to rent a car fast? Watch.

You're in the limelight. We like
seeing you. You look like us.

It's kind of like when
I first saw black people

brushing their teeth on TV.

I mean, we always knew
we brushed our teeth,

but it was, like, a big
thing. Like, "Come see!"

That's what happened with O.J. Simpson.

Those were heights that we had not
reached before, so he was a pioneer.

You're a black man in America,
you're fighting our war.

If you make a success for yourself
somewhere, you've opened a door.

Fortunately, because of
the riots of the early '60s,

some doors were opened to me.

If I were to have looked at myself
in any other way except a man,

my brother could walk into a room and know

he's the only black guy in the room.

I walk in a room, and I don't care.

I don't count the blacks
or whites in the room,

and in '68, when I signed to work
for some white companies, you know,

Chevrolet Motor Division,
I walked in the room,

and I never thought that I was
the first black guy to do it.

I never even gave that any credence.

For us, O.J. was colorless.

None of the people that we associated
with looked at him as a black man.

O.J. portrayed success.

Success, I mean, from nowhere. And
I think people want to be successful.

O.J. was the first to
demonstrate that white folks

would buy stuff based
on a black endorsement

as long as it was not pressed
as a black endorsement.

And the way they did that
was to remove black people

totally from any scene that O.J. was in.

It was Fred Levinson who said,

"Guys, we're going to
be showing a black man

running through an airport in 1975."

I said, "When you see the
commercial with a black guy

running through an
airport, a little different

than seeing a white guy
running through an airport."

So he came up with the idea of
putting in various characters

who would see O.J. and endorse
him by saying, "Go, O.J., go!"

Go, O.J., go!

Go, O.J., go!

Go, Juice, go!

Rent a Ford from Hertz.

The superstar in rent-a-car.

Right.

They bought the notion

that you could erase the
black character, the culture.

This is what made O.J. marketable.

He's African, but he's a good-looking man.

You know, he almost has white features.

He wasn't the typical
black look, African look.

What white America got out of it

was they could point to
somebody that had "made it"

and demonstrated unequivocally
that we are more than willing

to not just accept
you, but to embrace you.

What O.J. got out of it
was money, fame, celebrity.

♪ Hey, hey, hey! What you got to say? ♪

I always say of it, he
was the guy of the '70s.

I look back at those days,

there was Muhammad Ali,
Hank Aaron and O.J. Simpson.

And O.J. was the most
popular of all of them.

♪ Hollywood ♪

I didn't see them
running through airports.

♪ Hollywood swinger ♪

When you're a star running back,
you have to maintain a certain image.

Aw.

I'm'a tell ya, I dug O.J..

I got a chance to see how he
lived, how he handled stuff.

I'd never been that close to
that type of success before.

♪ Hey, listen, Hollywood city, yeah ♪

They'd have 3-4,000 fans
standing around the bus

just to get a look at him.

He would stay on the field
and sign every autograph.

I've seen O.J. sign autographs for hours.

I said, "How in the world
do you put up with this?"

He said, "Man, I wanted this."

O.J., tonight we're
gonna change your image.

Flip, you won't be the first who tried.

♪ Hollywood, Hollywood swinging ♪

When I first met O.J., he was a huge star.

I'll shave one side with the
leading double-edged blade.

I was friends with his
wife Marguerite's sister.

I can't tell. Both sides feel the same.

They lived up in the hills, in Bel-Air.

Marguerite felt like she was a single
mother while O.J. was out being O.J.

Tonight, O.J., we're
gonna be sophisticated.

Sophisticated.

We gonna have a ball, Orenthal.

I can dig it. Cool.

Right on, O.J.

♪ Hollywood ♪

The scene is this, here
is three poor black kids,

never had a thousand
dollars in our pockets.

Now he got a brand-new drop-top Cadillac,

we're driving down Rodeo Drive.

Women come up, throw their arms
around O.J. and just lay it on him.

Not just women, white
women. Fine white women.

What you got to say?

It was that kind of world, man.

♪ Hollywood, Hollywood swinging ♪

Do you feel, like, any kind
of pressure in some ways to...

You know, people expect
that you're gonna be a hero

so you always have to...

Well, I found that... I thought
that maybe my problem would be

that I would have to tear that down.

You know, I would have to, uh... You know,

I... I found that I was
becoming a trapped... you know,

getting trapped within the
image other people have of me.

You know, my image was dictating
what I did and who I was.

I even had a manager at one point,
I was gonna do something and he said,

"You can't do that. O.J.
would never do that."

I said, "Hey, wait. Wait a
minute. I'm O.J. Simpson, you know?

And I'm'a do it."

Yeah, 'cause I would think that someone

would like you to be a spokesman.
You know, to get out there.

All the time.

Yeah?

I've had a lot of pressure
on me to go into politics.

I was pulled into it once or
twice in the black movement,

when I was in school.

I think they tried to use us, and
in many cases, it... it hurt guys.

I felt that with Harry Edwards.

