Ed O'Neill: Clippers owner Donald Sterling 'didn't consider himself a racist'

The FX drama Clipped, premiering Tuesday on Hulu, depicts the scandal that followed Clippers owner Donald Sterling when a recording of his racist remarks was leaked in 2014.

The scandal resulted in Sterling's ban from the NBA and his being forced to sell the Clippers.

Ed O'Neill, who plays Sterling in the series, told UPI that the Clippers owner was convinced he was not racist. Sterling's mistress, V Stiviano (Cleopatra Coleman), was recording him for speech lessons when she caught him asking her not to be seen with Black men in public, including at Clippers games.

"Everything with him was perception," O'Neill, 78, told UPI in a Los Angeles interview. "He knew that racism was wrong. He didn't consider himself a racist."

O'Neill said Sterling considered himself a benefactor to Black people because of the opportunities he gave Black basketball players. Sterling was advising Stiviano, who was Black and Latina, that it was better to only associate with Black people in private, O'Neill said.

"It really made no sense, but to him it did," he said.

Playing Sterling, O'Neill said the man's mood changed "like the weather in Chicago." The actor said he enjoyed depicting such volatile tonal shifts.

"He was fine as long as you went along with him, but if you crossed him, watch out," O'Neill said. "It's almost like playing a Mafia boss without the violence, but it's psychic violence. He was a people manipulator."

Clipped also explores more of Stiviano's life before meeting Sterling. Subsequent episodes show Stiviano going through adoption proceedings for two sons, struggling with reality TV auditions and attending Hollywood parties.

For Coleman, 36, who remembered the scandal in 2014, Clipped was an opportunity to present a fuller picture of Stiviano. She said many people in 2014 reacted to the recording without the context of her relationship with Sterling or personal struggles.

"We all decided the content of her character based on what we were seeing," Coleman said. "I don't think it was a great representation of her fully."

Coleman, who is British, studied Stiviano's voice in interviews with Barbara Walters and TMZ, as well as the recording. The actress also relied on Clipped creator Gina Welch's research, which included Ramona Shelburne's Sterling Affairs podcast, to learn more about Stiviano.

"The actor's job is always empathy and compassion because you can't embody a character and judge them at the same time," she said. "For me, it was about honing in on her humanity and learning about her childhood a little bit."

Welch and Shelburne, who is also an executive producer on Clipped, said they hope Clipped illustrates a shifting of power. Sterling represented established power through money and property, but Stiviano utilized emerging technology to level the playing field.

"Power structures were changing in this era," Welch said. "V had the Internet. I think that watching her play with the idea, she may be as powerful as they are, is wonderful."

Shelburne said that Sterling had survived many scandals with past mistresses whom he could pressure to keep quiet. It was dismissing the power of social media once TMZ released the recording that made this scandal stick, Shelburne said.

"V did it under the guise of voice memos on her phone and recording him for consistency, working on his image," Shelburne said. "He didn't quite clue into how exposed that was leaving him."

When recording The Sterling Affairs, Shelburne said she tried to track down Stiviano. Though she never interviewed her, Shleburne said she was glad Welch included a thorough character arc for Stiviano in the series.

"She's really moved on with her life and raising the two boys that you see depicted in the show," Shelburne said.

During the Clippers playoffs against the Golden State Warriors, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life. Sterling resisted pressure to sell the team, but was ultimately convinced to do so.

"The players didn't want to play for him anymore," O'Neill said. "He saw finally, after quite a fight, that it was a lost cause and he took the money."

Welch said Clipped explores a reckoning between Donald Sterling and his wife, Shelley (Jacki Weaver). After a separation and exploring divorce proceedings, the Sterlings remain married.

"I think it caught all of our characters off-guard, except for V," Welch said. "The back half of this season is really characters catching up to that idea and trying to reclaim their positions of power or their ability to succeed in spite of it."

O'Neill and Coleman also agreed genuine affection existed between Stiviano and Sterling before she released the recording. In 2014, Sterling was 80 and was less interested in sex than companionship, O'Neill said.

"It was more or less 'rub my foot' and that sort of thing," O'Neill said. "'Pick me up, drive the Rolls or the Bentley, tape me.' It was just fussing over him."

Coleman said she enjoyed navigating moments of Stiviano caring for Sterling and intentionally manipulating him into revealing his unsavory opinions.

"There were moments that were really sweet like a father and daughter and moments that are a little more amorous," Coleman said. "There were moments where it really felt like there was manipulation taking place, but there were some moments where it felt genuine."

New episodes of Clipped premiere Tuesdays on Hulu.