Tag: acs spoilers

Judith Light on ACS: Versace, Andrew Cunanan, and Playing Marilyn Miglin

In the hands of actors Judith Light and Mike Farrell, the tragic story of Chicago power couple Lee and Marilyn Miglin in this week’s episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story makes viewers forget the titular fashion icon altogether. “A Random Killing” tells the story of Andrew Cunanan’s third murder in 1997, three months before he shot Versace on the steps of his South Beach mansion. As depicted in the episode, Cunanan was a paid escort who had a relationship with the real-estate mogul (Farrell) and killed him while his wife Marilyn (Light), the founder of a beauty empire, was away on a business trip.

Ahead of the episode’s airing, Vulture spoke to Light about her riveting performance as Miglin’s widow, who is still alive today. Light also spoke about the inner work she does before taking on new characters, how she views the Miglin’s family’s denials that Cunanan and Lee knew each other, and why working on American Crime Storymeans so much to her.

You haven’t worked with Ryan Murphy before. What was the casting process like?
I have not and I always had wanted to. It came up through another friend of mine, who I had done a play for in New York and actually won the Tony for [Other Desert Cities]. It was Jon Robin Baitz. He said, “There is this part and I think you should do it because it’s amazing,” and because it’s so timely in terms of what I talked about in my advocacy for years — the LGBTQ community. He thought I had to change my whole schedule [for it]. So it comes from having amazing, wonderful friends.

Did you remember anything about Andrew Cunanan or how Versace died? Was that something you paid attention to?
Yes, I had followed it. I had been in a way upset about Versace, of course, who I believe was an extraordinary talent. But that this could happen so blatantly and so easily, and as we all know now, how the world is so easily taken down in so many places. I mean, there was just something yesterday in Kentucky, and so we find that people have this kind of accessibility to firearms and if their mental incapacity or whatever drives them unconsciously in their psychological damage, this is so, so easy. We live in a world where we can find ourselves unprotected and needing to be safe, so I followed this story and I thought this is just incredibly demoralizing on so many different levels. It’s disheartening, I think. As human beings, we can operate at a higher level and oftentimes you see a situation like this and we don’t.

I’m originally from Miami and I remember Versace’s murder well, but I had forgotten over the years that Cunanan was a spree killer. I don’t think I knew anything about the Miglins. Did you?
No, I actually didn’t. My parents lived in Pompano Beach and that was partly my connection to it and my connection to Miami, but I didn’t really know or read about what had happened prior to Cunanan and the process of his killing spree.

Did you learn about Marilyn Miglin when you started to talk with Ryan Murphy about the role?
Yeah, that was what informed me. I didn’t know anything about it, and then I read Maureen Orth’s book [Vulgar Favors: the Assassination of Gianni Versace] and so I knew more about it from that, so it was like a process of education.

How did you prepare?
I spent a lot of time just reading the book, reading over the script, which I thought was extraordinary, and also talking to Gwyneth Horder-Payton, the director. I talked to the producers about what they were wanting and what they were seeing and what they needed. Also, whenever I work on any part, I always do the kind of homework that takes me into the depth of a person’s dynamics and psychology.

What does that homework entail?
I sit with myself, looking at what drives someone. It’s a very intense process that I go through and I also allow myself to see places in myself that are similar to a character. But it’s a deep sort of investigative process, and I also work with a woman named Ivana Chubbuck and she’s a wonderful coach. We talk a lot about the character. So, that’s the kind of thing that I do. Once I go somewhere, I really tend to spend a lot of solitary time and immerse myself after having researched and spent time with other people who support me in the homework. When you have a great script, that also makes a difference because that gives you the map, the landscape of where you’re going.

Did the fact that Marilyn is a real, living person change your approach in trying to figure out the character?
No, I think you just have to go from what’s given in the script and in the story. You know, we’re careful and we’re deferential, but I didn’t think it was purposeful to speak to her.

Did you watch videos of her?
No, I really didn’t want to. Ryan was very specific about what the look was. He had translated all of that to the makeup and hair people and what they wanted to see. I am doing a representation in a piece, so it’s not, for me, it isn’t helpful. In another case, it might be, but no.

What was important for you to convey about Marilyn Miglin?
That she loved this man deeply and was completely devoted to him. He was a man who allowed her to be all that she could be, and she was, in many ways, a woman ahead of her time. And she had a man who supported her in her endeavors. She is a great businesswoman and he was a great businessman, and they had a very connected, deeply loving relationship.

