this is "nightline." >> tonight. >> i remember i grabbed the knife. >> in a jaw-dropping lost interview on fox, o.j. simpson recalling what he says are hypothetical details of the killings a jury found him not guilty of. >> not guilty of the crime of murder. >> in the hypothetical i put on a cap and gloves. >> is it imagination or memory? plus a searching star. she's lived fast and furious. >> you were only supposed to creates a diversion, roman. >> now hollywood heroine michelle rodriguez on an international quest for enlightenment. giving us unrestricted access to ancient rituals in mexico. >> now you are going to see who you really are. >> using lucid dreaming to confront her demons and journeying into a sacred cave of the unconscious.

and the deadly crash. a tour company helicopter plunging into the new york city east river killing five passengers. what the pilot says caused the accident. but first, the "nightline" 5. 5.

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good evening. thanks for joining us. tonight a newly released interview with o.j. simpson from over a decade ago is raising new questions about his innocence. you're about to hear him describe the murder of his ex-wife, nicole brown simpson, and the young waiter ron goldman. o.j. says it's all hypothetical. but some aren't so sure. here's abc's deborah roberts. >> forget everything you think you know about that night because i know the facts better than anyone. >> reporter: it's the interview that has sparked a big question. is this a murder confession on tape? >> i remember i grabbed the knife -- >> reporter: in a bizarre and rambling interview taped in 2006 but never aired until last night o.j. simpson discusses the 1999 murders of ex-wife nicole brown and her friend ron goldman in stunning detail as if he was there. it was all supposed to be simpson's hypothetical explanation to promote the release of the book "if i did it." >> i don't think any two people could be murdered the way they were without everybody being

covered in blood. >> reporter: there was only ever one suspect in those murders. simpson himself. he was tried back in 1995 during a captivating 11-month trial that played out on tvs across the country and acquitted. >> orenthal james simpson not guilty of the crime of murder. >> reporter: but many have trouble accepting that verdict. >> not guilty of the crime of murder. >> reporter: two decades later this newly released interview raising questions once again. it aired as a two-hour special on fox, titled "o.j.: the lost confession." >> this is very difficult for me to do this. it was very difficult for me because it's hypothetical. this guy charlie shows up. i don't know why he'd been by a closed house but it told me you wouldn't believe what's going on over there. and i remember thinking whatever's going on over there has got to stop. >> reporter: judith regan, who interviewed simpson all those years ago, was actually the publisher of the book. >> you have the publisher interviewing the person who wrote the book. and that was a great concern to people back in 2006. >> reporter: she says she was approached by simpson's attorney

at the time to tell simpson's side of the story. >> in the hypothetical i put on a cap and gloves. >> you reached under the seat for -- >> a knife. and i remember charlie saying you ain't bringing that, but i believe he took it. >> charlie took the knife? >> yeah. in the book. >> i don't know if charlie exists. i don't know if it's his alter ego. i don't know if it's him. but that's the name he chose. >> so ron goldman comes in the back gate. >> yeah. nicole had come out. and we started having words about who is this guy, why is he here. as things got heated, i just remember nicole fell and hurt herself and this guy kind of got into a karate thing. and i said, well, you think you can kick my ass? and i remember i grabbed the knife. i do remember that portion. taking the knife from dharlie. and to be honest, after that i don't remember except i'm standing there and there's all

kind of stuff around. >> what kind of stuff? >> blood and stuff around. >> he switches from speaking hypothetically, you know, if someone had done this then i imagine they would have done it this way, to "i remember the knife, i do remember that." >> you write about removing a glove before taking the knife from charlie. >> i had no conscious memory of doing that, but obviously i must have because they found the glove there. >> it was not an easy interview to do. it was very traumatizing for me. and i had just mixed feelings about revisiting the whole thing and what people -- how people would react to it. >> reporter: back then the public never knew the shocking contents of this interview because the backlash was so severe it never aired. >> the goldman family and the brown family got upset because they weren't aware of what was actually happening. as a result of the enormous

controversy that was ginned up, news corp. made a decision to cancel both the book and the television interview. >> reporter: judith regan was later fired. >> she's none too pleased with fox and the parent company for the way she was treated. >> reporter: then one year later in a twist of fate simpson arrested again for an unrelated crime. attempted robbery in that vegas hotel. he served nine years and was just released last october on parole. according to the executive producer of the fox special, the decision to finally air it was due it's public's overwhelming and continued obsession with the simpson case. the so-called hypothetical account sparking a frenzy on social media. one person saying yes, this is a confession to murder. another tweeting, "o.j. has details and speaks in first person more often than not." but simpson's lawyer telling abc news this interview was in no way a confession "but an inflammatory teaser infomercial that would sell books in 2006. there is no way this video would

