Marcia Clark: Watching 'American Crime Story' is 'awful and painful'

NEW YORK, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Marcia Clark says watching American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson is a difficult and painful experience.

The 62-year-old author, who served as the lead prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, reacted to the FX series after its premiere this week. Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, in 1994, and was acquitted of the crime the next year.

"I think it's amazing, really amazing," Clark said of the show Wednesday on The View. "I can't watch it the way most people do. For me, it's reliving a nightmare. It's just awful. Every bit of it is awful and hard for me."

"Yet I have to tell you, it's kind of a measure of how good it is -- that it hurts that much," she qualified. "They're getting the big stuff so right. [Executive producer] Ryan Murphy had the guts to pull out the big issues ... the racial issue ... and sexism."

Sarah Paulson plays Clark on the series, with Cuba Gooding, Jr., as Simpson and David Schwimmer, John Travolta and Courtney B. Vance as Simpson's defense lawyers, Robert Kardashian, Robert Shapiro and Johnnie Cochran. Clark praised Paulson's performance on the show in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

"I think she is a genius. She's an amazing actress. She surpassed anything I could have ever imagined. She's funny and so brilliant and she's a wonderful person," she said of the 41-year-old actress. "The first thing I said to her was sorry about the hair," she added of her perm.

Clark has since published several books, including Without a Doubt, which chronicles the trial, and a series of novels. American Crime Story airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.