The scene when they return from the banquet and he thanks her for introducing him was very sweet. It showed their genuine admiration and affection.
That’s exactly right. That was something that was really a top note that both Mike Farrell and I wanted to focus on and play.

Do you think Marilyn knew about Lee’s secret life?
I don’t know. I can conjecture, I can speculate, but I think it’s problematic to do that because we don’t know. One of the things that I find so fascinating about psychology and human nature is we go through the world thinking that we know something, and our unconscious is driving us to do different things. When there is a real person involved, I can’t speculate about what her unconscious is or what she knew. And so, it’s like I’ve said so many times before in so many different interviews — Freud said 100 years ago, consciousness is an extraordinary event. It is not an ordinary event. And so, we’re talking about whether someone knew or not. Maybe unconsciously that’s possible, but I don’t know. And I don’t think that actually matters.

What I think matters is the dynamic that was going on and the overall context of this series, The Assassination of Gianni Versace. There was this young man who was clearly very disturbed and his psychology was very problematic, who had been discounted on so many levels and had different aspects to him that drove him to do this. All of these pieces, and I think some of Ryan’s purpose, was to show what homophobia in a culture does to people. How a culture makes people stay in the closet, and how that’s what took place. How this young man was so desperate to be someone else, not own himself, that he came to do these terrible acts. And I think what’s valuable about this piece is that we’re talking about a level of homophobia that is still in our culture today.

We see that in Versace’s story too, during the conversation he has with Donatella about coming out to the Advocate. And she doesn’t want him to.
Remember, this is the height of the AIDS pandemic. Only two years before, in 1995, did they come out with the protease inhibitors that were beginning to save people’s lives. That’s only two years before that, and you’re talking about a culture that was discounting and dismissive and vilifying the LGBTQ community. That’s so much of the top note of what I think this story is about. It’s like, lest we forget, this is still going on. These kind of people and their vilification of this community, a community that is so extraordinary. So this piece is a pay attention moment, and that’s why I’m so proud to be a part of it.

What did you find most challenging about playing Marilyn?
That’s an interesting question to ponder. I have to say, the script is so great, it’s all there, and then I got to work with Mike Farrell, who’s so connected and such an extraordinary artist, and all of the people that were put together on the show — the only thing I found really challenging was having to figure out how to change my schedule. It wasn’t the work. I have great admiration for her. She’s an incredible businesswoman. She’s an incredible person. She was out there in the business world in a major way, early, early on. She found a partner who supported her efforts. I mean that’s pretty fantastic, talking about today and really making sure that women are paid equally and operating at a high level in the workplace. I have great respect for her.

The Miglin family has maintained that this was a random killing and have denied that this aspect of Lee Miglin’s life existed. But the show presents it as fact that he had a transactional sexual relationship with Andrew Cunanan and that eventually led to his murder. Did it give you any pause to tell that story, given the family’s denials?
I want to be very careful about this because I know people want to talk about that. That is their business. That is their life. That is the way they choose to hold this. It is not my business as an actor in this very important story to challenge what they feel, what they want, or what they feel they want to talk about, and I think it’s very important to keep sacred people’s choices.

I hear you. But I’m wondering how you worked it out for yourself. How do you tell the story as an actor, knowing what the family has said? Does that impact you in any way?
They’re two different things. I’m given a script. I’m an actor. This is the part I’m given to play and it is my job to tell the story in the best way that I can so that it is illuminated from the page to the screen. That’s my job. My job is not to get involved with the family and their stories and what they believe or what they don’t believe. I don’t get involved in that. I have a very different job. I have a very separate job, and my job is to do what I’m given to do.

I was really taken by the clicking of the nails when Marilyn waited for the police to search the house. She was perfectly still except for her nails. Did Gwyneth ask you to do that?
It was written into the script, and when you have a writer like Tom [Rob Smith] and you have those directions — again, it’s a road map. It’s the landscape that he was giving us in that moment about who this woman is, how strong she is, how stalwart she is, how she is not going to let her emotions take her over, and it tells you the story in action rather than in words. I just thought that was so powerful. It also shows you her detail to beauty and to grooming. Her whole business is a beauty business and you see that. Those nails tell you a whole story about this person. I think that’s brilliant writing. It’s just extraordinary to me.