have remained hidden until 2018 if there had been a confession consistent with the actual facts of this case." for christopher darden, one of the prosecutors in simpson's murder trial, watching the interview was difficult. >> it was painful. i think that people watching this tape are going to be affected. >> reporter: though acquitted of murder, another jury found simpson civilly liable two years later. he was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families. >> o.j. simpson owes tens of millions of dollars to the goldmans and browns. he still has to pay them with any money he makes outside of his pension. >> reporter: in 2007 the goldman family was awarded rights to simpson's book by a florida bankruptcy court, changing the title to "if i did it: confessions of the killer." greatly reducing the size of the word "if." >> let's immediately go to a picture in los angeles. >> reporter: now, nearly 25 years after that televised white

bronco chase, america remains captivated by o.j. simpson. >> and the oscar goes to "o.j.: made in america." >> just last year espn winning an academy award for "o.j.: made in america." >> ron goldman, nicole brown, this is for them and their families. >> reporter: if simpson's story felt like a made for tv movie, it became one in 2016. >> i'm trying to win. >> reporter: with "american crime story: the people versus o.j. simpson." >> i'm not black. i'm o.j. >> reporter: tonight the real o.j. simpson is settling into a life of freedom. and while many are convinced he may have confessed to murder last night, the reality is he can never be tried for those murders again. >> when you are found not guilty for a particular crime, you cannot be retried for that crime again. >> it should never be forgotten that two people lost their lives in a really brutal horrible way

and there were many victims, including his children who were left behind without a mother. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm deborah roberts in new york. up next, we follow movie star michelle rodriguez into an ancient mexican cave of the unconscious. but first, the latest in that deadly helicopter crash in new york city. new images tonight of the group inside that flight during takeoff. just minutes before tragedy struck. >> zero lima hotel mayday mayday. >> are you okay? >> engine failure. >> going down in the east river, pulling all five passengers with it. unable to free themselves from the harness system. on the pilot was able to escape. he is now telling authorities that a tether, or part of a passenger's harness snagged one of the fuel levers, shutting it, bleeding the engine of fuel. on top of that the pilot says one of the floats used for

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there are two types of people in the world. those who fear the future... and those who embrace it. the future is for the unafraid. ♪ ♪ she is the rough and raw renegade of the "fast and furious" franchise. michelle rodriguez says that anger that oozes off the big screen is real and a big reason for her success. but now she wants to pull it back a notch. abc's linsey davis joins her on her quest for enlightenment.

>> the side of me that you're probably about to see will be new for a lot of people. >> reporter: we're on a spiritual quest with blockbuster actress michelle rodriguez. >> nobody's ever been interested. s so i've never showed it to anybody. >> reporter: here among the ancient ruins of teotihuacan, mexico she's on a five-day boot camp. her personal guide is renowned teacher sergio magana. >> my goals for this trip are to find some techniques, tapping into the subconscious and be able to identify patterns that are disruptive in my life. >> reporter: quite a departure from michelle's hollywood image as the tough as nails leading lady of the billion-dollar "fast and furious" franchise. >> see ya. >> reporter: she's been on a two-year sabbatical from acting, hoping find some balance in her life. >> everybody's like poking me. they're like michelle, when are you coming back? like my agent. you know, my friends are like michelle, you know, you haven't partied for two years.

like we're worried about you. you're just locked up in your house. >> reporter: the quest, taking her to mongolia and peru. >> i want to be able to see the beauty in everything. i can't do that by partying around the world and living extremes and having sex with hot people or like, you know, hanging out with powerful people or, you know, this one's beautiful and that one's this. i'm putting all of my value outside of myself by doing that. and i want my value to be inside. >> reporter: sergio, her teacher here in mexico, is the leading expert on the indigenous toltec tradition so secretive that it's only been passed on verbally. his specialty is lucid dreaming. the belief is that if you're aware that you're dreaming you can influence your dream, that it will plant an idea or even redirect your subconsciousness and bring about real change to your waking life. >> what do you say to critics who say this is just nonsense? >> honestly, i haven't had a lot of critics. and actually, we see like the kind of fathers of psychology