It hurt Tommie Smith, it hurt John Carlos.

Standing on his platform,

I thought they should've been
standing on their own platform.

I say if I'm gonna be
standing on the platform,

I'm gonna be speaking for O.J.

When did you first meet Mr. Simpson?

1970.

Okay, and under what circumstances?

I met him, uh, on a tennis court.

Would you be able to
describe Mr. Simpson's

basic personality as you knew it?

Very personable, very outgoing.

We did business together, and then
we would, uh, socialize together.

We were at Bob Kardasian's
mansion in Beverly Hills.

O.J. is playing tennis, and
everybody's having a good time.

I'm with black power, get it?

I don't wanna be around
these people, all right?

'Cause they're all phony to me.

I said, "O.J., look around you, man.

These people don't care nothing about us.

Just a few years ago, these
guys woulda drove down Fillmore

in their Rolls Royce and they
wouldn't have even spit on us."

I said, "Now they're acting like
we're their long-lost brothers."

I said, "Man, the only reason
we're here is we are jocks,

and you're O.J.."

And he looked at me,
he says, "Mm-hm, yeah."

He says, "I understand
what you're saying,"

and he rubbed his tennis racket.

He says, "But I am O.J.," and
ran off on the field laughing.

And I was, like, I mean, I was furious.

Because I say, "He's lost.
He's lost his identity.

He doesn't know who he is any longer."

I think he'd been brainwashed.

Let me read you something
that he said to me.

"That sort of thing hurts me

even though it's what I
strive for, to be a man first.

Maybe it's money, a class thing.

The negro is always
identified with poverty.

But then you think of Willy Mays
as black, but not Bill Cosby.

So it's more than just money.

As black men, we need something
up there all the time for us,

but what I'm doing is not for
principles or black people.

No. I'm dealing first for O.J.
Simpson, his wife and his babies."

O.J.'s quest was to erase race
as a defining factor in his life,

and that was the basis
upon which white society

not only accepted him, but embraced him.

Now, there are problems with that,

because what enabled O.J.
to be O.J. and not be black

was that so many negroes
and black people stood up,

made the sacrifice, paid the price.

They're the ones that set the table
for O.J. and what he was saying was,

"Okay. We may not have
arrived, but I have arrived,

and as far as I'm concerned,

everybody else can get here
the same way that I did,

and when they get here,
they can do what I do."

He was so privileged, he was so accepted,

he was so embraced that he
was immune from the reality

that he could find in the mirror
every morning that he was a black man.

No matter how far he
runs and how long he runs,

when you look in the mirror,

that black man is gonna be
right there with you. Every day.

We were just sitting around
the house once and, uh, he says,

"Joe, do you think you could go back?"

And I was like, "Go back where?"

He said, "You know, go back
to the projects, hanging out?"

I said, "Yeah, man." I said,
"I could go back tomorrow."

Potrero Hill. Hasn't changed a bit.

We didn't have Dr. King and these
other bougie folks as role models.

Our role models was pimps and players.

Those are the only people
that we looked up to,

because they had cool things.

They'd beat a ho down right there
on the street in front of everybody

so that all the women would know it,

this is the kind of
treatment you're gonna get

if you don't bring me my money.

Your perceptions are shaped by
the men that are in your lives.

Mama was Mama. We knew she
loved us, but the reality is

I didn't wanna be like Mama.
Mama's a woman. I want to be a man.

He had to deal with his
father from time to time.

Sometimes, I guess his father came by

to take care of the
monthly payment or whatever.

One day, we went over to his dad's
house. We knocked on the door.

He kept looking at me, and
when his dad opened the door,

he was in a bathrobe,
which is not a crime,

but then his dad kinda
opened the door more,

and there was a guy in
the back in a bathrobe too,

so it was obvious that his dad was gay.

We left and on the way
back, we were quiet.

Because there was so much tension,
we got to this certain point,

and we both bust out laughing.

Calvin came to me, and he was like,

"Man, did you know O.J.'s dad is a punk?"

I was like, "Man, shut up.
I don't wanna hear that."

Back in our day that was
the worst thing in the world.

That you could ever think
about an African-American man

being a homosexual.

Did you ever talk to O.J. about this?

No.

Never?

Mm-mm. I felt like that issue was
enough for him to deal with himself.

Think of O.J. as an American man,

a poor American man, tough American man,

who's recreating himself in ways
that people would accept and push.

O.J. Simpson may be playing the last
game of his brilliant football career

tomorrow when the Buffalo Bills
meet the Minnesota Vikings.

All year, O.J. has hinted he may
hang up his cleats for a movie career.

He could not wait to get out of Buffalo.

He was away from the glamour.

He was away from all the
Hollywood and all that stuff.

He got attention here, but it
was a different kind of attention.

It was not Hollywood attention.

Lou Saban said today that he's
detected a change in The Juice.

He hasn't diminished
one whit as a competitor,

but he's an intelligent man,

and he's thinking about the
whole of his future life.

There are certain opportunities
outside of football

that I can't, uh... I just can't
overlook too... too many more years.

