Josh Rivera of ‘American Sports Story’ on the disease that contributed to Aaron Hernandez’s demise

LOS ANGELES — The FX miniseries “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez,” executive produced by Ryan Murphy, comes to a close with a dramatic finale.

The tenth and final episode follows Aaron Hernandez on the brink of a second trial, which offers unexpected hope, but Aaron struggles as his deepest secrets weigh heavily on his mind.

On The Red Carpet spoke with the series’ stars, Josh Rivera (Aaron Hernandez) and Jaylen Barron (Shayanna Jenkins), and the show’s creator, Stuart Zicherman, about the season finale.

Zicherman explained the writing team’s approach.

“We listened to the prison tapes,” he said. “We wanted to, you know, explore this idea of ​​life. Does he have any remorse?”

He went on to say, “I think when you experience regret, all the things come to you, you know, all the things have been problems. They all come to the surface. And so we tried to kind of like bring them all back to the cook.”

As Aaron navigates life in prison, the series explores the factors that influenced his story, including a posthumous diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease linked to repetitive head trauma.

Rivera explained the role CTE played in Hernandez’s story.

“We had all these things foreshadowing the headspace, especially chemically what was going on in his brain, and we’re kind of at this point in the endgame of what that looks like,” he explained.

As for playing the role, Rivera did research by watching videos and trying to understand how Hernandez’s mind made decisions.

“People may assume they have CTE. It may be probable, but it’s not confirmed until after death… So that gave me a good idea of ​​what that fear must be like of knowing something is wrong, but not to have any idea what it is.” is, or you can suspect that something is going on. I mean, there’s real paranoia involved, and it’s just a kind of aimless unease.”

He tried to approach the role with a certain level of humanity. “I really try to put humanity first… No one is born bad. Like, everyone has a story or a why, or has some kind of context, which is not meant to explain or excuse anything, but that there is.. You know, life is not that binary, like good and evil. It’s not that cartoonish, you know, it’s complicated.’

Barron approached her character in a similar manner, saying, “It’s hard not to connect with her (Shayanna). It’s hard not to connect with Aaron. And it’s hard not to connect with Odin.”

Watch the finale of “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” Tuesday, November 12 at 10pm on FX and streaming the next day on Hulu.

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