Tag: darren criss

TCA’s Winter Press Tour – Day 2: FX Network

The FX creator with the most shows is undoubtedly Ryan Murphy, who presided on back-to-back panels Friday — one for a project about the 80s New York trans ballroom culture, Pose, but also his lavish second installment in the “American Crime Story” franchise, this one titled The Assassination of Gianni Versace that begins Jan. 17.

While many may recall the shocking shooting death of the acclaimed designer in front of his Miami Beach mansion, less well-known is the story of his murderer, who had been wanted by the FBI for a series of brutal killings.

Like Murphy’s initial installment of American Crime Story, The People vs. O.J. Simpson, this one has a dream cast that includes Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez of Carlos as the designer; Penelope Cruz as his sister Donatella, Ricky Martin as his lover, and Darren Criss of Glee as the murderer Andrew Cunanan.

“This certainly is a once in a lifetime opportunity that happened to be within the hands of the person that I had been creating other things with and who had been such a champion for me on Glee,” Criss said. “I definitely lucked out. I think a lot of actors have to wait a lifetime for something like this.”

While the O.J. saga never showed the murder, this one begins with it. But that’s the plan for American Crime Story, Murphy said.

“One of the joys about this show for me is that every season of this show will have a different tonality. The first season was very much a courtroom potboiler. The second season is a manhunt thriller,” he said.

Its third season, covering Hurricane Katrina, will be set in New Orleans’ Memorial Hospital, looking at issues of health care and global warming.

“So every different season of the show, unlike other things that we’ve done, is so different.”

TCA’s Winter Press Tour – Day 2: FX Network

Darren Criss finds way into serial killer’s mind in ‘Gianni Versace’ series

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LOS ANGELES – When the cast of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” shot at the fashion designer’s Miami home, the feeling was overwhelming, according to actor Darren Criss.

“You had this sense of that which was and that which was taken away,” he says. “This is where it happened. It was the stairs. It was the street. Everything is as it was. Only the stains have been removed.”

In the FX miniseries, Criss plays Andrew Cunanan, the man responsible for Versace’s death. A serial killer, Cunanan was responsible for at least five deaths, including one in Minneapolis that reportedly began his spree. Enamored with Versace’s extravagant lifestyle, he made his way to Miami where he shot the designer on the steps of his mansion. Eight days later, Cunanan committed suicide on a houseboat. Since he didn’t leave a note, writers have had to speculate about his motive.

To play the role, Criss says he had to find some kind of way into the man’s personality.

“Whether you’re a football player, a scientist or, in this case, a spree killer, you have to take into account not only the worst moments but also the best moments. You have to find as many common denominators between you and the person.”

In the series, creator Ryan Murphy and company show the life Cunanan led before he got to Miami. As result, Criss didn’t interact much with the other actors (including Edgar Ramirez as Versace, Penelope Cruz as his sister Donatella and Ricky Martin as his lover). He told one story; they tracked another.

“People wonder, ‘How could you possibly find something good with this person?’ But I want to find the good in everybody,” he says, “and exploit it as much as possible.”

Had the limited series been a murderous slog, the former “Glee” star never would have done it.

“When you think of the worst things that people have ever done, that moment is much shorter in the span of their life,” he explains. “Because he would separate himself in so many different ways, that kind of allows me to compartmentalize my own life away from him. Luckily, it isn’t 10 episodes of watching me lurk around, doing horrible things constantly.”

Because television is shot on a faster schedule than film, Cruz and Martin were surprised how prepared they had to be for each scene.

“The pace is breakneck,” Criss says. “I’ve been doing it for a while now and my mind is calibrated to that way of working.”

The days at the Versace mansion, however, were otherworldly.

“I had a moment when I walked in the building where I could really feel Gianni’s presence,” Criss says. “Not to be super hippy-dippy, but you walk into Versace’s house and you feel steeped in his oeuvre. Every design, for the most part, is Gianni Versace. I felt myself waking in there and talking to him.”

