These 10 events portrayed on The People v. O.J. Simpson didn’t happen quite the same way in real life.
Johnnie Cochran’s formal request
From the way the show made it seem, Johnnie Cochran was trying to weasel his way into O.J. Simpson’s legal team over time. But according to Jeffrey Toobin’s original book, Cochran and Simpson had been in touch since the saga began. Per Rolling Stone, Toobin’s research claims that the lawyer was a longtime acquaintance of Simpson and that the football star had “been on the phone with Cochran talking about his plight and asking the attorney to join in his defense efforts” since the day of the murders.
The Kardashian kids chant
Younger versions of Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Rob show up several times early on in the show. One much-discussed scene shows the kids chanting their last name after seeing their father read a note from Simpson on air. Khloé herself has said that never happened in real life, although the trial did earn their family a lot of attention and caused a divide between their father and mother.
A.C. Cowlings’ 911 call
When Simpson finally decided to end the widely televised Bronco chase, A.C. Cowlings, who was driving the car, called the police to let them know they were heading back to the footballer’s house. In AMC’s version of the scene, Cowlings is pretty frantic, yelling “Everything is terrible!” According to Rolling Stone, though, Toobin’s book depicts Cowlings as maintaining a calm and assuring demeanor — until he was passed off to another operator. That’s when he lost his cool, shouting his now-famous line, “You know who this is, God damn it!”
Rob Kardashian bringing Simpson inside
When Simpson and Cowlings finally pulled up to Simpson’s house after the chase, it was an LAPD negotiator who persuaded Simpson to get out of the car and into his home without hurting anyone. The show altered this scene so that Rob Kardashian is the one to convince Simpson to leave the vehicle, although the basics of the conversation remain the same.
Bill Hodgman’s courtroom collapse
AMC’s version of Bill Hodgman’s from the prosecution team was very dramatic, with the lawyer collapsing in front of everybody in court and then getting carried out on a stretcher. While Hodgman did have health issues that prevented him from having a leading role in the trial in real life, a courtroom collapse never happened.
Marcia Clark and Chris Darden’s dance
There’s a scene in which Chris Darden convinces Marcia Clark to dance with him in her office, an attempt to take her mind off things for just a minute. Clark told Vulture that while that moment never happened in real life, the scene does illustrate the dynamic in their relationship. “No, but again, that’s a great moment because they’re delivering the essence of our relationship, and that’s nice,” she said. “It’s an essential truth even if it’s not a literal truth.”
Clark and Darden’s debate over Mark Furhman
In the show, there are several scenes in which the two prosecutors debate whether they should even put Mark Fuhrman on the stand. According to Clark herself, that was never even a question in the actual trial. “That’s not true. That’s what comes from [Jeffrey Toobin’s] book and is just absurd,” she told Vulture. “Toobin’s idea was, why did we even have to call Fuhrman? And that comes from somebody who really doesn’t know a thing about trial work. We cannot get away with not calling Mark Fuhrman.”
Rosa Lopez’s testimony
The way the show tells it, Clark is about to put Fuhrman on the stand when Cochran evades the testimony by bringing up a problem with witness Rosa Lopez. But in reality, the issue with Lopez came up on a different day than Fuhrman’s testimony. “No. That’s one of those things where they compressed time,” Clark told Vulture, when asked if Fuhrman was really set to testify the same day. “It was a necessary device, and it actually worked pretty well, I thought.”
Clark’s haircut causes media frenzy
On the show, Clark changes her hair twice in quick succession: first, she cuts her shoulder-length perm into a shorter, tighter set of ringlets, and then she blows out the cut to make it straight. In reality, Clark did cut her hair at the request of her press person in the very beginning of the case, before opening statements. It wasn’t until months later that she received the now-famous straight bob from the creator of the Farrah Fawcett shag, Allen Edwards. According to Clark, it was that straight hairstyle that caused the media sensation — and which caused Judge Ito to sarcastically mutter the line, “Ms. Clark, I think.” Speaking of which…
Clark’s tears in court
On the show, the prosecutor has been shown in tears in court on several occasions — including when Judge Ito makes the comment about her hair. The real Clark says that didn’t upset her. In fact, she flat-out denies ever tearing up in court, saying “No” when Vulture asked her about it.
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