Actor Josh Rivera, who plays disgraced NFL star Aaron Hernandez in FX’s new biographical series American sports story, tells Newsweek that contacting someone from the New England Patriots franchise or the late tight end’s family in preparation for the controversial role may have “complicated” matters.

Before the first two episodes of the Ryan Murphy drama premiered Tuesday, Rivera, 29, Newsweek that he knew little about Hernandez’s fall from grace before accepting the role in the series that “charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez, exploring the disparate aspects of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide and their legacy in sports and American culture.”

When asked if the West Side Story When Rivera reached out to anyone who knew Hernandez personally or professionally, she responded, “I didn’t have that source.”

“I also felt like there were elements to it that maybe made it a little more complicated to continue. Because when you have advisors and advice for such a complicated story, it’s like there are people who have a vested interest in it and who want it to be colored in a certain way,” he continued.

“It was kind of nice not being able to really do that, because I could take all the information that I had and try to shape it the way I wanted to,” Rivera explained, admitting that he was initially “really nervous” about taking on such a heavily scrutinized figure.

“I saw it as objectively as I could. When I started out, I didn’t really know that much about it, so I was seeing a lot of this information for the first time, which I think was helpful to experience in a vacuum without the input of people who are really passionate about it.”

Rivera continued: “The way I see it, I was given all this information and learned about this person, and my job is to just do the best I can to portray this story. That’s the beginning and the end for me. I just hope that people can understand that I did the best I could.”

History of Aaron Hernandez

Hernandez was one of the most promising tight ends and formed one of the most dangerous tight end tandems in NFL history with Rob Gronkowski, catching passes from the legendary Tom Brady for the Patriots. But his football career came to an abrupt and shocking end in 2013 when he was arrested and charged with the murder of his former friend Odin Lloyd, who may have known Hernandez’s deep, dark secret of male attraction. Following his arrest, the Patriots released Hernandez from the team.

In 2015, Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Two years later, Hernandez was acquitted of double murder in connection with a 2012 case, but just days later he was found dead in his cell, having committed suicide.

Hernandez was implicated in the July 2012 murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, who were shot dead in a drive-by shooting in Boston. Hernandez was eventually charged with the murders in 2014, but he was acquitted in April 2017, just days before his death. Prosecutors argued that Hernandez shot the men after one of them accidentally spilled a drink on him at a nightclub.

Social media and Aaron Hernandez

Social media was not as prevalent as it is now when Hernandez was committing his crimes. There was simply no mention of social media in the full previews of American sports story provided to Newsweek.

When asked how the football player’s life might have been different in the age of social media, Rivera suggested, “I would imagine he probably would have been suspended from college and from professional games a little bit more often.”

“Maybe if more people had been recording the whole thing, people would have been a lot less shocked and surprised by it,” he continued. “I think that was a big part of what made the story so complex, that it seemed like no one had any idea that something like this was even remotely possible, let alone likely.”

“Given the impulsiveness of the character, I don’t know if it would have changed his actions much, but I think the public perception of it might have been a little different,” Rivera concluded.

Are there any similarities with Aaron Hernandez?

“We both laugh a lot. One thing I figured out really early on is that I use laughter as a defense mechanism. That’s about it,” Rivera grinned, adding that he exuded “a real boyishness” in his portrayal of Hernandez.

New episodes of American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX until the season finale on November 12. Episodes can also be streamed on Hulu.

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