Actor Matt Bomer is central to Wednesday’s penultimate episode of FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (10 ET/PT), but viewers won’t see him. He’s playing a new role: director.
Bomer (White Collar, The Normal Heart), 40, spoke to USA TODAY about his first-time gig directing the episode, “Creator/Destroyer,” which looks at designer Versace and his killer, Andrew Cunanan, as pre-teens; working with his mega-producer friend Ryan Murphy; and the chances for a revival of his USA hit, White Collar.
Question: How did this first-time directing assignment come about?
Bomer: I’d worked with Ryan several times. He knew I always would come into the set with reams of text work and research and he said, ‘You should direct.’ I thought it might be on American Horror Story, but he said Versace. I promptly passed out. When I came to, I said, ‘Yes.’ This was a four-month labor of love for me. I read over 3,000 pages of books. I met with director friends to get insight. I did an intensive with the DGA (Directors Guild of America). I shadowed two other directors of the show. So by the time I got on set, I was at least able to fake it till I made it.
Q: How did you approach Cunanan in this episode, which portrays a future killer and a future fashion icon as youths?
Bomer: “We’re all responsible for the choices we make, but it was a big question of this episode: Can we empathize with a monster when we see the circumstances of his life and the hand he was dealt? What makes one person a creator and one a killer?
Q&A: Matt Bomer on directing ‘Versace,’ ‘Boys in the Band’ and a ‘White Collar’ reunion
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