Tag: acs spoilers

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story episode 6, Descent, advanced preview

The sixth episode of American Crime Story season two is titled “Descent,” and the official synopsis from FX is: Andrew Cunanan celebrates his birthday in San Diego as his life starts to fall apart.

Audiences go back in time this Wednesday to a year before the senseless murders of Jeff Trail, David Madson, Lee Miglin, William Reese, and Gianni Versace. We’ll be welcomed to a very lavish birthday celebration, hosted by Cunanan’s former-boyfriend-lover-sugar daddy (it’s complicated), Norman.

So what can you expect? We’ve screened the first eight episodes of the season to bring you an advanced preview each week of what you’ll see! Avoiding all spoilers? This is your last chance to turn away now!

What drove Cunanan mad enough to commit murder? Not that there is ever an excuse, but episode 6, “Descend,” features Cunanan’s breakdown as his web of lies become too great to escape from. We’ll watch as Cunanan’s life begins to fall apart the day of his birthday.

Lizzie, who we met in the pilot episode, is back. She seems to be the only one who cares for Cunanan. She helps him lie, supports him, and loves the gossip! Lizzie genuinely seems sweet, though, so it’s possible she doesn’t know the harm she is doing by going along with Cunanan’s tall tales.

Also invited to Andrew Cunanan’s birthday bash are Jeff Trail and David Madson. Trail arrives first, and Cunanan quickly asks him for a set of favors. We won’t spoil the details, but to sum it up, the favor is to lie about pretty much everything. This will be the first time Trail and Madson meet, and unfortunately for Cunanan, the two get along. Finally, also present at the party, but unwanted and, by the looks of it, not even invited, is Lee Miglin. All of Cunanan’s victims are front and center, they all even take a group photo together.

In true Cunanan fashion, everything is over the top. Oh, and we’ll be seeing Versace again! But don’t get your hopes up, it’s not the way you think.

Lines to look out for, can you guess who delivers them?

  • “Too lazy to work and too proud to be kept.”
  • “You want me to pretend that that’s my gift to you?”
  • “A list of requirements, if we’re going to stay together.”
  • “Did you send my dad a post card?”
  • “The truth. Your parents, who are they?”
  • “Andrew I’m not THE one, I’m sorry.”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story episode 6, Descent, advanced preview

Big Dreams Are Deadly in American Crime Story Season 2

Andrew Cunanan, who shot and killed Gianni Versace on the front steps of the designer’s palatial estate on the morning of July 15, 1997, was good at bragging. In the second episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, a new FX miniseries about the crime and the years that led up to it, Cunanan (Darren Criss) lands in Miami’s South Beach. It is the last stop on a three-month killing spree, in which he has already murdered four men in three different states. Boasting energetically to a new friend, he claims he was once engaged to Versace (he wasn’t), who took him to dinner at the fabled San Francisco restaurant Stars (he didn’t). He launches into a reverie on Versace’s gift for design, and when his friend replies with, “Sounds real nice,” Cunanan is not pleased. “I don’t see something nice. I see the man behind it. A great creator. The man I could have been.”

Cunanan’s curdled sense of self-importance runs through the next seven episodes of the series, which travel backward from Cunanan’s crime spree to his troubled childhood. His parents, a depressive Italian-American mother and a Filipino immigrant father, poured all their hopes into young Andrew. He slept in the cavernous master bedroom by himself and attended a swanky private school in La Jolla, California, even though his parents could barely afford the tuition. He wore a red leather jumpsuit to school on occasion and was voted “Most Likely to Be Remembered” in his senior yearbook, but his own page gave almost no information about him. Instead, he inserted just one quote, attributed to the French King Louis XV: “Après moi, le déluge.” After me, the flood.

Cunanan’s first victims were Jeff Trail (Finn Wittrock) and David Madson (Cody Fern), two young gay men he met through the San Diego and San Francisco nightlife scenes when he was in his twenties. Trail, a former naval officer, befriended him when his ship was docked in the San Diego harbor. Madson, a promising young architect from Minnesota, and Cunanan had met in San Francisco in 1995, when Cunanan spotted him at a restaurant bar and sent a cocktail over. That night, according to writer Maureen Orth’s account (the FX show is partially based on Vulgar Favors, her 1999 best-seller about Cunanan’s crimes), the pair had a “nonsexual sleepover” inside the Mandarin Oriental hotel, where Andrew was staying thanks to an allowance he collected from a wealthy, older La Jolla businessman named Norman Blachford.

