‘The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson’ Executive Producer Melissa G. Moore Opens Up About The “Chilling” And “Sacred” Experience Of Reading Nicole’s Diary Entries

This June marks the 30th anniversary of Nicole Brown Simpson‘s murder, which shook the nation and served as the premise for what would become the “Trial of the Century.” In the buzz of it all was O.J. Simpson, Nicole’s ex-husband, who was accused of murdering both her and Ron Goldman.

Melissa G. Moore, whose upcoming four-part documentary series The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson airs on Lifetime this weekend, is no stranger to the true crime genre, and found that it “always stood out” to her that in “the most famous case in all of America, and maybe frankly the world, we could close our eyes and we can hear O.J.’s voice” — but not Nicole’s.

“But if you close your eyes, you can’t recall, or at least I couldn’t recall Nicole’s voice,” she explains to DECIDER over Zoom. “And I thought for a case that had, I think, over a 100 million views on Oct. 3, 1995 — the verdict — how is that possible that the woman at the center of this case, we can’t recall her voice?”

Moore notes that she “learned so much” from the making of this project, and through her research found that “the most jarring and surprising aspect of this trial was that her diaries were never allowed to be entered.”

“There’s over 60 entries of domestic violence in her diaries, and there were letters found in the lockbox from O.J. Simpson confessing and apologizing for the abuse, and none of that was admissible into court,” she shares. “So it was haunting that her own words from the grave were not even used to help her defend her own case.”

She also describes “that access to somebody’s personal thoughts” as “very sacred.”

“To know that I was reading the private thoughts of a woman that’s not with us was chilling, but also, it felt very sacred and intimate,” she adds. “There was a regard that I wanted to have with how we used those diary entries into the whole space of the documentary.”

Continue reading to find out how Moore’s own personal experiences with domestic violence inspired the “genesis” of this docuseries, the interview that resonated with her the most, and her feelings about the rise of true crime.

DECIDER: I wanted to begin with the start of this project. If you can take me back to its origins, when you decided to start this. I know it’s been nearly a decade in the making, but what launched this idea for you?

MOORE: The genesis, I think, was my own experience of watching my mother be a victim of domestic violence. And then in high school, I ended up following in her footsteps, and was in a violent relationship in the nineties. So, being a witness and then also a survivor of domestic violence, it gave me an insider look into the complexities of the emotional trauma bond that happens between an abuser and a victim. And that always stayed with me. The relationship that I was in, the abusive relationship, I broke free from that cycle of abuse and I never entered into a violent relationship again. So going forward, working in the true crime space as a filmmaker, it always stood out to me that the most famous case in all of America, and maybe frankly the world, we could close our eyes and we can hear O.J. ‘s voice.

But if you close your eyes, you can’t recall, or at least I couldn’t recall Nicole’s voice. And I thought for a case that had, I think, over a 100 million views on Oct. 3, 1995 — the verdict — how is that possible that the woman at the center of this case, we can’t recall her voice? It always haunted me, and so I decided to reach out to [Nicole’s sister] Denise Brown first… because we actually had a connection through speaking on domestic violence. And at that point, when we connected it was the 20-year anniversary and I said, ‘Why don’t we do something special to honor your sister?’ And she’s like, ‘Not yet.’ And then I approached her at [the] 25-[year] mark anniversary, and she’s like, ‘Not yet.’ And then New Year’s of, I think it was 2023, she said, ‘Ok, it’s going to be the 30-year anniversary. It’s time.’ And she approached her sisters [Dominique and Tanya], and it really was the right time. It felt like it was the perfect timing to finally tell her story.

There are so many participants throughout this docuseries. How did you go about reaching out to all these different people?

When we launched into this project, one thing that was really important to Denise and the Brown sisters was that we hear from the people who actually knew Nicole the best. The people who were there when she was a teenager, the people who were there when she was younger, and the people who were in her life when she lived in Rockingham. And I agree. Of course, we have to have people who really knew Nicole. And so a lot of the outreach came from the sisters reaching out to people that were family friends, and from that inner circle, it expanded.

Were there people you intended to have featured in the docuseries that were either unavailable or not interested in participating in the project?

