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Inside Odin Lloyd Death Episode

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[This story contains spoilers from the eighth episode of American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, “Odin.”]

Filming Odin Lloyd’s homicide in episode eight of the FX sequence American Sports activities Story: Aaron Hernandez was significantly difficult for Josh Rivera who performs Aaron Hernandez, the one-time New England Patriots NFL star who was later convicted for the homicide of Lloyd, and who died of an obvious suicide in jail. Taking the lifetime of Lloyd, the boyfriend of Shaneah Jenkins, the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée Shayana, was personally devastating to the actor. Not solely had Hernandez and Lloyd frolicked just a few instances and, by most definitions, have been pals, they have been additionally potential in-laws.

“To have your life taken, one thing about that settled with me differently,” says Rivera of reenacting the heinous homicide. “Once you’re speaking about true crime, there’s this barrier we put up that sort of separates ourselves from the truth of that, and one thing about taking pictures that scene actually settled in me the gravity of what that was.”

J. Alex Brinson, who performs Lloyd, labored exhausting to make sure that the gravity of Lloyd shedding his life hit exhausting. “The principle thrust that I held onto in constructing, creating this character and this position, was the essential human want and have to reside and to need to reside a full life to succeed in your full potential.”

Although born in Saint Croix within the U.S. Virgin Islands, Lloyd grew up principally in a tough space of Dorchester in Boston. To assist seize who Lloyd was, Brinson says, “I watched interviews along with his sister, with [Shaneah] his mother and I attempted to permit these issues to infuse [my portrayal of] how he moved.”

Like Hernandez, Lloyd performed soccer, however not for the NFL. As an alternative, he was with the Boston Bandits in a semi-pro league with goals of in the future being within the NFL. So it’s solely pure he would look as much as Hernandez who had achieved that dream. However the “Odin” episode doesn’t start with soccer. Earlier than Lloyd hits the display, his Caribbean heritage is honored with a meals shot earlier than a girl emerges as she prepares a household meal. As a result of “Hey, Ma” are Lloyd’s first phrases, it’s clear from the very starting that he’s beloved and means one thing to somebody.

Affirming Lloyd’s humanity was of paramount significance to director Steven Canals, who’s finest identified for Pose, which he conceived and later developed with American Sports activities Story boss Ryan Murphy, particularly as a person of colour himself. “Aaron, as , was half Latin, and the oldsters that he murdered have been all males of colour. And so I believe there’s this added ingredient to it as nicely, once we take into consideration race and sophistication and the way that impacts this,” says Canals.

Previous to working with American Sports activities Story, Canals had already listened to the Gladiator podcast, the sequence’ supply materials from The Boston Globe and Wondery. He additionally learn the 2018 guide The Fact About Aaron: My Journey To Perceive My Brother by Jonathan Hernandez, higher often called D.J. Hernandez. In some ways, Pose, which handled a large spectrum of points, together with HIV and loss of life, helped Canals clearly talk that to Brinson and, in flip, the viewers. “The conversations we have been having on set whereas we have been producing [Pose] was all the time in an effort to ensure [the actors] have been okay, as a result of we have been asking them to go to very scary, emotional locations. So in that means, [Pose] ready me to work on American Sports activities Story in that, once more, I used to be having to have actually essential, actually intense conversations with the solid.

“From the very starting, from the very first day that we met, I pulled him apart earlier than we ever shot a single scene, and I stated, ‘what’s actually essential to me is that you just and I discover a strategy to honor Odin’s life. I don’t need this story, and definitely I don’t need this specific episode, to really feel exploitative. I need to ensure that we acknowledge that this was an actual man, an actual Black man who existed, who was murdered.’

“And so any scene that I filmed with J. Alexander [sic] in it, we all the time took a second to only step apart, one-on-one, simply to have a fast dialog, and I all the time made positive to test in with him [and ask] ‘how are you feeling? How’s your coronary heart?’ and create house for him to articulate how he was feeling. As a result of what we have been asking him to do was actually intense and, in some ways, was actually triggering and actually scary.”

