‘ACS: Versace’ Breakout Cody Fern Explains How Gay Shame Leads to Tragedy (Video)
Emmys 2018: Fern discusses how internalized homophobia is “very different from all other kinds of shame”
For his stunning breakout role on “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” Cody Fern went to dark places playing a cautious out gay man entangled with spree killer Andrew Cunanan.
Australian-born Fern plays David Madsen, a sweet and eligible architect who can’t seem to shake his former lover Cunanan — who is a compulsive liar and increasingly desperate following a split with a generous older boyfriend.
After witnessing the gruesome murder of their mutual friend Jeff Trail at Cunanan’s hands, Madsen is taken hostage and eventually meets the same end. The Ryan Murphy FX series serves as a sort of redemption for Madsen, who was initially thought to be Cunanan’s accomplice.
“He was a very charming, very generous, very compassionate person. When [police] entered his apartment they found presents for his nephews and nieces that were wrapped six months in advance of Christmas,” Fern told TheWrap of the real Madsen, who was killed by two gunshot wounds and left for dead by a lake in Minnesota in 1997.
While Madsen was not an accomplice, the show suggests his own internalized shame over his sexuality bound him to his killer.
“Shame is something that’s really gripping the country right now,” Fern said.
The actor and series director Dan Minahan set out to “capture the essence of what gay shame does to a person. It’s very different from all other kinds of shame in that it’s something that’s forced onto a person from the society and then internalized.”
Watch more of TheWrap’s interview with Fern above, and check out our report of his breakout episode, “House by the Lake.”
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Will ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ be the latest Ryan Murphy production to dominate Best Supporting Actor at the Emmys?
The television academy’s acting branch has a love affair with Ryan Murphy productions, which earn multiple Emmy nominations for their performances year after year. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” the second installment of Murphy’s “American Crime Story” anthology series, now enters the Emmy race and could dominate the Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actor category just like “The Normal Heart” and “The People v. O.J. Simpson” did.
Having multiple nominees from the same series or movie can yield mixed results. Before Murphy began his anthology empire Mike Nichols‘s “Angels In America” scored four out of the five available slots for Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actor in 2004: Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, Patrick Wilson and Jeffrey Wright were joined by William H. Macy (“Stealing Sinatra”). Macy was unable to stop the “Angels In America” juggernaut, so Wright took home the Emmy for playing Belize and Mr. Lies, the same role that won him a Tony Award in 1994 for the original Broadway production of “Angels.”
But Murphy’s productions have been hit-and-miss when they have dominated the category. His passion project “The Normal Heart” earned four of the six available nominations in the category in 2014: Matt Bomer, Joe Mantello, Alfred Molina and Jim Parsons. Bomer was the presumed favorite for playing dying reporter Felix Turner, but Martin Freeman pulled off a shocking upset for “Sherlock: His Last Vow.” Freeman probably benefited from Colin Hanks rounding out the six nominees for his role in “Fargo.” Freeman also co-starred in “Fargo,” which allowed voters to see him in two drastically different roles.
Two years later “The People v. O.J. Simpson” scored three out of the six nominations for Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actor: Sterling K. Brown, David Schwimmer and John Travolta. Even though Schwimmer and Travolta were better known at the time, Brown’s breakthrough performance as prosecutor Christopher Darden brought him the Emmy.
Will “Versace” do just as well in the nominations? And if so, will one of its supporting actors win? Let’s take a look at the top five actors from the limited series trying to make the Emmy lineup and their current odds according to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users.
Edgar Ramirez: 1st place with odds of 7/2
Ramirez is a past Emmy nominee for “Carlos” (Best Movie/Mini Actor, 2011). Despite playing the titular character in “Versace,” he’s not the central focus of the series, but he does have an Emmy I.O.U. to cash in after his surprise loss to Barry Pepper (“The Kennedys”) seven years ago.
Ricky Martin: 7th place with odds of 25/1
Martin plays Antonio D’Amico, Versace’s long-time partner. He’s right on the bubble to score his first Emmy nomination, though like Ramirez his character does not have a singular showcase episode. But if the Grammy winning musician does take home the Emmy it will put him at the halfway point to a career EGOT.
Jon Jon Briones: 15th place with odds of 100/1
Briones appears as the controlling and manipulative Modesto Cunanan, the father of spree killer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). Briones is best known for his work on stage as The Engineer in the musical “Miss Saigon.” The Philippines native has a stellar acting showcase in the episode “Creator/Destroyer,” where he abuses his wife and son and commits financial fraud. Criss only appears towards the end of the episode, so it rests almost solely on Briones shoulders, giving him the opportunity to truly carry a storyline.
Cody Fern: 19th place with odds of 100/1
Fern plays Cunanan’s second victim and one-time friend David Madson. The Australian actor only had seven credits to his name before giving his breakthrough performance in the fourth episode of “Versace,” “House by the Lake,” in which his character is taken hostage and forced to go on the road with Cunanan. While Fern doesn’t have the name-recognition of his rivals, that didn’t stop Sterling K. Brown two years ago.