In the last scene, Marilyn is back selling at Home Shopping Network and she tells that story about pretending the camera’s red light is the man she loves and closes her eyes. Did you choose to end that way? Or was it in the direction?
It’s so interesting that you ask about that because I don’t remember whether it was Gwyneth Horder-Payton, the director, or me. I think I may have done it at one point and she liked it, or I did it and then she cut the scene there, but I think that it was a combination of both of us. That’s a very emotional moment, so I don’t always remember what happens in those moments.

Do you remember how you were feeling? That was a very beautiful, poignant moment.
Yes. There’s the sorrow, there’s the loss, there’s the knowing that you have to get on with life. So much of what happens for me when I play a character is that a lot of different things are going on all at one time, and I don’t know how to separate them out. But I know that if I’m emotionally connected, there’s a lot of other things that are going out on a lot of other levels, and I think that’s what helps people feel something when they watch it. So some of the things that I was feeling were the loss, the moving on, the need to take back a life that had been ripped from me in that moment, and knowing that my husband would have wanted me to move on.

Just like in the scene where Marilyn says that she knows everyone is judging her because she hasn’t cried, then she eventually breaks down and says, “Am I a good wife now?” Tell me about working on that powerful scene. Was that a very long day?
I had flown in because the Emmys were the night before and I had been nominated for an Emmy, and then the next day was that scene that we had to shoot. You really have to know the words for a scene like that because the way it was written by Tom Rob Smith — who is an extraordinary craftsperson — one thing led to another emotionally. I had to work on it long and hard to get everything down because you can’t not know the words in a scene like that. You really have to be not thinking about that, but thinking about everything else. Gwyneth Horder-Payton, the director, was really available to talk about it, to make sure that it was what she wanted, how she saw it, how I saw it, how we could shape the scene. Also, when you do your own part of the scene and they shoot you, you have to be able to keep giving the level of emotion to other people who are in the scene, and so it was a very long day. The level of satisfaction we all felt by the end of it was so deep and so powerful that we were exhausted, but it didn’t feel like it was painful work. It was exciting and vibrant and thrilling and it changed as we went each time, and it was a lot, but incredibly satisfying.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Judith Light on ACS: Versace, Andrew Cunanan, and Playing Marilyn Miglin

Can Judith Light Pull Off a ‘Versace’ Nomination? – Awards Daily

Tonight’s episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story features some of the best work in Judith Light’s storied career. A Daytime Emmy award winner, Light surprisingly has yet to win a Primetime Emmy Award. Last year’s supporting nomination for Transparent, her second for the series, felt like a winner. Her cruise-ship performance of “Hand In My Pocket” elevated the often depressing series into a moment of light (pun intended). Yet, in a highly political year, it was hard to stop the Kate McKinnon Saturday Night Live train. McKinnon went home victorious for her second consecutive win.

But Versace may change that next fall.

Tonight’s episode, “A Random Killing,” documents the high profile murder of Chicago real estate tycoon Lee Miglin. Judith Light plays his wife, Marilyn Miglin, a cosmetics maven popularly featured on home shopping television. Light digs into Marilyn Miglin with a performance you’ve really not seen from her. Light radiates warmth and compassion in her best performances. That’s certainly true of her Emmy-nominated work as Shelly Pfefferman in Transparent, even if it is slightly suffocating at times. She’s the uber-mom, something she hasn’t quite shaken since Who’s The Boss.

Versace shakes that up. Significantly.

Light bottles up Marilyn Miglin with an icy performance. Granted, she’s just discovered that her husband was murdered, potentially in a gay sex scandal. The circumstances don’t exactly scream “warmth and compassion.” Instead, she gives us quite grief, stoic dignity, and two scenes of eventual release. Along with Darren Criss’s Andrew Cunanan, she anchors the episode, arguably dominating it against the more extravagant Criss performance. We haven’t seen a Judith Light like this in a very long time. She’s absolutely fantastic in the role, easily deserving of Emmy attention.

Will It Happen?

But there are two significant obstacles in her way.

First, she’ll undoubtedly compete against Penelope Cruz in the Supporting Actress in a Limited Series category. That is unless, for some strange reason, FX decides to campaign Cruz in the Lead Actress category. It would be a mistake to do that. She doesn’t have the screen time. This isn’t a Versace story. It’s all about Andrew Cunanan and the lives he ruined. So, Cruz will directly compete against Judith Light for one of six slots. Cruz has the meatier role and that intriguing accent, and she’s also quite good, particularly later in the season.