Blachford, whose partner of 26 years had just died when he met Cunanan, allowed him to move in to his mansion and decorate it, giving him credit cards, a $33,000 Infiniti, and a $2,500 living allowance. Cunanan was apparently ashamed of being a “kept” man but also flaunted his nouveau riches, spending lavishly on friends and acquaintances. When he met Madson, Cunanan felt a genuine emotional connection and obsessed over the architect romantically for the next two years. By the time Trail took a blue-collar job in Minneapolis, where Madson also lived, Blachford had dropped Cunanan, who was now alone. Cunanan flew to Minnesota, killed Trail with a claw hammer inside Madson’s airy loft, and then shot and killed Madson four days later on the banks of East Rush Lake, an hour outside town—perhaps out of jealousy or despair.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace sticks with Cunanan throughout his spree. Versace (Edgar Ramírez) and his longtime partner, Antonio (Ricky Martin), only appear intermittently, like pops from a flashbulb rather than fully developed characters. This feels purposeful: Cunanan was preoccupied with fame, perhaps to the point of psychopathy, and he put celebrity on a pedestal. He saw himself as destined for greatness, and it is this tragic misconception of himself that makes his story so very American. Versace was an openly gay immigrant, succeeding at the highest levels of American business. This must have enraged Cunanan, the openly gay son of an immigrant, who saw in Versace the anointed prince that he longed to be.

Shortly before the first episode aired, members of the Versace family distanced themselves from the new show, which they thought “should only be considered as a work of fiction.” In Vulgar Favors, Orth asserts that Cunanan had met Versace in San Francisco around 1990, when the designer created the costumes for a San Francisco Opera production of Capriccio. Although it’s not clear whether the two met only in passing or were much better acquainted, we see this encounter in a scene in The Assassination of Gianni Versace. If they had dated, as Cunanan often boasted to friends, Cunanan’s violent act may have been personal: Some reporters at the time speculated—with a homophobic slant—that Cunanan may have been an “HIV killer,” out to get revenge on former boyfriends. (A medical examiner later testified that he was not in fact HIV positive.) Versace’s family holds that he never met Cunanan, that the designer was a victim of his own fame and of one man’s twisted rampage against a sparkling culture that rejected him.

The second installment in Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story anthology series, the show doesn’t aim to establish which version is true so much as to expose the rot at the center of American culture—horrors that could only happen here. (Last season followed the trial of O.J. Simpson, dissecting the racial and gendered complexities of the case.) What we do know, from Orth’s book and from several other reports following the murders, was that Cunanan’s life was one of deception and delusion, of falsehoods and fibs and chicanery. He wanted to travel in the highest echelons of society, clinking glasses with socialites and captains of industry and cavorting on yachts. He didn’t like to work but loved to party, a less talented Mr. Ripley.

Cunanan wanted to travel in the highest echelons of society, clinking glasses with socialites and cavorting on yachts.

Throughout, Cunanan has to confront the mismatch between his aspirations and reality. From an early age, he bluffs about his background, telling classmates he is the son of wealthy aesthetes, that his father, Modesto (Jon Jon Briones), once served as Imelda Marcos’s personal pilot and that his mother has filled his lunch box with lobster tails. In the penultimate episode, we learn that Modesto has had to flee the country after embezzling fortunes from his clients. When Cunanan, now in his teens, goes to Manila to find him, Modesto is living in squalid conditions. Criss and Briones stare at each other for long minutes in this scene, filmed inside a tiny tropical shack. Cunanan realizes his father’s success was a lie, and that all of the confidence and self-regard he has absorbed from his bellowing belief must also be fraudulent.

