The actor plays the tortured football player Aaron Hernandez in a Ryan Murphyproduced series.
American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandezpremieres on FX September 17.
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Im trying to slim down now, saysJosh Riverahalf-jokingly.
Hollywood loves the lean boys.
Timmy Chalamet is working his butt off.
Were at the rock-climbing gym Brooklyn Boulders in Long Island City on a July afternoon.
I was like, Tight, I made it.
Like, Im Hollywood now … smooth sailing, he says.
The feeling didnt last.
Not long after production forWest Side Storywrapped in 2019, the pandemic hit.
It was a sobering experience.
Embarrassed, he would reply no.
Im certainly not used to it.
Now I cant, right?
His original plan after high school was to study musical composition at Berklee College of Music.
We did a lot of the typical theater pretend to be animals and stuff like that, he says.
Mostly he learned about just being comfortable in front of an audience.
American Sports Storyfollows Hernandez from childhood to his death in prison.
Rivera knew the broad outlines of the story.
I didnt know about a lot of the childhood stuff.
Now I want it.
Rivera first auditioned for Jacobson and later read with Patrick Schwarzenegger, who plays Tim Tebow.
Simpson points to Hernandezs layers; he was outwardly warm and goofy, even as inner turmoil churned.
When I get uncomfortable, I smile a lot, Rivera says.
But thats just like a mechanism that I use, which I think was used a lot by him.
Hes preparing for leaner times just in case.
He lives alone in Jersey City and is learning video-game development and C# coding.
I dont know, he says, smiling.
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