While the actors got to film in Miami for several weeks, many of the interiors were recreated on sets in Los Angeles. There, Murphy made sure there were little touches unique to the designer. Those who have been in both locations say the sets are startlingly accurate.

That sense of who Versace was – and why he proved attractive to Cunanan – is key to the series.

To make the necessary connections, Criss talked to several dozen people who knew Cunanan.

“Andrew was so many different personalities to so many different people,” he says. “We see him at his best. We see him at his worst. We see him at his most charming. We see him at his most hurt. It’s all over the place…and we really do get to know him as a person.”

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” airs at 9 p.m. Jan. 17 on FX.

Darren Criss finds way into serial killer’s mind in ‘Gianni Versace’ series

Why the True Focus of Versace Just May Surprise You

His name may be in the one in the title, but when The Assassination of Gianni Versace premieres on FX next week, the famed fashion designer, gunned down in his prime, will share the spotlight.

In fact, much like The People v O.J. Simpson before it, the second installment of American Crime Story will use the crime involving the bold-named individual in the title to explore greater themes, as well as tell the stories of the lesser-known victims of serial killer Andrew Cunanan. And as executive producer Brad Simpson told E! News ahead of the show’s panel at the 2018 TCA Winter Press Tour, that’s exactly how the creative team wanted it.

“Andrew Cunanan was a spree killer and he murdered five people, the most famous being Gianni Versace. Versace was his obsession. He was everything he wanted and couldn’t have. The series tracks through those victims,” Simpson explained. “We thought it was important to spend the same amount of time with the less-known victims as it was with the most famous victims. Versace weaves his way in and out of this story, I think, in a great way, but the journey itself is the journey of this killer across the country as he murders people.”

In other words, just because Edgar Ramirez and Penélope Cruz dominate the show’s key art as Gianni and his legendary sister Donatella Versace, don’t expect this to be a Versace family biography. While Gianni’s name may be in the title, it’s the word “Assassination” that’s the real focus here.

“His obsession with Gianni Versace and the dance of creator and destroyer is the spine…that holds this together,” Simpson elaborated upon duing the show’s panel. “But ultimately, we felt it was really important for us, along this journey, to not only tell the story of Versace, but use that as fabric to tell the story of David Madson and Jeff Trail and the other victims.”

“This was a person who targeted people specifically to shame them and to out them and to have some payback for the life that he didn’t get to live,” Ryan Murphy added. “I just feel like anytime that you methodically plot to kill someone with pain and murder in your heart, to expose them for something, that is an assassination. It felt like the title was important for us, politically, to say.”

For executive producer Tom Rob Smith, who penned all nine episodes of the season, this installment of American Crime Story was an opportunity to explore issues that transcend one man’s crimes. “I think this is a story people don’t know. They know there was a murder in Miami. I kind of think of it as an iceberg. People just know the tip, and we’re taking them on the journey all the way down,” he told E! News. “And it’s an incredible story across the whole of America…It touches on this enormous issue of the American dream. How do you grow up and try and be successful? One of the elements that crushes him is homophobia. So we’re touching on the prejudices and preoccupations of society. It’s a crime that really has soaked up a lot of America.”

And for star Darren Criss, who turns in a career-making performance as Cunanan, it was the opportunity to explore the tragic undercurrent of the murderer’s actions that drove him to the role.

“That’s what made this such a joy for me, trying to find this common denominators between Andrew and the person watching, so much so that when he does something horrible, you’re really almost heartbroken that they’re doing this,” he told E! News. “That it is not only sad because of the actions, but sad because of the things that made those things happen.”

American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace premieres Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 10 p.m. on FX.

Why the True Focus of Versace Just May Surprise You

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[LQ] Maureen Orth, Tom Rob Smith, Edgar Ramirez, Brad Simpson, Darren Criss, Nina Jacobson and Ricky Martin from FX’s ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ pose for a portrait during the 2018 Winter TCA Tour at Langham Hotel at Langham Hotel on January 5, 2018 in Pasadena, California

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