Many people would experience this sort of trauma—the explosion of the family unit, the disgrace of a parent—and cave inward. Cunanan does the opposite. When he returns from Manila, his lies only get bigger. He claims that his father owns a pineapple plantation, that as son and heir, he is set to inherit millions. He tells friends that he has family in New York, Paris, and Rome, and that Signore Versace has asked him to travel around the world with him designing costumes. Even before the period when a quick Google search could swiftly puncture outrageous claims, all this bragging raises suspicion. In a conversation Madson imagines shortly before he is killed, he asks Cunanan to tell him one true thing about his life. It doesn’t happen. Cunanan was like a Gatsby so enchanted with the green light that he would kill for it, a man so bedeviled by the American dream that he became a walking nightmare.

Because the show tells Cunanan’s story backward, we often see his victims die before we get to spend time with them. We see Cunanan in the days leading up to the murder of Versace, then we see him bludgeon Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell), a prominent Chicago real estate developer, in Miglin’s garage. We see him shoot a cemetery caretaker in Pennsylvania just so that he can steal his red pickup truck. When these victims appear again on-screen, beaming and unaware of their bloody future, it can feel like agony. They die in front of you all over again, and you are mourning them even while they are simply talking and moving.

The best episode of the series is “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which follows Jeff Trail through the trauma of being gay in the military. In one scene, he tries to hang himself in uniform; in another gruesome moment, he takes a box cutter and begins to slice a tattoo from his calf, after hearing that officials can identify homosexuals by their body markings. The anguish and shame that Trail feels is devastating, especially as we know what fate lies ahead. He is forced to leave the Navy, but as he leaves, he gives an interview to a news program about the struggles of being gay and wanting to serve your country. The fact that this act of bravery—and its promise of a new, more open life—so closely precedes his death haunts the episode.

No one is safe in Cunanan’s world, but then, perhaps, it was never safe to be gay in 1990s America, even for gold-plated celebrities like Versace. The media of the time blamed the victim for his own murder as much as it blamed Cunanan. While Cunanan was “a killer on the loose,” Edward J. Ingebretsen has written in At Stake: Monsters and the Rhetoric of Fear in Public Culture, Versace was seen as “a different threat entirely, that of a profligate and well-traveled member of the upper class, whose mobility, like the killer’s, is also the stuff of myth.” The media wrapped Versace’s and Cunanan’s stories together, frequently drawing parallels between the two: both gay, fashion-obsessed men, enchanted by wealth. Yet they couldn’t have been more different—one of them created, while the other destroyed.

In the end, The Assassination of Gianni Versace belongs to Cunanan, because it is a singular story: the story of a boy who wanted everything in the world but never figured out how to get it. This is an American crime story, in that we see in the rearview how the consumerist ’90s could warp those who treated celebrity like a religion, how some were even willing to commit vile acts for a taste of rarefied air. Very little is, at its core, more American than that.

Big Dreams Are Deadly in American Crime Story Season 2

‘Versace’: Darren Criss Opens Up About the Revealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Episode

Before the midpoint of FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, the narrative of serial killer Andrew Cunanan’s life has been told in reverse chronological order and devoted episodes to each of the murderer’s victims. But the fifth episode, titled “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” lives up to the promise creator Ryan Murphy made to shed a light on institutionalized homophobia in the 1990s, juxtaposing the coming out stories of two of Cunanan’s victims with the moment the killer unravels.

Darren Criss, who plays Cunanan, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the pivotal episode, and how it helps fuse the past few episodes of the series — which have focused on Cunanan’s victims Lee Miglin, David Madson, Jeffrey Trail and William Reese — back with the titular fashion designer. “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” follows the struggle of military man Jeff Trail to come to terms with his own sexuality while Versace toys with the idea of publicly revealing his own relationship status. Their two very different experiences — one leading to Trail’s discharge from the service and the other leading to a high-profile piece in a national magazine — are both in conflict with Cunanan’s own spiral about his own identity and self-worth.

“At this point in the series you haven’t seen a lot from the Versaces, and so it’s nice to be juxtaposing someone like Jeff’s coming out story against Gianni coming out with The Advocate,” Criss tells THR. “Two different worlds are trying to face the same obstacles and being met with very different resistance is really interesting because you can see this very harrowing world that Jeff is in constant conflict with versus this very … glamorous side of the coin, which would be Gianni’s side. There’s a real heroism to both.”