The identical was true for Rivera. “I bear in mind having conversations with Josh [saying], ‘It’s going to be actually powerful to guide as much as these moments the place Aaron kills Odin.’”

Brinson, who’s married to Lindsay Mendez who performs Aaron’s trusted older cousin Tanya Singleton, labored exhausting to make sure his realizing Odin’s destiny as an actor wouldn’t disrupt what was on display. As an alternative, he stored Odin’s mindset of he and Aaron being pals, So, in his thoughts, says Brinson as Odin, “This was the start of one thing nice for me, and we have been going to construct from a household standpoint, from being brothers and in legal guidelines, after which Aaron simply went loopy. I felt that there was one thing not proper with him, however I didn’t assume he was going to take my life.” He additionally performed thoughts tips on himself and he believes going by means of an emotionally darkish interval personally additionally helped him seize Odin’s humanity.

Feelings apart, manufacturing challenges loomed massive. “As a filmmaker, that was arguably the toughest day of filming I’ve ever had. It was actually powerful,” says Canals. “I consider we shot that in February, like the start of February, in New Jersey. So it’s freezing and the episode is meant to be going down in Massachusetts, in the summertime.”

Taking pictures within the freezing chilly wasn’t the primary impediment, nonetheless. “The evening earlier than we have been imagined to movie, there was an enormous rainstorm,” he shares. “We get in and the whole lot is simply soup. It’s muddy as a result of it rained, and we needed to maintain shifting. There was lots of work that needed to be finished. We needed to take about three hours out of our shoot time to create one thing that the actors might stroll on that wasn’t mud, in order that they wouldn’t simply drop into the bottom.”

However then there have been different challenges. “I believe we have been filming that at most likely, like eight, 9 o’clock at evening, however at this level, the automobile acquired caught within the mud. On three separate events, we needed to have a tow truck come out to drag the automobile [out] as a result of it stored getting caught. The actors solely had a restricted variety of costume adjustments, however there was mud in every single place, which clearly impacted how I shot a few of these moments. At a sure level, it was like, I’m simply going to must shoot from the waist up, as a result of their sneakers and the underside of their pants have been simply utterly muddy. So, it was powerful.”

Via all of it, Canals says each Brinson and Rivera, who share a real affection for one another, stayed utterly current. “It was painful,” says Brinson. “Josh needed to do the ending of life, and I needed to need to reside.”

For Canals, “Soiled Ache,” episode seven, was key to creating “Odin,” episode eight, really feel so actual. And that begins with the script, he insists. “They have been actually sturdy and did an incredible job of capturing and highlighting Aaron’s paranoia. It isn’t by probability that, within the top of his drug use changing into extra frequent and extra intense, that you then see this paranoia get actually heightened. It’s lots of Sherrod [Hernandez’s one-time street friend and arguably earlier enabler whom he shot at close range but found out later didn’t kill]. You could have Sherrod making threats [via text]. And also you simply had this confluence of lots of completely different pressures all stacking up for Aaron on the identical time, along with attempting to be a great accomplice to Shayana and to be a father to his daughter. And he’s additionally nonetheless an enormous NFL star. Now he’s acquired this man who’s saying, ‘I’m going to show you for who you actually are.’ And what does one particular person do when all these pressures exist? Within the seventh episode, he, in his thoughts, will get to flee to California as a result of he has to have this surgical procedure, and, finally, all he does is use himself persevering with to spiral.”

In step with that, the final shot of episode seven is of Hernandez standing in entrance of his private arsenal in a secret house his fiancée has no information of, presumably ready for battle.