Yes, there were some key people that I wanted to have be a part of this documentary, but they’ve never spoken out before. And for them, even though it’s been 30 years, it still was a source of pain and fear. Some people had fear that it would invoke the same attention that it did back 30 years. They now have a peaceful existence, and they didn’t want it disrupted by a media storm again.

One aspect the docuseries also touched on O.J. and Nicole’s children, who have avoided media attention. Were they some of the people that you had reached out to or expressed interest in interviewing?

Yes, I’ve spoken with Justin and Sydney Simpson, and unfortunately this was a timing issue. When we started filming, they were just starting their families. And then also, when we started to wrap, when we had this kind of final call of timeframe, O.J. had just passed away. This wasn’t really the most opportune time for them to share their stories. And also, one thing that is terrifying for them, the media circus that this was before, it goes into line with a lot of the other fears that other people had, which is, if they were to come forward, the attention. They want just a peaceful existence. And so that could really disrupt that. Especially as new parents themselves.

While you have become very vocal about your own experiences with domestic violence as well as your experience growing up with your father (serial killer Keith Jesperson) and learning about his crimes, could you relate at all to how they were feeling?

The kids?

Yes.

Yeah, absolutely. I can completely relate to what the kids went through. I met with them in 2016. And that is one thing that we had in common is just to be related to an infamous character, an infamous person, where the world thinks they know the story, or they know all the inside and out of what that’s like, but they just don’t. It’s guilt by association.

Was there a particular interview — considering there were so many, and they were all so powerful and poignant — that resonated with you the most?

Let’s see if I could pick one… I would say Judy Manto. She was [Nicole’s mother] Judi [Brown]’s best friend, and was there as a front row viewer in a way of Nicole’s life. I want to say that she was just so candid. She spoke so freely about the horrors that Nicole endured. And honestly, everybody spoke freely. That took a lot of courage. To share the stories, and knowing that they were invited by the Brown sisters to come on and share everything. I mean, if you could imagine if somebody asked you to come and talk about your best friend, you don’t want to let them down. Judy didn’t hold back, and she shared very personal details and was candid about the dynamic that Nicole grew up in, which is she was in a bubble. She left Monarch Bay — basically from this gated and guarded community — to living as an independent woman for the first time in LA and then being unsheltered and naive. I felt like she really gave context to the frame of mind and experience that Nicole had meeting, at the age that she was, meeting O.J.

Like you just said, all of the interview subjects spoke so freely about what they witnessed and living around Nicole. Considering how vulnerable all of them were, was it difficult not only to hear their stories, but also for them to open up?

Most of them were nervous because they were sharing things that they’ve held privately for now three decades. For some of them, they had a fear of not remembering important things because it was so long ago. I found that to be more the case with the men that we interviewed, more so than the women. The majority of the men interview subjects shared fear of not remembering. And they also shared a guilt that stays with them that they couldn’t protect her. And that was sad to hear that they were so close to Nicole and they couldn’t protect her from her murder.

With this trial being deemed the “Trial of the Century,” and how newsworthy and the buzzy nature surrounding the case, did you find that you learned anything new, or did your understanding of the case change at all?

I learned so much. As I was interviewing different production companies to find the right fit, everybody, when we would go through a Zoom meeting, the production company, the producers would say, ‘Oh I remember where I was [on] October 3, 1995.’ And they would say, ‘I was at school, and they rolled the TV, and they played the verdict.’ And I couldn’t remember what I was doing [on] Oct. 3, 1995. And then it hit me, as I was going to bed one evening, that the reason why I can’t remember is because I was going through my own trial with my father. He had been arrested, it was becoming known who he was and his crimes.

The majority of this trial for me was actually new, so I was coming into it with fresh eyes. Probably more so than maybe other people because I wasn’t paying attention to that trial. But I would say, even in my research, the most jarring and surprising aspect of this trial was that her diaries were never allowed to be entered. There’s over 60 entries of domestic violence in her diaries, and there were letters found in the lockbox from O.J. Simpson confessing and apologizing for the abuse, and none of that was admissible into court. So it was haunting that her own words from the grave were not even used to help her defend her own case.

