Tag: edgar ramirez

Edgar Ramírez barely recognized himself in recent roles as an Elven government agent and fashion mogul Gianni Versace

Edgar Ramírez spent much of the last year staring at someone else in the mirror.

The Venezuelan actor transformed himself into an elf working as a government agent in David Ayer’s contemporary fantasy thriller “Bright,” which opened in theaters and on Netflx on Friday. He also plays fashion icon Gianni Versace in the Ryan Murphy-produced limited series “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” which premieres on FX in January.

Over the course of his career, the 40-year-old Ramirez has played everything from a Greek god to legendary boxer Roberto Durán, but these two roles required something else entirely.

For “Bright,” which costars Will Smith, Ramirez asked the Italian sartorial house Kiton to craft his character Kandomere’s suits, while makeup artists gave him prosthetic ears, special teeth and a wig that was purposefully stranded together to look intentionally unnatural. Portraying Versace was actually more intense. Ramírez wore not only prosthetics but also a wig cap that made him nervous.

Ramirez recalls, “The first day, I told Ryan, ‘I’m ready to take this off and shave my head and put the wig on my shaved head.’ He said, ‘Edgar, trust me. You don’t need to do it. It looks great already.’ I had a little freaking out moment with the prosthetic, but I think that every actor using it for the first time can relate.”

During our conversation, Ramírez discussed the unique world building his character is a part of in “Bright,” and what he thinks viewers will learn about Versace.

…

You shot “Versace” after this? What made you want to do it?

I was very excited about the team, and, of course, I’ve admired Ryan’s work for many years. You never know, but honestly, I knew that journey was going to be interesting. It was going to be something that would inform me with a lot of things.

Most of the public knows of Versace only as a brand. Others might remember him just from photos in fashion magazines and the circumstances of his death. What do you feel viewers will learn about him from your portrayal?

He was, above all, a family guy. In the most Greek way, in the most Roman way, I mean, he was an emperor. But very, very, very, very, very concerned for his family and for his legacy, family wise. This was surprising, because I was around when Versace exploded as a brand. I remember all the revolution in the ’90s, how Gianni mixed sexuality with glamour, something that had never been done before. I mean, the ’70s were run down and sexy, the ’80s were opulent and conservative and then Gianni married the two and everybody went crazy.

And the supermodels too.

Exactly. He created all that culture. I wouldn’t be invited to the first row of any fashion house now if it weren’t for Versace, who created this culture.

I know that Versace’s family was not involved in the project. Did that make you nervous going forward?

Cautious, but not nervous, because in the end, this is an approximation to what the life of this designer could have been like and, of course, our reconstruction or re-creation of the events that led to his assassination. Even when you’re doing characters or based on real people, again, it’s only impersonation. It’s not a photograph. It’s a painting. It’s not exact. If it was my family, of course, I would have reservations. First of all, it’s your life. They were a family that went through one of the most horrible tragedies that was witnessed in the world of celebrity and fashion in the last 50 years. It was horrible what happened. I wouldn’t want anything to do with it. I totally understand that.

So, two roles in a row where your makeup and costume were integral to your character.

No, it’s true. I’ve never thought about it. That it was one or the other where I completely transformed my body. Yeah, but with Versace, it was different, because it was a prosthetic, and the transformation was somehow deeper. To feel a bald cap and to see your head shape change? It was kind of scary at the beginning, because I thought that it might look fake but also because it always takes you some time to get used to see yourself like that. It feels very foreign.

Edgar Ramírez barely recognized himself in recent roles as an Elven government agent and fashion mogul Gianni Versace

Google translate, original Italian under the cut

Thus I became Gianni Versace

He gained twelve pounds, learned to speak English with an Italian accent. And he discovered he looked very much like the man he will now play on television. So Édgar Ramírez turned into the Calabrian designer, who was killed in Miami in 1997. And while he was acting, he also found himself doing another job, for which he had taken a degree.

The first thing that Édgar Ramírez does when he arrives on our photo shoot in Los Angeles is to put music. After five minutes, we are all singing “You make me turn / you make me turn / like a doll” and “The first beautiful thing I’ve had since life” together with Patty Pravo and Nicola Di Bari, who leave the Édgar’s phone.