You know, I came into the league,
I thought the world was mine.

I had a few bad years,
and I realized then that

"Hey, you know, when
you're hot you're hot,"

so there's opportunities
that have come to me with ABC,

with the movies that I would
like to, uh, take advantage of

and, uh, the only thing I
wanna do right now is play...

Get the best possible year
I can so if I do retire...

I... I will feel that
I gave it my all and I,

you know, uh, went out the best.

That's your own meretricious
way of saying you want my job.

Well, you gotta explain
meretricious to me, Howard.

I always felt that there was
more underneath O.J. Simpson

than just the momentary
superficiality of his pleasantness.

He had goals that he wanted to achieve,

and he internalized those things.

There was something driving
him, and I always felt

that he was looking
past a football career,

which was going to
definitely come to an end.

We are T-minus 18 seconds from
liftoff. We are T-minus 15 seconds.

Would you and your men please follow me?

Gary, what the hell is this?

This is an emergency.
Please follow me now!

One of the most intriguing films
now being put together in Hollywood

is Capricorn One.

James Brolin plays the first
astronaut to set foot on Mars,

but the picture's scene-stealer
will probably be O.J. Simpson.

It basically came from the studio
that they wanted O.J. Simpson.

I thought there were worthy
African-American actors

who had paid their dues as
actors, who had shown their talent.

My first choice was either
Robert Hooks or Bernie Casey,

so my reaction was less than enthusiastic.

I had seen Towering Inferno.

What? Damn it, man, you
shoulda sent a man up there.

How do you expect her to
hear a phone call? She's deaf.

I thought he was not gonna
frighten Daniel Day-Lewis.

O.J. was a celebrity of enormous stature,

and somebody who had not shown
the chops to play the part.

How uptight do you get making
a picture like Capricorn One

where you're working in the company
of actors of... of real stature and...

and you're just a football
star trying to be an actor?

No, I don't think, uh, it's
given me that... that feeling.

It's obviously given me the feeling that,

"Hey, I've still got a lot to learn."

I think, uh, you never
stop learning in anything,

and I... I realize I'm still just
a babe, you know, in the woods.

My goal was to see if I could make
this guy work for what I wanted.

Came time to do his last scene.

Water. Tiny says signs for water.

He's a guy who's parched and delusional.

Dry river bed. Signs.

And so rather than him acting somebody

who was desperately thirsty...

... more sign.

I put appliances on his face that
made it difficult for him to move

and difficult to talk,
and it just made him sound

like he was in desperate trouble.

Elizabeth, there's no water.

- There's no water.
- I don't want to die.

And, uh, he was pretty good.

Elizabeth.

You know, at the... at
the... What could I say?

He was a charming, terrific guy.

He was a positive guy. He tried very hard,

and it was clear that he saw
a future for himself in film.

The Daisy was a private
club in Beverly Hills,

and the only people that could get in it

were either rich, famous or beautiful.

All the celebrities used to go
there. And really beautiful girls.

And you could get in even if
you were underage, no problem.

Jack Hanson started the disco,
and he knew every Hollywood star.

Jack was a former USC guy.

One day he said, "You chum around
a bit with this Simpson guy.

Could you bring him by, you
know, and introduce him to me?"

He was married to Marguerite at that time.

But as we're sitting there, this
gorgeous little surfer blonde

is waiting tables at lunch hour.

O.J. goes, "Wow, who's that?"

Jack had Nicole come over and said hello.

And she didn't walk 10 feet away,
and he looks right at Hanson and said,

"I'm gonna marry that girl."

She was 18 years old, she had
just graduated from high school.

She was just like my little sister.

She goes, "I met this man,
and his name is O.J. Simpson."

They went out, and I waited up for them.

She got home, it was, like,
2 o'clock in the morning

and her jeans were ripped. And
I went, "What... ? What happened?"

And she goes, "Well, he
was a little forceful."

And I go, "Nicole, why would you let him,

first date, be a little bit forceful?"

"Well, Dave, don't be upset. I
think I really like this guy."

That was, you know, the start of it.

About two days later, she
went back to work. She said,

"O.J. came in. He wants to get an
apartment for me and also a car."

And I went,

"Nicole, think about this. You
know, he's married and has children."

And she goes, "But I think I really
like this guy." It was that fast.

Eighteen years old. I
mean, it was too young.

She was quiet, nice, didn't say too much.

She wasn't like she was distant or
anything. She was just a shy person.

And Nicole was a doer. Whatever
Nicole put her mind to, she could do.

She actually wanted to be a photographer,

and she was always an artist.

Honestly, the connection's pretty obvious.

I mean, she's drop-dead gorgeous.

She was hot. My sister was
really a beautiful girl.

We didn't know who he was. We
were girls in the Brown house.

We didn't grow up with
football. We went to the beach.

So when Nicole came home with
him, we were like, "Who are you?"

They had a real love affair, these two.

When they were together,
it was just... it was love.

And that's what makes this thing so sad.