Below, Criss discusses the series’ unique structure, building Cunanan’s back story and the lack of Versace in the series.

It’s interesting to see Andrew there for Jeff when he needs help accepting his identity as a gay man, but Andrew’s entire trip to Minneapolis to see David and Jeff is a cry for help and he won’t accept any from either of them.

Andrew has this savior complex, which is why I think he really thrived so much in a place as complex as San Diego in the ‘90s because you have a vibrant gay scene right on top of the vibrant military town. So it’s sort of built-in conflict within a lot of young men who Andrew meets. Andrew stands for everything that these men would find attractive — not in a sexual sense but in a personality and joie de vive sense, the guy that is now offering refuge and a place to celebrate what would otherwise be a source of conflict for them. It was a feeding ground for someone like Andrew to feel needed in a really fulfilling way.

[Andrew] has many tragedies, but one of his biggest tragedies is that I think he needs to be the purveyor of everything. He needs to be in control. He has to be the one that is buying the drinks, throwing the parties, introducing people. He needs to be the one that is giving the help, and as a result I think his output is so high that nothing goes in. And so his own help system, as far as gaining help, is manifested by only being able to help others. He just gives himself away to so many people to the point where he can sort of cover up his own shortcomings by being this constant giver.

Finding somebody like Jeff is sort of the gold mine Andrew gravitated toward. Even though he was really helping out Jeff — and he really does in a very earnest, beautiful way, I think — Jeff was also unconsciously there to help Andrew, just to give him some kind of purpose because he needed to feel love. So their meeting was very tragic.

Watching this episode from the perspective of someone who might not have really understood the nuances of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” military policy at the time, what can you say about how the episode might have enlightened you?

Even if you are of an age where this is something that you were aware of, unless you were gay and in the military at the time, I feel like there’s no way you’d have the same insight or experience as somebody like Jeff or his peers. You really can’t have a shot at working with what that actually means on a day-to-day basis. It’s a continuing question and struggle for our brothers and sisters in arms and people who serve our country. I think maybe hearing the specifics of Jeff’s particular story hopefully will make this more accessible to people and seem a little more real, and seeing the real struggle that it presents for a lot of young men and women.

Although the story is being told in reverse, the first four episodes have a very clear structure. This episode played with time a bit differently — what was filming it like?

Luckily and very thankfully, to the credit of Dan Minehan, who directed both four and five, we did something that I hadn’t done in a very long time, and it’s something that actors really thirst for — we had a table reading. We actually read through both episodes in chronological order, and we shot in chronological order as much as possible, those two episodes together, which is really an absurd luxury. I was thrilled that they took the diligence to really try and execute this in a more linear way. So, in that sense, it made these very much a two-parter. I watched two episodes together, so I actually would be curious to see how people experience it, having had a week or so in between. It’s a really interesting structure. Some people seem to take to it, others really don’t like it because there’s less of, I guess, a payoff — or it’s an inverse payoff, because you already made your decisions about the person.

Shooting out of sequence, to me, just means I get to have this kind of CSI map emotional trajectory on my wall and I have to kind of play emotion Tetris as far as what fits where, in order to get what yields this to get this. And how does point A have to connect to point B? I’m still curious because I still haven’t seen the very last episode. To me, that’s where it all comes together again.

In the next three episodes that you have seen, what did you learn about Andrew and what are you looking forward to audiences learning about him?

I was always interested in Andrew’s life as a teenager because it’s always easier to identify with a young person that has so much more time to go. I think, inevitably, when you know somebody has done something as terrible as Andrew did, you connect every moment of their life to those actions. Any little thing he did in high school, “Well that’s, you know…” Now you look at it differently because you know that they’ve committed murder. It’s interesting in looking at really gifted, young, talented kid and just really exploring how fun and charming he was. A lot of the grim atmosphere that he was breathing in towards the latter part of his life, I really, really wanted to make sure that we couldn’t connect that dot to the dots of his youth.