Which gives us Judith Light’s second major obstacle – she’s only in the single episode. Versace runs nine episodes, and Marilyn Miglin (based on the eight I’ve seen) only features in tonight’s outing. It would be difficult to see Light emerging from a bevy of supporting actresses with roughly 30 minutes of work. No matter how expert that work is, mind you. You could argue that she equates a supporting performance in a TV movie. Something like Michelle Pfeiffer in Wizard of Lies or, even better, Melissa Leo in All the Way. Leo, in particular, didn’t have as meaty of a role as Light in Versace despite the 2-hour running time. So, based on that logic, it’s entirely possible Judith Light gets in.

But What I Really Want…

The Television Academy actually needs to add two more categories. I never thought I’d say that, but it’s true. They need to add Outstanding Guest Actor/Actress in a Limited Series or the equivalent thereof. There are dozens of great little performances in Limited Series that simply don’t stand a chance when competing against the Sarah Paulson’s or Kathy Bates’s of the Ryan Murphy world. Remember that great Ian McShane performance as a murderous Santa Claus in Asylum? Or even Franka Potente as “Anne Frank” in the same season? Looking at the Ryan Murphy oeuvre alone, there are dozens of actors who would fit perfectly into the category.

This year, Lena Dunham’s heavily buzzed performance as Valerie Solanas would be a shoe-in in such a category. In Versace, the Matt Bomer-directed “Creator/Destroyer” introduces us to Andrew Cunanan’s father, expertly rendered by Miss Saigon‘s Jon Jon Briones. He’d fit perfectly as a “Guest” performer. So would Judith Light.

I suppose there’s something weird about calling actors “Guests” in a Limited Series. Aren’t they really all “Guests” anyway? But there’s something to be said about a memorable performance given in a single episode or smaller arc. The Academy already tracks screen time percentages for Drama and Comedy guest performances, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to do the same for a Limited Series. There are lots of great actors giving great performances in very small packages. They need their own place to play.

Judith Light’s episode of Versace airs tonight at 10pm ET on FX.

Can Judith Light Pull Off a ‘Versace’ Nomination? – Awards Daily

Get Ready For Judith Light On Tonight’s ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’

Through two episodes, you may think you have a good idea of the story that The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story is telling you. The tragic opulence of the Versace lifestyle, gay chameleon Andrew Cunanan moving through the gay underworld of Miami and beyond, Penelope Cruz as Donatella upholding the family legacy through grief and pride. Was Versace HIV positive? How well did he and Cunanan know each other? Did Donatella really hate Gianni’s longtime lover? Was the police investigation botched? These are all the questions that seem to be driving the show through two episodes. Well, starting tonight with episode 3, titled “A Random Killing,” The Assassination of Gianni Versace steps towards becoming the show that it’s really about. And it does so featuring one of the all-time best single-episode performances in a Ryan Murphy series from Tony- and Emmy-winning actress Judith Light.

“A Random Killing” steps away from the Versace story entirely, focusing on Andrew Cunanan’s encounters with Chicago real-estate tycoon Lee Miglin. If you know the Cunanan story, you know Miglin was his third victim, murdered in his Chicago home. Whether Miglin knew Cunanan before his death — whether the two were sexually involved leading up to and including the day of Miglin’s death — has been a point of speculation that has been vigorously denied by Miglin’s surviving family. Ryan Murphy and writer Tom Rob Smith clearly have their own take on the story and don’t really mince words about it. But we also get the character of Marilyn Miglin, Lee’s wife and home-shopping cosmetics queen.

Marilyn, as played by Judith Light, is a quintessential Ryan Murphy character. She’s a perfectly put-together older woman who, by episode’s end, is holding her life together by the tips of her impeccably manicured fingernails. She keeps up appearances but she’s haunted by something she refuses to put a name to. In the real world, we can make up our own minds about whether Lee Miglin was gay or closeted or having sexual relationships with male escorts. In Murphy’s depiction of the story, Marilyn Miglin’s vehement denial of the circumstances of her husband’s life (and death) double as a vehement defense of her own life.

It’s also somewhat wild that it’s taken this long for Ryan Murphy to loop Judith Light into his stable of actors. She’s pretty much everything he tends to value in a performer: older actresses who haven’t been well served by the television (and movie, though Light has kept her career on TV and the stage for the most part) roles being offered to them. Light got nationally famous starring opposite Tony Danza on the ABC sitcom Who’s The Boss?, but before that, she was a two-time Daytime Emmy winner for the soap opera One Life to Live, where she played a character who, in her most notorious and well-remembered storyline, has a courtroom breakdown confessing her secret life as a prostitute.

