Robin Greer Looks Back In 'O.J. Made In America'

ESPN's five-part documentary O.J.: Made in America goes into specific details about O.J. Simpson's life and much of those details come from interviews with people who were close to the Simpson family. One of those people is Robin Greer, a friend of Nicole Brown Simpson who shares her experiences in the years leading up to Brown Simpson's murder, of which Simpson was found not guilty, and the trial of the century. Greer was an actress (her last credited role was in 1993) known for her roles in the soap operas Ryan's Hope and Falcon Crest, but she's best known for her friendship with Brown. Unlike Faye Resnick, Greer never published a book about Nicole's life or testified in the murder trial, but she did make some intense claims about Simpson.

In 1994, the Los Angeles Times reported that Greer had known Brown for 14 years and defended Resnick's book Nicole Brown Simpson, The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted, because of its portrayal of Simpson. Greer claimed to the newspaper, "The public needs to understand that there is a duality in O.J. They're only seeing his show-biz personality. They don't see the darker side of him. And if people don't see the darker side of him, he could get away with murder." Though Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of Brown and Ronald Goldman during his criminal trial, in 1997 he was found liable for their deaths in a civil suit and ordered to pay their families $33.5 million in damages, according to the New York Times. He maintained his innocence throughout the trials.

Greer's claims may seem shocking, but they were a lot less salacious than some of the content in Resnick's book, which also alleged that Nicole used drugs and discussed her alleged sexual encounters. In the same LA Times article, Brown's father called Resnick's book "T-R-A-S-H" and claimed that Resnick wasn't actually close with Nicole, while Greer said she disagreed with parts of it. "I felt it made [Brown] look sexually frivolous, and she wasn't like that," Greer said. "I never saw her as a girl who sexually flitted about." However, she did say that she agreed with the book's portrayal of Brown as someone who was nothing like the "image" projected by Simpson and his defense team.

In a 1994 interview with The New York Times, Greer defended Resnick's portrayal of Simpson again and said, "We are all very skeptical that he's going to get convicted because he's so manipulative and charming that people worship him like Gandhi," and argued that The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted could have helped change that perception.

Then in 1995, The Washington Post profiled a group of Brown's friends, including Greer, all of whom reacted to the trial in their own way. While many of them refused to speak to tabloids, Greer did, opening up on the tabloid news show A Current Affair for a multiple-part interview. However, she told the Post that she doesn't feel totally confident about the decision. "Even if you're trying to do the right thing, someone is always judging you," she said.

In the years since, Greer has faded from the public eye, now returning to the spotlight to offer her views on the years leading up to Brown's murder on O.J.: Made in America. From her interviews on the docuseries, it's clear that she's still affected by the events of 1994, and she said as much to the Washington Post in 1995. "I wish I had been to some country where they don't air this trial," she said. "It's affected my life, it's affected my personal life, it's affected my outlook on things. It's made me jaded."