We shot a lot of stuff that I thought was really fun and showed just an honest-to-goodness, lovable teenager. I don’t know if that all made it into the show, but I remember those scenes and I really enjoyed being able to paint those colors of Andrew. I had to wait the entire shoot to be able to finally show these more affable colors. Earlier in the season where we know what he’s done, there’s sinister undertones of even his happier moments because we’re closer to the famous murders. We can’t help but question everything he’s doing. I couldn’t wait to get him as a teenager because I really wanted to confuse people’s senses of who and what you’re rooting for.

That was the first chance to really embrace the best parts of someone’s life … you may have not liked him, but you couldn’t say that he wasn’t the life of the party. [A high school classmate of Cunanan’s told Criss], “I just want you to know that Andrew was such a good friend. We really loved him. He was so much fun and he was just someone you could count on.” She said it with such — it was so heartbreaking to hear because you could tell the tone was totally mortified when she read the news 10, 15 years after the fact.

That’s the person that I was really hoping to create and that’s what makes this structure interesting. It’s like Merrily We Roll Along. You start with them at their worst, and how do you feel about them when you see them at their best? It’s pretty divisive. It’s either going to make you really mad, or its just going break your heart that there was such a loss of potential there. The memorable parts for me was just showing a kid that’s just trying to figure out his life like every other kid.

The end of this “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” episode saw Andrew and Jeff fighting about honor, which really seemed to be what set Andrew off on his killing spree.

I was speaking earlier about the metaphorical mapping out of Andrew, and as far as the big red circles, with the red pins on ‘em, that moment is a huge one. That comes back to a question a lot of people have who don’t know the story and this case very well: “What happened between San Diego and Minneapolis? What triggered Andrew to go AWOL? What happened between the two of them? They were inseparable.” Something must’ve happened between them for him to go to Minneapolis and carry out this action that you can’t help but assume is planned.

That’s a big question mark for a lot of people. We will never know what happened, and our show could never dare to say that this is truth by any means. But for our storytelling sake, it’s not necessarily about what really happened so much as it’s about the emotional arcs that had to have happened in order for these things take place. So in our case, we have this scene where there is a cathartic laying of cards on the table, where the ethos of both characters is kind of put on the line. You have, basically, Jeff calling Andrew out. Not too dissimilar from what had happened in the last episode, where the thing that set Andrew off on David was him finally calling him out for what he was and basically making Andrew live inside a world that is real and therefore not very pretty.

Any time Andrew forced to be exposed to the real world around him or the truth, it’s a very unpleasant thing for him. So that set him off in the last episode, and ultimately ended with a fight in the car and very rageful homicide. That was the second of the murders. So the first one — “no one wants your love” is the line that Jeff says. And that’s enough to turn a cog in Andrew’s brain. To hear that from the one person that he’s given everything to, you can’t help but feel bad for the guy, even though hopefully most people wouldn’t do what he did.

He’s giving so much of himself to people that they now have to feel beholden to holding him up. And so it’s sort of emotional hostage — you’re now feeling entitled to someone’s life because you’ve given them something that they didn’t ever really ask for. That’s a pretty big awakening point, for Jeff to realize that this guy is unconsciously using him. And he calls that out, the truth that Andrew’s not ready or emotionally prepared to hear or deal with. And if he can’t have something, he has to take it, and he has to destroy it.

He couldn’t have Jeff; he couldn’t have David; so he had to literally take it. He couldn’t have Versace’s fame, success, everything, so he to take it. Even to take someone’s car. So when Andrew is deprived something, the ultimate way to really take it back and be in control is to be more powerful, and to be the controller of that person’s life.

‘Versace’: Darren Criss Opens Up About the Revealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Episode

American Crime Story: Versace: How Penelope Cruz Became Donatella

One of the biggest joys of watching a Ryan Murphy series—at least, the ones based on real life—is seeing exactly how it physically transforms stars into the characters they play. On The People vs. O.J. Simpson, impeccably dowdy wigs morphed Sarah Paulson into Marcia Clark. On Feud, perfectly defined brows and a careful swipe of eyeliner turned Jessica Lange into a dead ringer for Joan Crawford. And on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Penelope Cruz has pulled off one of the most drastic transformations yet, taking on the role of her friend Donatella Versace.