and freud and karl jung. they said the most important part of everything were the dreams. >> reporter: her work starts here, on a busy street in mexico city, in themmy office turned classroom. >> so if you change this, then you will renew in a different way. you will create repetitive patterns that could be good relations. this is the most sacred object of the ancient mexico. >> reporter: among the lessons on the curriculum, the obsidian mirror. >> in which you can begin changing your reflection. >> reporter: legend says it can reflect your true self, guiding you toward what your focus should be. >> close your eyes. take a deep breath. >> reporter: he says that with time and concentration michelle's reflection should disappear and be replaced with symbolic images. >> i want you to breathe out. take out all the heavy energy. so put the mirror in front of your face. open your eyes. look at your reflection.

this is the normal perception of this reality. now you are going to see who you really are, the one that is reflecting you. >> it's so hard. >> reporter: but with more practice -- >> get the [ bleep ] out of here. holy [ bleep ]. that was like wicked. man. some like weird like one-eyebrow people. it's like what? these people did not shave back then. it was weird. >> those are your ancestors. they were weird. >> reporter: after a full day in the classroom they reflect on their session. >> the mirror's pretty amazing. i still would like to get a better hang of it. i did see -- i did see ancestors, or at least that's what it felt like.

i'll be practicing that tonight. okay. ciao. [ speaking foreign language ] bye. >> reporter: the next day their work takes place in the shadow of a giant cross, a reminder this ancient knowledge was overwritten by spanish colonization. >> corazon. ma. ma. >> i have some ancient primal anger. i've been working on that anger for years. >> and you you felt you were able to leave some of it -- >> i was able to leave a lot of it there. i felt it coming out of my chest, my brain, everything. >> you feel lighter. >> yeah, i do. i feel a lot lighter. >> reporter: her ferocity and anger is what michelle credits with helping her become a star. her breakout role as in the movie "girlfight." >> what are you most angry about? >> it's a lot being a woman. it's a lot growing up in the ghetto. i think the woman thing has been

big with me. i had to pretend to be a guy just to have freedom to do what i want without having to marry someone, you know, or be somebody's girlfriend. and i realized it was obviously all in my mind. >> a lot of what's been written about the past 15 years and even before that, it's tumultuous. it's about jail and being kicked out of school and run-ins with the law. >> i don't care, man. i was a kid from the ghetto, dude, who never graduated high school. i think i've done well with myself. anybody can talk all they want about me, but i'm proud. i could have definitely gone a lot more south than it did. >> reporter: it's the final day of michelle's trip. working side by side with sergio to unearth the source of bad patterns. >> i'm feeling a bit overwhelmed just because i wasn't expecting a lot of the images that popped up to come up. >> reporter: all of this leading to her final exercise. >> jakshak.

and now take all the energy -- >> reporter: in this cave representing michelle's unconsciousness. it's meant to bring light to the darkness. >> [ speaking foreign language ]. crown. forehead. take it to the chest. here you heal your ancestors. destructive emotions. >> as she walks out, she graduation to a deeper understanding of the toltec tradition. we check in with her a month later at her home in l.a. >> it was amazing. i got to learn all these great tools i get to use for the rest of my life. i was blown away just by the history of the place. as far as letting anger in, there's a door there now. and that door cannot be opened very easily. as easily as it was opened before.

>> reporter: even sergio says he sees a difference. >> she told me she feels a lot lighter, that she's more clear about the path to take, that she has decided to go back to work after the sabbatic and that she's deciding to also do her own projects like -- i hear change. >> reporter: the two have now become friends. sergio visiting michelle while in california. >> i just want to say this has been the deepest -- one of the deepest and funnest and greatest workshops i have ever taught. she is lovely. and i know that we will be friends forever. >> i agree with that. and i'm happy to have found a teacher. i was looking for you, boy. >> i planted you. >> that's a true thing. >> i found you. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm linsey davis. up next, meghan markle's first public appearance with the queen.

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and finally tonight, meghan markle joining her future

in-laws for a royal engagement at westminster abbey. here she is with her prince charming and other members of the royal family at a commonwealth day service with her future grandmother-in-law, the queen. it's markle's first public appearance with the monarch. she and prince harry are scheduled to marry on may 19th. i'm sure we'll all be up early to watch the storybook wedding. thanks for watching "nightline." and as always, we're online 24/7 at our "nightline" facebook page. good night, america.