“The reality is that Aaron’s by no means actually talking for himself as a result of he’s now not alive. And so for me, I used to be actually attempting to get deeper into his psyche, but in addition to grasp how the individuals who knew him finest associated to him, who was the person who they knew. As a result of I believe who we’re behind closed doorways goes to be completely different from who we’re front-facing and publicly,” says Canals. “I understood him to be actually sophisticated and to be somebody who was tortured. However is that correct? I don’t know. I don’t have the power to speak to him, and so for me, I simply was attempting to get an understanding of all of the variations of Aaron that I understood to exist.”

Episode eight actually units the stage for the sequence, not simply its remaining two episodes. “That is the second that adjustments the whole lot,” says Canals. “And it’s attention-grabbing as a result of it’s not that Aaron hadn’t already dedicated crimes and hadn’t finished issues. Except for the truth that it’s Odin’s loss of life that finally precipitated his getting arrested and being incarcerated, I believe the distinction in Odin’s loss of life versus any of the opposite crimes he had dedicated earlier than was that connection, proper? I believe that, for Aaron and for the viewers, it was simpler to dismiss maybe a few of what occurred, as a result of he didn’t have as deep a connection.

“As a result of J. Alexander [sic] is such an exceptional actor, such an exquisite human being, you fall in love with Odin,” says Canals. “So it’s heartbreaking, as a result of it’s like, ‘Why? Why would [Aaron] do that?’”

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American Sports activities Story: Aaron Hernandez releases new episodes Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX and Hulu.

Entertainment

Phillipa Soo on the Escapism of ‘Doctor Odyssey’

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Ryan Murphy‘s newest community providing, Physician Odyssey, brings viewers into the well-loved world of medical professionals by means of a novel lens, as this medical workforce works and lives on a cruise ship.

The ABC medical drama — created by Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken — stars Joshua Jackson as Max, luxurious cruise ship The Odyssey’s latest and seemingly overqualified physician. Max joins the cruise’s two long-time, skeptical nurses on the medical workforce, Avery (Phillipa Soo) and Tristan (Sean Teale).

When Physician Odyssey was first introduced, the premise of American Horror Story mastermind Murphy’s subsequent collection was largely saved below wraps. Would there be a twist in retailer? Would the cruise ship be not what it appears? Not till the trailer dropped final month did viewers get a synopsis and first look, and start to grasp what the prolific showrunner actually had in retailer. Not too long ago, when chatting with The Hollywood Reporter, Murphy described the collection as “a tribute to the ABC reveals of my youth.”

Soo, who rose to prominence taking part in Eliza Schuyler Hamilton within the unique Broadway forged of Hamilton, says the choice to make Physician Odyssey her subsequent challenge was simple after getting her palms on the script and understanding Murphy was steering the ship. “I didn’t know a lot concerning the story at that time. It was very a lot below wraps, however I’ve at all times been a fan of Ryan [Murphy] and the issues that he makes,” Soo instructed THR in a chat after the present premiered — and Physician Odyssey grew to become ABC’s most-watched drama collection launch since 2020.

“I felt like this was a world that felt enjoyable. It felt luxurious. It felt like one thing that, for me, personally, I used to be craving. One thing that felt like actually enjoyable and alluring and entertaining,” she stated. “I didn’t know loads, however I had this belief actually in Ryan, and after having a dialog with him about his imaginative and prescient for the present and what he needed and hoped for it, I used to be simply so grateful to be invited to the social gathering and was tremendous excited from the get-go.”

For Soo, whose character Avery is the ship’s nurse practitioner, Physician Odyssey is her first time engaged on a Murphy challenge, an expertise she describes as “superb.”

“The extent of care that goes into each scene, each shot, each character. He’s received loads occurring proper now. I don’t know for those who’re holding observe of all of his different reveals,” Soo stated, referencing the six different Murphy-produced reveals that which have both premiered or returned this month, together with FX‘s American Sports activities Story: Aaron Hernandez, Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and FX’s Grotesquerie, together with returning collection 911 on ABC and 911: Lone Star at Fox.