How much hair and make-up did that take—and what, exactly, is going on with her plump upper lip? We spoke with the show’s costume designers and hair and make-up team to find out.

THE CLOTHES

The costume team for Versace consistently worked at breakneck speed due to production constraints, yet their work perfectly captures the Versace era—both the world of high fashion and the grungier elements of the 90s, through the parallel story of Versace murderer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). This was no small feat, considering the team had no help from the Versace family.

When it came to capturing Donatella’s iconic look, costume designers Lou Eyrichand Allison Leach started with the basics—specifically, that tiny waist.

“I feel that a big part of the silhouette for Donatella was the corset, to get that really structured waist,” Eyrich said. “That tiny-waist look was a big part of it, and then the bodycon… And Penelope has a rocking figure as well, so as far as getting that same silhouette, that was easy. And then once Ana and Massimo added the wig and the makeup, Penelope would just magically transform.”

One of the signature Versace looks the two were most excited—and nervous—to recreate was that notorious bondage dress, which Donatella famously wore to the Met Gala in 1996. Leach said recreating that memorable look was both “very exciting and harrowing.”

“It is such an iconic dress, and it it was scripted that it definitely needed to be that dress to tell the story of her coming into her of her own stardom,” Leach continued, describing a scene the series depicts in episode 7. “Just from a construction standpoint and materials, it was such beautiful leather dress that had to fit perfectly—and all these different angles that the neck and the you know skirt had to swath just, just right.” That dress, Leach said, was one of the most challenging items on the show’s list—but also the most rewarding.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Donatella on Versace is how her appearance changes after her brother’s death. Each department made its own contribution to that effort. For costumes, it meant keeping things somber. Though Leach and her team kept the character’s clothes fitted–and of course designer—they also avoided low-cut necklines, and kept Cruz a little more covered up in scenes set after the murder. “I would think that she would feel, you know, maybe safer in those layers,” Leach explained. “And, you know, there’s always elements of jewelry and stuff, but sometimes we downplayed it a little bit to make it more appropriate for the tone of the scene.”

THE FACE

Perhaps the biggest challenge in turning Cruz into Donatella was morphing her face—an effort spearheaded by Cruz’s make-up artist, Ana Lozano.

Lozano said thatshe and Cruz did a lot of their make-up tests back in Spain, before they even got on the plane to film. Together, they sifted through photos of Donatella’s looks, calibrating smokey eyes and contouring to get just the right balance. And if you’ve been wondering what, exactly, is making Cruz’s upper lip so plump on the series, the answer is more obvious than you’d think: it’s an instrument literally called “Plumper.”

“It’s a kind of dental prosthetic to make her lips bigger,” Lozano said. The effect also gives Cruz a slightly different-looking face. “Penelope has enough lips in reality,” Lozano clarified, but in real life, they are a different shape than those of the woman she plays. Lozano also used contouring to finish the look and further define Cruz’s lips—as well as to lightly massage the rest of her features into a more Donatella-like illusion.

Lozano tried using prosthetics for Cruz’s eyebrows, but in the end, it was simpler and more natural-looking to simply bleach them and give them a thinner shape. Then came the eyes—those smoky, smoky eyes. As Lozano notes, smokey eyes have changed over time; in the 90s, they had a rounder look, rather than the more cat-like approach that’s become popular now.

Like the costume team, Lozano worked to make sure Cruz’s “Donatella” physically changed after her brother’s death. She made her skin a little paler, and made her eye make-up just slightly less perfect—“just to make the impression that she was crying and she was not sleeping.” (Lozano adds that she particularly likes Cruz in slightly destroyed make-up, as it “gives more importance to the look.”) For the scenes set after Gianni’s death, Lozano also contoured Cruz a little more aggressively, making her features just a little sunken.

Cruz, Lozano said, was constantly practicing, working to get her portrayal just right; sometimes, Lozano even recorded the actress so she could review her facial expressions, or the way she gestured. “At the end,” Lozano said, “it’s like you press a button; it’s like, Wow. She is Donatella.”

