Aaron Hernandez role was 'overwhelming' for 'American Sports Story' star Josh Rivera

The tragedy of Aaron Hernandez — the late New England Patriots tight end who was convicted of first-degree murder and died in prison — received the Netflix documentary treatment in 2020. Now, Hernandez's sordid tale gets told in series drama form in the latest installment of FX's "American Crime Story."

"American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez" premieres Tuesday on Hulu and revisits Hernandez's violent and troubled life away from football. As in past "American Story" seasons, the anthology recounts the real-life events and presents its interpretation of how things might have happened behind the scenes.

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In preparing to play Hernandez, Josh Rivera, who starred in Steven Spielberg's 2021 remake of "West Side Story," dove into the shocking details of Hernandez's double life of football and the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.

Rivera told Entertainment Weekly that his research into Hernandez became "overwhelming."

"You don't want to show any disrespect or anything, but I felt comfortable and confident with the amount of material I was given and with a team that I was around — but it was overwhelming, initially. I won't lie," Rivera said.

Rivera embraced the "freedom" given by the show's producers in playing Hernandez because "a lot of stuff that's not known" is addressed and "we have to tell the in-between." Rivera's portrayal is very much an interpretation "because you don't want to be bound by what everybody else knows about somebody."

"It's a different story," Rivera said. "It's an adaptation, it's not a documentary."

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