‘American Sports Story’: Patrick Schwarzenegger Talks Embracing Tim Tebow’s Religious Fervor

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, Season 1, Episodes 3, “Pray the Gay Away.”]

FX‘s American Sports Story continues to chronicle the meteoric rise of Aaron Hernandez (Josh Rivera) as the athlete eyes the NFL, but in the show’s latest installment, “Pray the Gay Away,” Aaron turned to another familiar sports face for guidance, leaning on upperclassman at the University of Florida, Tim Tebow (Patrick Schwarzenegger).

In the episode, Aaron leans on drugs and partying to numb himself as he struggles to cope with his sexuality, the pressures of the game, and more. When Tim notices Aaron’s game suffering, he reaches out to the teammate and encourages him to attend church. There, the men have a candid conversation after Tim delivers a rousing sermon, and although it appears that their chat has improved Aaron’s outlook, he still struggles to resist hidden temptations and control his frustrations during a trip home for Thanksgiving.

When the men reconvene at church following the break, Tim tries once again to support his teammate, as they engage in vulnerable conversations. Unfortunately, their chat doesn’t lead them to continued victory on the football field, but it does set Aaron on a course toward his future star athlete status.

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Below, Schwarzenegger opens up about embodying Tim Tebow for the series, including finding the footballer’s voice, embracing his religious fervor, and more.

You’ve portrayed real-life individuals before onscreen, what went into tackling Tim Tebow in this series, and is there a different approach to a role based on reality?

Patrick Schwarzenegger: Being an actor, our job when we’re cast in certain roles is to create this kind of backstory, you have to create this relationship with the character and understand who they are, how they grew up, where were they born, what’s their family situation, what’s their political situation, what’s their economical situation, what’s their relationship to each character that’s involved in all these different things. And when you’re playing a real person that information is available. You get to research someone like Tim Tebow. I’m a huge football fan and I know about Tebow, but I didn’t know all the information that I had come to learn about him.

Like where he was born in the Philippines and the circumstances of how he was not supposed to be born, and that [doctors] were wanting [his mother] to get an abortion and the parents didn’t. And how that whole thing impacted his religious views. I just went into insane research mode on Tim, which is a blessing for an actor that there’s all this information out there.

There are multiple books where you can listen to his voice for hours on end, [which helps with] trying to get his lisp and how he talks like he’s always running out of energy [right]. And I got to watch him on stage in front of thousands of people doing sermons. So all of those different things are really fun for an actor, and it’s a completely different process than when you’re playing a fictional character or someone that is made up. Tebow is a very small sliver of this story. It’s really about Aaron and his life, but Tim is this kind of humanizing light in this specific episode and in the show for Aaron and as someone who tries to really put a hand out to help.

FX

Speaking of help, when Tim gives Aaron the pep talk after Thanksgiving, did you play it as if he’s offering support selflessly or did wanting to do well in the game also motivate him in this instance?

I truly think that Tim is a selfless person both on and off the field. Of course, you have to understand he’s a determined winner. I mean, he’s someone that is very emotional about football and about winning and being the best person he can be. But at the same time with Aaron, he’s reaching out to someone that’s in need. I think he recognizes that. And from what I understand, he would do that to anybody and everybody. He’s the kind of person that during this call right now if he just met you for the first time and knew you were struggling, [he’d] reach out and try to find ways to help you. I think he’s just that kind of a person and leader. He’s a pretty remarkable human. Did he want Aaron to improve and ditch the drugs and partying to help him on the field? Sure. But I think he did it for off-the-field purposes.

What was it like working closely with Josh Rivera on those vulnerable scenes?

It was awesome to work with Josh. I had the pleasure of doing a directors and producer session with him before we both got cast. So we both did our callbacks and tests together in front of the casting directors, producers, and Ryan Murphy. So I got to meet Josh there and then once I got cast, we were messaging. And then we did some football practice together. He’s such a talented actor. He’s a pleasure to work with. Again, we only got to work with each other for [a few] weeks, but he was awesome. And I can’t wait to watch where his future goes within this world.

Was there added pressure performing in front of a large audience of extras during the sermon?

Yeah, it is weird. Sometimes I get really nervous when I go into an audition and there’s only one or two people in the room, or if I’m doing a scene and there’s only two or three extras around. And then sometimes when there are hundreds of people around, I don’t get nervous at all. It’s a different energy. This scene was probably one of the most fun scenes I got to film, period. I mean, with the music and hundreds of extras playing into it was a really awesome time. I felt very comfortable up there. And I’d watched Tebow’s sermons speaking in front of fifty to a hundred thousand people in stadiums about Jesus and religion, so I was just utilizing those videos and trying to make it feel as much like that. It was fun because you’re almost playing an overperformance. It’s almost overacting and that’s who Tebow is. He’s just this character who can’t keep himself together and under control.

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'American Sports Story' Team on Capturing Aaron Hernandez's Tale

There are so many different things Tim Tebow is known for from the bible verses written on his face during games to his iconic kneel, the latter of which wasn’t shown onscreen. Was there an aspect to playing him that you were most excited to embody?

Yeah, I mean the John 3:16 and things like that were fun, but for me, it was just trying to embody the voice because he’s always talking. It’s almost like he’s always running out of air when he is talking and he’s just somewhat [excitable]. So those types of things were fun to work on and play with. And they didn’t do the kneel, they didn’t do a lot of his staple things, which I get because it’s not about him. The story is not his story, it’s on Aaron and it was fun to be a small part of it.

American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, Tuesdays, 10/9c, FX (Next day on Hulu)