THAT HAIR

Like Lozano, Cruz’s hair stylist Massimo Gattabrussi started working with Cruz in Madrid before making the final wigs for the series. When Cruz called Gattabrussi about the project, the stylist recalls he “remained silent for a few seconds.” Once his excitement for the challenge took over, he said, “I understood that it would be brilliant.” He used a photo book Donatella produced in 2016—Versace—to become more acquainted with the icon’s past.

Gattabrussi and Cruz tested color, hair quality, and style with about nine prototypes to ensure they got the right balance of characteristics. The stylist has long collaborated with the historical Italian studio Rocchetti-Rome, which allows him to participate in the construction and finalization of the wigs—which, he said, “is very important for me because of my close knowledge of Penelope and its physical and gestural characteristics.” In the end, they narrowed down their choice to three pieces, all of which made it on the series—two with bangs, one golden and the other platinum, and the third without bangs, with longer hair to give the illusion of extensions. As Gattabrussi put it, he’s “always looking in a line between real and fiction.”

How did Gattabrussi help the show’s Donatella express her grief after losing her brother? That’s what the third, bangs-less wig was for. 1997, he said, “was a sad year to represent.” In addition to tailoring the wig to fit the time’s fashion trends—longer, heavier hair without bangs—Gattabrussi said he “paid attention to detail like having increased the regrowth of dark hair to the root.” That, he said, helped the wig offer a more realistic image, and slightly lowered “the flash of platinum” that’s always been associated with Donatella’s powerful and iconic image.

American Crime Story: Versace: How Penelope Cruz Became Donatella

‘American Crime Story,’ Winter Olympics, ‘This Close’ on Sundance Now

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (10/9c, FX): OK, this may not be the happiest way to spend an hour of Valentine’s Day night, but you won’t find a series more gripping than Ryan Murphy’s disturbing psychological portrait of murderer Andrew Cunanan (a stunning Darren Criss). As the storyline continues to go back in time, this week’s episode contrasts the proud coming out of designer Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez) in the pages of The Advocate in 1995 with the sad history of one of Cunanan’s other victims: closeted Naval officer Jeffrey Trail (a heartbreaking Finn Wittrock).

‘American Crime Story,’ Winter Olympics, ‘This Close’ on Sundance Now

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story episode 5, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, advanced preview

Last week, we learned about David Madson, and this Wednesday, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story episode five dives into the relationship between Jeffrey Trail and Andrew Cunanan.

The fifth episode of American Crime Story season two is titled “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” and the official synopsis from FX is: “Naval officer Jeffrey Trail meets Andrew Cunanan for the first time, and Gianni Versace reveals his sexuality to the world.” Written by Tom Rob Smith; Directed by: Dan Minahan.

So what can you expect? We have binged-watched the first eight episodes of the season to bring you an advanced preview each week of what you’ll see! Avoiding all spoilers? This is your last chance to turn away now!

Who were David Madson (Cody Fern) and Jeffrey Trail (Finn Wittrock), Cunanan’s first two victims? While episode four, “House By The Lake,” explored Madson’s backstory and final moments, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” will dive into Trail’s story before and after befriending Cunanan.

If you’ve missed seeing Gianni (after all, this season IS named after the fashion icon) you’ll see him again in “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Penelope Cruz’s Donatella and Ricky Martin’s Antonio also make an appearance. But, unfortunately for those who love these three characters, they won’t hang around for too long Wednesday night.

The story of Jeffrey Trail will take over as we go back further to when he and Cunanan first meet (as well as when Cunanan drops in to visit Madson and Trail).

Lines to look out for, can you guess who delivers them?

  • “You have forgotten how ugly the world can be.”
  • “He’s got no one. He’s got nothing. Everything he’s told you about his life is a lie. You know that, right?”
  • “We can’t get married. It’s against the law.”
  • “You’re not working in Mexico. You’re not making sets for the Titanic movie. You don’t have a condo in San Francisco. Andrew, you’re unhappy.”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story episode 5, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, advanced preview