Fans of Josh Rivera – whether from his musical days in “West Side Story,” his role as the moral, reasonable Sejanus in the latest film “The Hunger Games,” or his popular relationship with actress Rachel Zegler – will soon discover a whole new side of themselves.
The 29-year-old, who is easy-going, charming and laid-back in his private life, takes on the role of Aaron Hernandez, the New England Patriots tight end who was convicted of murder in 2013 and committed suicide in prison in 2017, in the FX series “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez.” He has never made this transformation before.
“I like to be lighthearted and make a lot of jokes. I consider myself a good-humored person, but I obviously have to approach it with a certain sensitivity that I might not have on other projects,” Rivera says. “There’s a little bit of lightness in ‘The Hunger Games,’ even considering the subject matter, and ‘West Side Story’ was more of a celebration, whereas this is an analytical lens of relationships or lack thereof, brain damage, sexuality, societal guilt. There are a lot of things that come into play.”
Nina Jacobson, the producer of the Hunger Games films, asked Rivera to audition for the role. Before learning about the project, he knew little about Hernandez’s life.
“But the more I learned about it, the more I was passionate about the story. As an actor, I always crave anything that has to do with density and complexity and analyzing your own personality and its layers,” says Rivera. “The more I learned, the more motivated I was to get the role.”
Rivera didn’t have any contact with anyone who knew Hernandez to prepare for the role, but relied heavily on the Boston Globe’s “Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc.” Physically, he underwent a three-month transformation to go from his “Hunger Games” physique, which was leaner than ever before, to the role of a professional football player.
“Oh my God. I trained so much,” Rivera says. “FX was really generous; they put a trainer in my corner and we worked out four to five times a week, and then I had football boot camp. I mean, it was tough. I started at 187 pounds, and when we started shooting three months later, I think I was 215 pounds.”
Rivera knows that “American Sports Story” is not only his first appearance as the director of a project, but also a demonstration of his versatility as an actor.
“In general, when I think about my career, I want to do as many different things as I possibly can. I watch the show again. And I feel like, and I’ve changed my mindset about it: Whenever I look at myself, I think, ‘I wish I had done that. I wish I had done that.’ And now it feels more like, ‘How exciting, I have so much room to improve, I have so many opportunities to still challenge myself,'” Rivera says. “So I really long to try all kinds of genres, anything I can get my hands on to expand my acting repertoire.”
Born in North Carolina and spending his formative years in Boulder, Colorado, River considers himself a late bloomer in acting, as he didn’t know he was interested in it until he was 18. Music was his first love and he wanted to study music production, but the programs were all too expensive.
“I ended up auditioning for a few musical theater schools and one of them gave me a scholarship, which was a huge financial help to my mom, me and everyone. So I went in that direction,” he explains. “It’s kind of weird. It’s a lot of really random decisions and situations that got me to where I am now.”
The series, the first two episodes of which will be released on September 17, tells Hernandez’s life from his teenage years, when he struggled with drugs, his sexuality and the death of his father, and follows him as he becomes a football star but sinks into his problems.
“I think one thing the show does pretty well, especially in the later episodes, is it kind of makes it clear that this is a person who is popular and very talented, and who is, at worst, misguided early in his life. And then it escalates more and more, to the point where even the audience doesn’t know who we’re watching, even though we’ve kind of seen him grow up. It explains without excusing,” Rivera says. “A lot of things have happened in this person’s life that make you wonder: If one thing was different in the beginning, who knows?”
This article was published in the Fall 2024 issue of Rivet. Click here to read more.
