O.J., the football star. O.J., the sportscaster. O.J., the Hertz pitchman. O.J., the actor. O.J., the (alleged) double-murderer. O.J., the convict.
Orenthal James Simpson was a man of many roles. Based on the excellent ESPN 30 for 30 documentary O.J.: Made in America, his most convincing role was portraying O.J. Simpson. He crafted an image that made him a transcendent celebrity long before he became infamous.
The most memorizing car chase in history is now 22 years old. That was the starting point from when Simpson’s public persona morphed from affable to sinister. It left many people wondering where O.J. the personality ended and O.J. the person began. Even now when you see Inmate 02648927 at the Clark County Detention Center, you’re not sure who or what you’re watching.
Given what we know now, Simpson was an actor all his life. He fooled people for years. Steve Martin once said “All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” Perhaps there is something in O.J.’s films that might give us some insight.
Simpson’s most famous roles are as Nordberg in the Naked Gun comic trilogy (1988 -1994) and as John Walker in the sci-fi thriller Capricorn One (1977). He also appeared in the disaster movie The Towering Inferno (1974). According to O.J.: Made in America, Simpson always planned for a movie career, envisioning himself as Burt Lancaster. It might have been a lifelong dream. Simpson claimed to have used the name Burt Lancaster when confronted by San Francisco cops as a teenager.
If true, Simpson aspired to be both an action hero and an everyman actor. What might have happened if Simpson landed the role of The Terminator (1984)? Yep. You read correctly. Simpson was the studio’s first choice to play the cyborg from the future. Arnold Schwarzenegger was supposed to be in the hero role of Kyle Reese. Mercifully, writer/director James Cameron deep-sixed the idea because Simpson “was this likable, goofy, kind of innocent guy. Plus, frankly, I wasn’t interested in an African-American man chasing around a white girl with a knife.”
#TriviaTuesday: #OJSimpson was considered for the T-800 in the 1st #Terminator but was ultimately too "likeable" pic.twitter.com/2UFty67ULO
— FilmPhonic (@FilmPhonic) June 14, 2016
#foreshadowing?
Space has always been fertile ground for conspiracy theories. There’s Area 51 where some people believe the U.S. has hidden UFOs, aliens and futuristic technology. Some people still believe that moon landings were faked.
Capricorn One takes those conspiracies to another level.
Three astronauts played by Sam Waterston, James Brolin and Simpson are about to make an historic trip to Mars. But late in the countdown, they are ushered away from the launch and discover that the whole mission is a hoax. After much coaxing, the astronauts play along. They appear in images broadcast from a soundstage to fake the Mars landing.
However, things get really dicey when the ship is destroyed upon re-entry. All of a sudden, the astronauts are presumed dead and the government has a problem on its hands. What do you do? The feds have to whack Waterston, Brolin and the Juice. The movie plays out as a chase film as the astronauts try to avoid murderous government agents in black helicopters.
In O.J.: Made in America, writer/ director Peter Hyams said that Simpson was basically forced upon him. His preference was to cast a veteran African-American actor, like Bernie Casey (John Slade in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and U.N. Jefferson in Revenge of the Nerds).
Hyams said of Simpson: “I didn’t think he would frighten Daniel Day-Lewis.” Still, Capricorn One turned into a big break for Simpson.
O.J.’s most memorable scene takes place in a desert. A disoriented, dehydrated Simpson stumbles into a dry riverbed. He mumbles to himself incoherently while desperately trying to find water. He becomes overwhelmed with despair when he realizes (spoiler alert!) that he’s going to die.
Ultimately, for the generation who never saw Simpson the football star, O.J. might as well have been called Nordberg.
David Zucker liked putting athletes is his movies. He’s responsible for the greatest athlete cameo of all time: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Airplane!. So it was not a surprise that he brought in Simpson to be Nordberg, the accident-prone detective and friend to lead character Frank Drebin. What was surprising was how genuinely funny Simpson was in the role. In the first Naked Gun film, Zucker wastes no time setting the stage for what would be a running joke in the movie.
In an early scene, Nordberg stakes out Los Angeles Harbor. He overhears a drug deal and rushes in to make an arrest. What follows is the most implausible and hilarious run of bad luck ever seen in movie history.
Through the film – and rest of the series – Nordberg is Wile E. Coyote. Something bad is always going to happen to him. He’s not even safe in a hospital.
Or at a baseball game.
The Naked Gun is considered one of the best comedies ever made. It spawned two sequels and several imitators. Simpson was applauded for his performance in the first movie. However, in 1995, Simpson received a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his role in Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult.
Of course, Simpson had bigger problems at the time. By that point, he was on trial for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Naked Gun 33 1/3 was Simpson’s final film. Although he was acquitted of the double-murder charge, he was persona non grata — not only in Hollywood but virtually everywhere else.
Simpson’s movie roles played a part in defining his public image. The man we have grown to know is so different than the man we saw on the football field, on television and on the movie screen. We enjoyed spending time with that guy. We liked that guy.
That’s what makes O.J. Simpson the man so terrifying.