Finn Wittrock: 20th place with odds of 100/1
Wittrock is a previous Emmy nominee for his breakthrough performance in another Murphy production, “American Horror Story: Freak Show” (2015), in which he played serial killer Dandy Mott. This time he plays a murder victim: Jeffrey Trail, the first man killed by Cunanan. Like Fern and Briones he’s given an episode in which his character is the predominant focus: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” in which Trail deals with the pain and shame of hiding his sexuality to keep his career in the Navy. Trail befriends Cunanan and eventually confronts him about his lies and manipulation before Cunanan fatally turns on Trail. Should Wittrock score another Emmy nomination, will he win on his second try?
Best Variety Talk Series – Feinberg Forecast: T-Minus 3 Weeks Until Emmy Nomination Voting
Best Limited Series
FRONTRUNNERS
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
The Looming Tower (Hulu)
Godless (Netflix)
Patrick Melrose (Showtime)
Twin Peaks (Showtime)Best Actor in a Limited Series or a Television Movie
FRONTRUNNERS
Darren Criss (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story)
John Legend (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Jeff Daniels (The Looming Tower) — podcast
Al Pacino (Paterno)
Benedict Cumberbatch (Patrick Melrose) — podcast
Antonio Banderas (Genius: Picasso)Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Television Movie
FRONTRUNNERS
Jeff Daniels (Godless) — podcast
Brandon Victor Dixon (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Edgar Ramirez (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story)
Tahar Rahim (The Looming Tower)
Peter Sarsgaard (The Looming Tower)
Bill Camp (The Looming Tower)MAJOR THREATS
Ricky Martin (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story)
Sam Waterston (Godless)
Scoot McNairy (Godless)
Alex Rich (Genius: Picasso)
Michael Stuhlbarg (The Looming Tower)
Michael Shannon (Fahrenheit 451) — podcast
Robert Forster (Twin Peaks)
Hugo Weaving (Patrick Melrose)POSSIBILITIES
Beau Bridges (Mosaic)
Cody Fern (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story)
Alice Cooper (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Dylan Baker (Little Women)
Luke Evans (The Alienist)
John Leguizamo (Waco)
Jason Ritter (The Tale)Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Television Movie
FRONTRUNNERS
Merritt Wever (Godless)
Laura Dern (Twin Peaks)
Nicole Kidman (Top of the Lake: China Girl) — podcast
Penelope Cruz (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story)
Judith Light (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story)
Angela Lansbury (Little Women)
Best Variety Talk Series – Feinberg Forecast: T-Minus 3 Weeks Until Emmy Nomination Voting
Cody Fern for the LA Times Emmy Contender Series | 1 May 2018
Cody Fern plays the most involving victim in ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’
Cody Fern, by most measures, was the least recognizable name attached to Ryan Murphy’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”
The 30-year-old Australian actor had few credits to his name and prior to scooping up the role, had gone to London to work on a feature film that he was writing and directing as a means of taking control of his career.
“I really did not want to play the boy next door … it’s just not me,” Fern said when he stopped by the L.A. Times video studio this week.
Then came the audition that would put him in the company of Darren Criss, Edgar Ramirez, Penelope Cruz and Ricky Martin in a saga that explored the 1997 murder of the famed fashion designer — as well as the less-publicized murders that came before him — by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. For followers of the show, Fern would emerge with a noteworthy performance with his portrayal of little-known David Madson, Cunanan’s good friend who ultimately became one of his murder victims.
In keeping with the show’s reversed timeline narrative, viewers are introduced to Fern’s David with his harrowing last encounters with Cunanan, as explored in Episode 4, titled “House by the Lake.”
The episode opens with Madson bearing witness to the brutal murder of Jeff Trail, a friend Madson shared with Cunanan. As the episode progresses, Madson is essentially forced into fleeing the scene with Cunanan. At one point, they end up at a roadside bar and there’s a moment where Madson could try to escape from a bathroom window. But he doesn’t. And, ultimately, he ends up as Cunanan’s next victim. Much of the timeline is a theorization of events given that Madson and Cunanan did not live to tell the story.
“There is this element of stitching together what has happened in this time — that this man is murdered in [Madson’s] apartment and he’s seemingly involved in the police’s mind and then he ends up dead,” Fern said. “The core question, for me [as] David in this series, is ‘Why doesn’t he run when he smashes the window? Why doesn’t he go?’ … I will say this much: There is, throughout ‘House by the Lake,’ the feeling of David looking back and assessing his life and all of the choices that he’s made, all of the hiding that he’s done, all of the repression he’s been through. … I think he’s starting to become aware of the fact that he’s spent a great deal of his life in hiding. Not being who he truly is. In that moment, David understands that even if he runs from this thing, where is he going to go?”
Fern also discussed how his work style differed from Criss’ approach, the research he did before taking on the part and landing a role in the final season of “House of Cards." Check out the full video below.
Cody Fern plays the most involving victim in ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’
(LQ) Cody Fern for the LA Times Emmy Contender Series | 30 April 2018

jamie_grooming: CODY FERN @codyfern ⭐️ for @latimes Emmy Contenders Interview. Grooming by me #codyfern #latimes#emmycontender #werkkkk #lov
@latimesent: That’s a wrap for our live chat with @ACSFX’s Cody Fern. Catch it here ICYMI: https://bit.ly/2HC8nQV
via LA Times Entertainment’s Instagram stories | 30 April 2018