“I at all times joke that I believe he has a time machine, and he’s simply going again in time, touring to totally different locations in order that he can match all the issues that he makes into at some point,” she says.

All through the pilot episode, it’s clear that Soo’s Avery and Jackson’s Max have been arrange for a little bit of push and pull forward, forming a “love triangle” between the 2 and Tristan. The actress stated the three actors have a “pure connection” that comes throughout within the scenes.

“All three of us are very a lot devoted to the work and desirous to make issues clear, and desirous to make issues environment friendly, and desirous to make issues sparkly,” she defined, noting that they typically use the phrases glittery, glimmery and sparkly when making the present. She says that the present’s storytelling has a “lifted tone,” however that the medical emergencies are grounded.

“There’s a shimmer, a glimmer, a sparkle between the three of them, that may be very private to their relationship,” Soo stated. “I believe that it comes simple to us as a result of I believe that’s what we convey to the desk after we’re working collectively.”

Soo stated she hopes viewers benefit from the world of the present. “I hope that they really feel like they’ve taken a tiny, mini-vacation,” she stated. “It’s a type of reveals the place it actually, in its precise context, is an escape, occurring this cruise ship, leaving for a little bit bit and simply occurring an journey. However the present itself, I hope, may also be an escape for individuals.”

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Physician Odyssey airs new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC, streaming the following day on Hulu.

Entertainment

Real Story Behind TV Show

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FX’s newest installment in Ryan Murphy‘s American Story franchise, American Sports activities Story: Aaron Hernandez, is able to hit TV screens. The ten-episode restricted collection follows the true life rise and fall of disgraced former New England Patriots participant Aaron Hernandez.

The present, which stars Josh Andrés Rivera as Hernandez, is predicated on The Boston Globe and Wondery podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Soccer Inc. The podcast dug into Hernandez’s life and profession, alongside together with his arrest, eventual conviction for homicide and his loss of life by suicide inside a Massachusetts most safety jail.

In June 2013, authorities found the physique of semi skilled soccer participant Odin Lloyd, who was courting the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, a couple of mile away from the then-football participant’s residence. Simply 9 days later, Hernandez was arrested on a homicide cost in reference to Lloyd’s loss of life at his North Attleborough, Mass., mansion and brought out of the house in handcuffs.

Hernandez was launched by the Patriots inside hours. He pleaded not responsible to the costs, however was ultimately convicted of first-degree homicide in 2015.

In Could 2014, almost a yr after Hernandez was arrested on expenses associated to Lloyd’s homicide, he was indicted on two counts of first-degree homicide, together with different associated expenses, in reference to the 2012 deadly shootings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado.

In accordance with Related Press, the pair had been shot to loss of life of their automobile at a pink gentle in Boston’s South Finish neighborhood. The AP reported that prosecutors stated Hernandez, who went on trial in February 2017, was offended as a result of de Abreu by accident ran into him at a nightclub whereas dancing, spilling his drink. Nonetheless, Hernandez’s legal professionals stated he was harmless. Hernandez was acquitted of homicide within the killings of de Abreu and Furtado on April 14, 2017.

Simply days after being acquitted in that case, on April 19, 2017, Hernandez was discovered hanging by a mattress sheet in his cell at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Middle, a most safety jail in Leominster, Mass. He was later pronounced useless at a close-by hospital. The Boston Globe reported that Hernandez and one other inmate had been smoking K2 within the former soccer participant’s cell. The newspaper described the drug as wanting “like marijuana nevertheless it’s extra poisonous: vegetation sprayed with chemical substances that may trigger hallucinations and are laborious to detect in drug exams.”

Hernandez, a former College of Florida soccer participant, was drafted to the New England Patriots in 2010. The previous tight finish was reportedly somebody to be warned about within the locker room. In accordance with reporting from The Boston Globe, former NFL participant Wes Welker warned former Patriots receiver Brandon Lloyd of Hernandez’s habits.