In the years since Who’s The Boss?, Light’s career might have gone the way of many sitcom stars of the ’80s, but the fact that she held on, returned to her Broadway roots, won a couple of Tony Awards in the process, had that great role as a publishing matriarch on Ugly Betty, and has recently been such a strong presence on Transparent, it all adds up to the perfect Ryan Murphy muse: a steel-spined actress of a certain age who’s experienced the best and the worst of the entertainment industry and has come out on the other side. It’s all there in Light’s performance as Marilyn. She gets a monologue at the end of the episode that would make her a shoo-in for a Guest Actress Emmy Award, if only the guest-actress categories included limited series. Maybe it’s time they should, because between Robin Weigert’s brief but brilliant work as the therapist on Big Little Lies last year and Light’s work this year, there is some phenomenal acting that is slipping through the cracks.

And while Judith Light’s award-worthy acting is a big reason to tune in to tonight’s episode, you should also be there for when the series makes its pivot. It’s not that the Versace case ceases to matter, but it becomes less of the focal point of the show. Versace’s killing was the last in a string of murders. And while, in real life and on the show, it’s not easy to string one constant motivation for Cunanan’s actions throughout all five murders (rumors at the time that Cunanan had been diagnosed HIV-positive and was acting out of vengeance against men he’d slept with have been debunked), Murphy and Smith have done a good job laying the groundwork of a homophobic society. Starting tonight, we begin to see the insidious role that the closet plays in the Cunanan murders. Here’s where the show stops being a B-minus true-crime story and starts becoming an A-grade tragedy.

Get Ready For Judith Light On Tonight’s ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’

TV tonight: A harrowing episode of ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
FX, 10 ET/PT

The unsettling second season of American Crime Story is slowly revealing the story of spree killer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), and this episode focuses entirely on one of his earlier victims, Chicago real estate magnate Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell). The episode, one of the best of the season, is occasionally hard to watch. But Judith Light puts in an exceptional performance as Miglin’s devoted wife Marilyn, whose hard exterior is broken by the violent crime. Of all nine episodes, this one feels almost like a short film, more about Lee than his killer.

TV tonight: A harrowing episode of ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story episode 3, A Random Killing, advanced preview

Can’t wait for this Wednesday’s all-new episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story? We’ve got a spoilery advanced preview of what to you’ll see in episode 3!

The second season of American Crime Story continues to rewind, this time taking us back to Andrew Cunanan’s two final stops before heading to Miami, Florida for Gianni Versace.

The third episode is titled, “A Random Killing,” and the official synopsis from FX is: “Chicago real estate tycoon Lee Miglin is murdered in what police describe as a random killing.”

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? Turn away now!

“A Random Killing” features two murders by Andrew Cunanan, his third and fourth (Gianni Versace was his fifth). One of Wednesday night’s killings is random, but may not be. While the episode suggests that there was evidence Lee Miglin knew Cunanan, police and Miglin’s family say otherwise. One thing is for sure, out of all the murders committed by spree killer Cunanan, Miglin’s is definitely the most gruesome and tough to watch.

Lines to look out for. Can you guess who delivers them?

  • “I am not like most escorts, I am not like most anybody.”
  • “You like being pathetic, don’t you?”
  • “It was a robbery. And a random killing.”
  • “Lee was alone in the house, he was vulnerable.”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story episode 3, A Random Killing, advanced preview

Revisiting Chicago murder, FX series depicts Lee Miglin as gay, close to killer

Even at a time when the city routinely logged two or more homicides a day, this one stood out.

It occurred in the Gold Coast. The victim: Lee Miglin, a 72-year-old real estate tycoon. He’d been bound and tortured. His killer had stuck around long enough to eat and shave.

The 1997 murder was front-page news in the city — soon to be a global story, when investigators connected the dots of a cross-country killing spree that ended with the shooting of fashion idol Gianni Versace on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion.

On Wednesday, murderer Andrew Cunanan’s Chicago stop comes into lurid focus in episode three of FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”

It portrays Miglin, played by Mike Farrell of “MASH” fame, as the loyal husband to cosmetics magnate Marilyn Miglin (Judith Light), but also a married man tormented by his secret gay life.

