'American Crime Story' Season 1 News: Did Robert Kardashian Really Give His Kids a Lecture on Fame? David Schwimmer Explains
The first season of the FX true crime anthology series "American Crime Story," subtitled "The People v. O.J. Simpson," aired its third episode on Tuesday, Feb. 16. In its opening scene, Robert Kardashian (David Schwimmer) gives his children, the younger versions of present-day reality stars Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, and Rob, a talking-to about the trappings of fame.
In the controversial scene, O.J. Simpson's (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) defense attorney takes his children to a restaurant to celebrate Father's Day 1994. There, the hostess recognizes Kardashian as "the O.J. guy" and immediately gives the family a table. The children are ecstatic about the VIP treatment, but Robert decides to turn the situation into a teachable moment and proceeds to lecture the young Kardashians about fame.
"We are Kardashians," Robert says, "and in this family, being a good person and a loyal friend is more important than being famous. Fame is fleeting, it's hollow. It means nothing at all without a virtuous heart."
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It's hard to imagine that the scene, which Entertainment Weekly, TVLine, and other outlets have called "classic" and "biting" satire, actually happened in real life. So why was it included in the episode?
As Schwimmer explained to E! News, the scene was a "fictionalized moment" crafted by the show's writers to let the audience in on what was happening with Kardashian, having just entered the limelight due to his involvement in the O.J. Simpson case.
"The goal is to humanize all these characters, and for my character, part of that journey was being on camera for the first time in his life," the actor revealed. "He was a very modest, private person. Not a public person. So, his relationship to celebrity was something we thought, 'Well, that has to be explored.'"
The next episode of "American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson," titled "100% Not Guilty," airs next Tuesday, Feb. 23, at 10 p.m. ET on FX.