“He’s taking a look at me wide-eyed,’’ Lloyd recalled to the Gladiator podcast. “And he says, ‘I simply need to warn you that [Hernandez] goes to speak about being bathed by his mom. He’s going to have his genitalia out in entrance of you when you’re sitting in your stool. He’s going to speak about homosexual intercourse. Simply do your finest to disregard it. Even stroll away.’”

The podcast of which American Sports activities Story: Aaron Hernandez is predicated upon, touches on a number of features of Hernandez’s life, together with his childhood, and the reported abuse he and his brother suffered throughout stated childhood, together with Hernandez’s reported wrestle together with his sexuality and the way he exhibited signs of CTE.

The collection will chart the rise and fall of the previous New England Patriots tight finish. Thematically, it’s going to discover the disparate strands of his id, his household, his profession, his suicide and their legacy in sports activities and American tradition.

American Sports activities Story expands Murphy’s five-series American Story anthology franchise, which additionally consists of 12 seasons of flagship season American Horror Story, three seasons of American Crime Story, three seasons of American Horror Tales and the forthcoming spinoff American Love Story, which can chart the whirlwind courtship and marriage of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. A possible fourth season of American Crime Story, titled Studio 54, is in improvement.

American Sports activities Story will re-examine a outstanding occasion involving a sports activities determine by the prism of at present’s world and can inform the story from a number of views. This season’s script is from Stu Zicherman (The People), who exec produce alongside Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall, Wondery’s Hernan Lopez and Marshall Lewy, and The Boston Globe’s Linda Pizutti Henry and Ira Napoliello.

American Sports activities Story: Aaron Hernandez premieres with two episodes on FX at 10 p.m. on Sept. 17. The present may even be streaming on Hulu.

Entertainment

Watch ‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez’ Trailer

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Aaron Hernandez’s journey from NFL professional to convicted assassin will get the scripted TV therapy within the newest installment of Ryan Murphy‘s American Story franchise, American Sports activities Story, the trailer for which debuted Wednesday.

Within the collection, which premieres on FX on Sept. 17, Josh Andrés Rivera stars as Hernandez, who’s affected by his violent urges. “You don’t know what sort of ideas I’ve. It’s like a demon,” he says. “What if God made me this manner?”

Varied folks across the athlete warn him about his uncontrollable urges as somebody who’s now within the public eye. “You possibly can’t make errors, Aaron,” he’s advised by a member of the family. He’s additionally warned, “The medicine, the intercourse, the anger — no one’s questioning your athletic means, Aaron. They’re questioning your character.”

American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez | Official Trailer | Josh Rivera, Ryan Murphy | FX

Apart from Rivera, the collection stars Patrick Schwarzenegger as Tim Tebow and Norbert Leo Butz as New England Patriots coach Invoice Belichick. It’s government produced by Ryan Murphy, Stuart Zicherman, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson and Carl Franklin. Based mostly on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Soccer Inc., from The Boston Globe and Wondery, the inaugural installment of the brand new anthology collection can also be government produced by Wondery’s Hernan Lopez and Marshall Lewy and The Boston Globe‘s Linda Pizzuti Henry and Ira Napoliello.

American Sports activities Story, introduced in 2021, goals to reexamine a outstanding occasion involving a sports activities determine by the prism of at present’s world and can inform the story from a number of views.

Hernandez was convicted of homicide, and sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole, within the 2023 taking pictures of fellow soccer participant Odin Lloyd, the boyfriend of Hernandez’s fiancée’s sister. He was additionally tried however acquitted of the 2012 deadly shootings of Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu.

Hernandez was finally acquitted from the murders of Furtado and de Abreu following a 2017 trial. However simply days after the acquittal, Hernandez dedicated suicide when he was discovered to have hanged himself in his jail cell. It turned one of the crucial infamous moments in NFL historical past.