Last night’s riveting American Crime Story focused entirely on O.J. Simpson’s infamous White Bronco chase with the LAPD. Executive Producer Ryan Murphy directed the episode, and talked about how the production crew had to close down an entire freeway in Los Angeles to recreate the chase.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the American Crime Story production crew shot on a freeway in Pasadena over two days, first, in order to get all the footage of what went on inside the car, and then to portray the chase from the outside.
Here’s how Murphy described the shoot:
It was the thing that drove the production team to a nervous breakdown. I always said I’m most interested in what people don’t know. So we started in the car and we got all of Malcolm and Cuba’s performances first and I wouldn’t move on until we got that. And once we got that we built outwards and did the chase, the aerials and the 200 police officers and all of that. On the last minute of shooting on the second day, we got the very last shot we needed. So it was very nerve-wracking. But in L.A., historically, you can’t close down a freeway!
Ain’t that the truth. Murphy adds that it took more than a year to get permission for the shoot. Cuba Gooding Jr., who plays Simpson in the show, said that four car accidents occurred during the shoot “because people were so blown away by seeing what they saw and then they would get into accidents.”
(via Entertainment Weekly)
