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Vance wins case in Simpson miniseries

David Schwimmer portrays Robert Kardashian, left, and John Travolta portrays Robert Shapiro in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” a 10-part series debuting at 10 p.m. Tuesday on FX.
Actor shines as Johnnie Cochran

LOS ANGELES — In October 1995, Courtney B. Vance and Tony Goldwyn took a break from filming a TV movie in Toronto to watch news coverage of the riveting end to a Los Angeles drama: O.J. Simpson was not guilty of murder, a jury declared.

“I screamed ‘yes!’ and he screamed ‘no!’ and we were looking at each other like we were crazy, trying to figure out what the great divide was about,” Vance recalled, adding, “much like the rest of the country.”

The so-called trial of the century, which proved at once gaudy and racially revealing, and what led to the verdict are dramatized in “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” FX’s 10-part series debuting 10 p.m. Tuesday. It’s the debut entry for the channel’s “American Crime Story” anthology.

As defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, Vance holds sway in the courtroom and is a standout in the impressive ensemble cast that includes Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simpson, the former football star accused of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Also on board are John Travolta as defense attorney Robert Shapiro; David Schwimmer as Simpson friend Robert Kardashian; and Sarah Paulson, notable as prosecutor Marcia Clark.

For Vance, the project meant revisiting the black-white split — starting between him and Goldwyn — on whether justice was served by the verdict.

“I wasn’t cheering for O.J. It wasn’t about O.J. at all. ... We grew up with black history, seeing how great we were and how much we suffered,” he said, citing a record of inequality that includes Emmett Till, a black Chicago teenager lynched after flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955.

“There was no justice, there was no recourse for African-Americans for centuries. And that’s what African-Americans were cheering about,” Vance said.

He declined to offer an opinion on the guilt or innocence of Simpson, who in 1997 was found liable in a civil suit and ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5 million. He has been in a Nevada prison since 2008 on a robbery and kidnapping conviction.

Vance took on the challenging role of Cochran, a former assistant district attorney, knowing how much work would be required to “make this project sing.” While he immersed himself in books about the case, he didn’t look at news clips of Cochran to glean his gestures or cadence.

“I said, ‘No, I’m me, and he’s iconic.’ If I can suggest him to the audience, get the audience into the story, I will have done the job,” Vance said.

Skillful flamboyance became Cochran’s signature trait.

After Simpson dramatically failed to get his hands into blood-stained gloves found at the murder scene, Cochran turned the moment into unlikely poetry and a pop-culture catchphrase: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” he told jurors.

Vance’s performance has drawn critical bouquets and, most welcome, praise from a fellow actor, wife Angela Bassett (“She’s very pleased,” he said).

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