As Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story moves closer to finally getting O.J. Simpson back on America’s TVs where he belongs, many of the saga’s plum roles have already been taken by actors and actresses sensing the potential for powerful, career-boosting camp. The If I Did It author himself will be played by Cuba Gooding Jr., while John Travolta has signed on for a potential fifth career resurrection as attorney Robert Shapiro. With prosecutor Marcia Clarke, Judge Lance Ito, and black sheep cop Mark Furhman all already cast, there are fewer and fewer big roles left for interested actors to latch onto.
Now, Bruce Greenwood, best known these days for playing Captain Christopher Pike in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies, has signed on to the project as well, taking on the role of Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti. For those of you with hazy memories of 1995, Garcetti was Clarke’s boss, and the man ultimately responsible for the state’s case against Simpson. (He’s also apparently the world’s greatest politician, given that he was re-elected to his office just a year after being handed one of the most famous “not guilty” verdicts in American law.) Given Murphy’s track record, Greenwood will presumably be playing Garcetti as a calm, rational public servant, interested in serving the public good and seeing justice done, all from within the austere confines of his faceless leather gimp suit.