Jake Cannavale Says HisAmerican Sports StoryCharacter Represents Aaron Hernandez's Vulnerability and Fear (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jake Cannavale as Chris onAmerican Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez.Photo:Michael Parmelee/FX

Michael Parmelee/FX

After first recurring onNurse Jackieand later appearing inThe MandalorianandThe Offer, Jake Cannavale is breaking through with his latest role on FX’s latest anthology series,American Sports Story, a spinoff ofAmerican Crime Storyfrom executive producerRyan Murphy.

While Hernandez’s sexuality has long been speculated in the media, withformer teammatesand various family members claiming after hedied in 2017thathe was gay, the series doesn’t question it, depicting the player living a closeted (and often tormented) life.

From Cannavale’s perspective, Chris “is the character that humanizes the gay element to Aaron,” the 29-year-old actor tells PEOPLE. “Aaron was a lot of things, most of which he did not admit to, and what the show does so beautifully is it humanizes all those different aspects, all of those different masks he wore.”

He adds, “I think the whole point of Chris was to sort of show what’s underneath that fear,” noting that “besides Chris, the gay part of Aaron is really only demonstrated through the hyper-masculinity of the NFL, the homophobia of his father and his reputation within his community. So we don’t really get a sense of the softness, the vulnerability that comes with his closeted life until we meet Chris.”

From Left: Jake Cannavale as Chris and Josh Rivera as Aaron Hernandez inAmerican Sports Story.Michael Parmelee/FX

“It was definitely something precious,” Cannavale says.

When it comes to working with Rivera in particular, Cannavale says their scenes together were “simultaneously intense and effortless.”

“Josh is one of the hardest working actors I’ve ever met, and that man still finds the time to let his personality come through. He keeps the scale of chemistry and performance pretty even,” he continues, saying that “we had an absolute blast on set.”

The actor, who didn’t start shooting until after Rivera had already filmed five episodes “where he’s in pretty much every scene,” says that his costar “really raised the bar. I mean, he made me want to be better.”

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He adds that the 29-year-oldWest Side Storystar had this mix of welcoming and confidence to him. “I knew that he was working hard, but he never seemed overwhelmed.”

As for nailing that dynamic that’s seen between Chris and Hernandez, Cannavale says, “We both had this very real, not fear, but commitment to making sure that our chemistry looked [legitimate]. The last thing we wanted was for it to come across as insincere.” He adds that “my relationship with [Rivera] off camera definitely contributed to me doing the best acting job I could do once the cameras were rolling. So, I’m very much in a place of gratitude to him for that.”

And at the end of the day, the role was an opportunity for Cannavale to push himself further in his acting career. BeforeAmerican Sports Story, he played a drug addict onNurse Jackie, appearing as his father’s on-screen son, Charlie Cruz, as well as a mobster and the right-hand man of Joe Colombo onThe Offer, which chronicled the making ofThe Godfathermovie, and a young bounty hunter oppositePedro PascalonThe Mandalorian.

“As an actor, I try to push myself and put myself into territories I haven’t been before,” Cannavale says, explaining that “sports is a world I knew nothing about. I had also never played a gay man before. Not only that, but specifically, I’d also never really played a character that had such a sense of yearning that I was really drawn to.”

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He also wasn’t familiar with Hernandez’s story until signing onto the project. “I had never heard his name. I knew nothing,” the actor admits, before revealing that he went on to watch a documentary about the case. “It was absolutely riveting and heartbreaking and confounding. It definitely made me think when I wasn’t crying.”

WhileAmerican Sports Storywas “another very exciting, unprecedented project” for Cannavale, it likely won’t be his last. He’s slated to make his next on-screen appearance in Prime Video’s series adaptation of author Patricia Cornwell’sKay Scarpettabooks, starringNicole KidmanandJamie Lee Curtis. He’s also open to doing more with Murphy, or “Mr. Murphy,” as he calls him.

Although the two didn’t meet on the set of the FX series, Cannavale says that “Mr. Murphy is a towering figure in television.” And after having “an absolute blast onAmerican Sports Story,” he says he “1000% would say yes to another project” from Murphy’s world “because everybody on that crew was an absolute superhero.” He adds that the mega-producer “runs a tight ship, but you know, it sails.”

And considering that his father starred in the hit Netflix true-crime series,The Watcher, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see more of Cannavale in one of Murphy’s many projects in the future.

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American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandezairs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX, and is available to stream the next day on Hulu.

source: people.com