I really wanted to discuss her diary entries. I found them to be really striking evidence in a way to connect with her and her trauma. How did you receive access to the journal, and what else you were able to take away from seeing her story written in her own words?

There was an investigator that you see in the documentary that was the detective who found the lockbox that carried the journal entries. And unfortunately, I didn’t get to have the original copies of the diaries. I only got photocopies of the diary entries. But what was so fascinating to me was opening up these diary entries, and you’re seeing a timeline, a log of her life that was so private. One of the diary entries was [from] May 22: “I officially split from O.J.” Reading those words and just seeing what she was feeling at the time. And there’s a letter that she writes about how she feels like she’s failing O.J., that you can sense that she tries to be this perfect wife. She tried to do everything right, but it still wasn’t good enough. And to have that access to somebody’s personal thoughts was very sacred to me, first of all. To know that I was reading the private thoughts of a woman that’s not with us was chilling, but also, it felt very sacred and intimate. And so there was a regard that I wanted to have with how we used those diary entries into the whole space of the documentary.

It was really powerful. I know that this docuseries centers on Nicole, but of course the docuseries also touched on Ron Goldman. Was there any intent to also include interview subjects connected to him as well?

I really wanted to stay focused on Nicole and her story. It wasn’t in any way to disregard Ron. It was just that I wanted to have a laser focus on Nicole and who she was, and this genesis of a love story between her and O.J., and how did we get here to this case? How she was a victim of domestic violence. And so to do that, we really needed every act to turn back to Nicole.

I know that there’s a disclaimer about O.J.’s passing taking place during the making of the docuseries, and while the docuseries is airing in light of the 30th anniversary of Nicole’s murder, I was curious how or if his passing affected the making or the release of the docuseries at all.

[It] had no effect at all. We were already done filming months before that. We were wrapping up the final in post, like the edits for post on the fourth hour, and it was surreal that it happened while we had just finished. Because we were at the point that we were going to have to turn over and ask him to make a comment. We had to validate our claims with him, and he passed away before we could have that legality for the doc. But this had already been wrapped months and months prior to his passing. But also there was a meeting that we all had, and it was like, how much air time do we give this? Because obviously this has an impact on this and the fact that it’s coming out right after his passing. There’s a sensitivity to that. But also it goes back to our north star, which was always Nicole. It started with Nicole, and it ended with Nicole. So we may go off on a path and talk about something that’s adjacent to Nicole, but we always, it had a reason, it had a purpose. So we didn’t feel right ending Nicole’s documentary on O.J.’s passing, like it wouldn’t make sense.

I feel like there’s a current rise in the [true crime] genre. How do you feel about that being so vocal through your own experiences, but also amplifying the voices of others involved in their own cases or in the genre as a whole?

I’m actually really supportive of the true crime genre in total. I think about it in a way that… for me personally, it has given me a platform to share my story, to connect with other survivors. I feel like it could be incredibly powerful, but it could be also very voyeuristic. So every positive, there is a negative drawback. Just like with my own story. Every time I share my story, obviously it’s connected to my father, and it gives a spotlight to my father, but it gives me a connection to other survivors. For my family members, who were survivors of my father: my mother went on to be a social worker in domestic violence and helped women get into temporary housing and go to shelters, and she operated a food bank with the Salvation Army. My sister went on to be an ER nurse and my brother went off into the military.

My advocacy work is helping survivors tell their stories. So to me, it’s a really powerful tool, like there’s nothing more powerful in my mind than hearing a survivor’s story and saying, OK now, we can put a big spotlight on it and shine it into the world on this issue of domestic violence, in particular with Nicole, and connect with other survivors. And maybe, my hope is, that other survivors feel seen through watching this.

Thank you for your work in this genre. I admire it so much. I also wanted to ask if you have any updates on Happy Face? I know Paramount announced that it’s slated for a 2025 release, but is the series still on track for that?

Yes, as far as I know, it’s still on track for that. My other documentary with Gypsy Rose [Gypsy Rose: Life After Lockup] is airing on Monday (June 3) following this documentary series with Nicole.

The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson airs on Lifetime at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2. Watch the trailer above.