Early in the episode, just before Cunanan — a gay escort/con artist — shows up on Miglin’s doorstep, we see the real estate developer, his wife out of town, lighting a candle and falling to his knees before a Catholic altar in his basement.

“I try. I try,” he whispers, his quavering voice full of guilt.

The scene that follows — Miglin and Cunanan kiss, shortly before the escort leads the developer to the garage, ties him up, tortures him and kills him — remains controversial. Miglin’s family has vociferously denied he knew Cunanan or had any kind of relationship with him. The Miglins declined to comment for this story.

John Carpenter was a crime reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times at the time and a lead reporter on the story, one that took him to both coasts. From the start, Carpenter said, the murder was a “heater,” reporter parlance for a case that attracts a lot of media attention. After the initial reporter briefings, police released few details.

“We were getting sort of a general sense of what the murder was,” said Carpenter, now a freelance reporter in the Chicago area. “Then at some point fairly early on that shut down instantly.”

Was someone trying to protect the Miglins? Carpenter says he doesn’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise him. Miglin was both well-connected and well-liked, he said.

But if the attack was random, as police would later suggest, something didn’t make sense to reporters.

“To me, what everybody always felt was that it was clearly somebody who knew that Marilyn Miglin was away for the weekend,” Carpenter said. There also was no forced entry into the home, according to media reports.

Sun-Times editors were less interested in being able to run a “tawdry headline,” as they were in filling in the missing pieces to a widely read story, Carpenter said.

The FX series relies on Maureen Orth’s 1999 book “Vulgar Favors” for much of its source material.

“What specifically happened in the moments leading up to Lee Miglin’s death is known only by Andrew and Lee. This is true for almost all of Andrew’s victims,” Brad Simpson, the show’s executive producer, said in an emailed statement. “Our writer, Tom Rob Smith, had to dramatize what we believe happened that weekend starting from the established facts of the crime scene. Based on the evidence, we believe that Lee and Andrew did know each other, and Andrew’s attack, as with all his victims except for William Reese, was targeted and specific. We used Maureen Orth’s book and consultancy, as well as the FBI records and the statements from witnesses inside the records for research and background.”

Farrell, the actor who plays Miglin, told the Sun-Times his research for the character involved reading widely about the case.

“But what you have to deal with is what’s on the page, as an actor,” he said.

Farrell said that while he’s sorry if his portrayal might cause additional pain for the surviving Miglins, he doesn’t feel any guilt.

He said it’s “too bad there is such antagonism” over Miglin’s possible motivations.

“To me, it’s a further manifestation of the horror of this whole thing. But part of [that] is a kind of inability or unwillingness to accept what I think is a very real and very natural part of this man’s life, and it’s one that’s really what the show is about — an inability to understand that some people have a different orientation and particularly then, and less now, there was an absolute unwillingness to accept and honor that orientation.”

Revisiting Chicago murder, FX series depicts Lee Miglin as gay, close to killer

Judith Light shines in yet another role – The Boston Globe

I remember Judith Light from her days on “One Life to Live,” when she brought the character of Karen Wolek from prostitution to the witness protection program in Canada, where, I imagine, she continues to thrive.

Since those days, Light has done all kinds of material, from the flimsy — “Who’s the Boss?” and the “Dallas” reboot — to the formidable, including the stage show “Wit” in 1999 and a pair of back-to-back Tony-winning performances in Broadway shows in 2012 and 2013. Lately, I’ve loved her in “Transparent,” as Shelly Pfefferman.

On Wednesday night, Light delivers yet another remarkable performance, in FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” alongside Mike Farrell. She is Marilyn Miglin, the wife of Farrell’s Lee Miglin, a Chicago real estate tycoon. One weekend, when Marilyn is out of town filming an infomercial for her successful line of cosmetics, the closeted Lee has Andrew Cunanan over to their deluxe apartment for a date. It doesn’t end well, as you can imagine, with Farrell (who absolutely must play Joe Biden someday) winding up dead on the garage floor surrounded by gay magazines carefully placed there by Cunanan.

Marilyn returns to the crime scene, and her denial about her husband only escalates. Watching Light play out this powerful woman’s refusal to take in the truth is heartbreaking. She gives us a spouse waging a quiet, stoic war against her loss and her humiliation. She has roused all of her strength in service of their social reputation.

This tense series goes deep on Cunanan, but it simultaneously makes the victims — and, in this case, their family — into full human beings.

Judith Light shines in yet another role – The Boston Globe