“These are songs I discovered because they liked Gianni Versace,” he tells me. He has just landed from Buenos Aires, where Pablo Trapero’s quietude with Bérénice Bejo turns, and I immediately notice a coincidence. “Today is December 2nd. It would be Gianni’s birthday, he would have turned 71 and we are here talking about him.” Of him and the long-awaited television series in nine episodes American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which will air from 19 January on FoxCrime. Ramírez, who is also an interpreter of Bright, just released on the Internet, is Venezuelan, son of diplomats, a journalism graduate, in the private sector he calls himself “single but hopeful”, even though some newspapers have given him a recent flirtation with Ana de Armas, revelation of Blade Runner 2049. He, however, was discovered thanks to another biographical series, Carlos, on the Venezuelan terrorist, directed by Olivier Assayas and released in 2010: one of the first television products signed by a great author of cinema. “We were pioneers of one trend, maybe we did not even realize it at the moment.”

One of the things that impress most is its resemblance to Versace. Had he ever noticed it?

“Neither I nor others. Until I was called by Ryan Murphy (producer, director and author of the series, ed)! ”

Do you remember where it was on July 15th 1997, the day of the stylist’s murder?

“I was twenty, I was in Venezuela, I was getting ready to go on a trip to Europe. In memory, the death of Versace and that of Lady Diana are closely linked. At the end of the summer, when the princess died, I was friends in Bergamo. The Versace case struck me very much because, at the time, my parents lived in Miami and when I went to visit them, my sister and I often passed in front of Gianni’s house. It was the moment of the Ocean Drive boom and now I understand how he had sensed, as a visionary, what Miami was becoming: a capital of cultural and sexual diversity, as well as a place with immense real estate potential.”

How did you prepare?

"The series is based on a book (The murder of Gianni Versace of Vanity Fair journalist Usa Maureen Orth, ed. Tre60, ed) that I did not want to read because it’s all about Andrew Cunanan, the serial killer. Cunanan is linked to Gianni’s death, not to his life, which is what interested me. I read more, watched many interviews and talked to people close to Gianni who trusted me. Do not ask the names: I will never reveal my sources, I was a journalist. I can tell you that it’s not about family people. ”

Also because the family has not had any involvement. Penélope Cruz told me that she spoke with Donatella Versace, whom she interprets, to reassure her that everything would be done with the utmost respect.

“I confirm. It is not a sensationalistic thing, I would not have accepted. And I also speak in the name of Penélope and Ricky (Martin, who plays Gianni’s companion, Antonio D’Amico, ed). For everyone it was an experience of those that change your life. We have become friends, perhaps because we are Latins and we have grasped the essence of the story, which is the story of a man who was, first of all, attached to his family, who knew well the joy and torment of working with relatives and he put the affections first. Moreover, right from the title, there is a political indication: it is the murder of Gianni Versace, not his death that we are going to show. Because it was not an accident. Gianni was targeted because it was a symbol.”

Do you think he was a happy man?

"Satisfied, certainly. He had achieved a lot thanks to his talent and hard work: he was a workaholic, much more timid and serious than one might think. He had revolutionized fashion. First he mixed sensuality and glamor, took the liberties of the seventies and immersed himself in the hedonistic climate of the eighties, capturing a precise moment: there have never been so much money in the world as then, there has never been so much desire for luxury, he created the clothes that represented the spirit of the time. He frees fashion from ateliers, contaminating it with cinema and rock’n’roll. He was an artist who expressed himself by drawing clothes, but everything inspired him. I think he was also the first to put a piece of work – "Vincerò”, from Puccini’s Turandot – as a soundtrack to a fashion show.”

Physically, how did you work on the character?

“I get ten years of makeup and I’ve put on a dozen kilos, which is very easy. The difficult now is to lose them! I shot in English, with an Italian accent, trying to reproduce Gianni’s voice when he spoke English. It has already happened to bring to reality people who actually existed (as well as Carlos, the boxer Roberto Duràn, ed) and I would like to say that an interpretation is not an imitation. It is a painting that tries to restore a soul, not to photocopy a face. 

Source

Così Sono Diventato Gianni Versace

É ingrassato dodici chili, ha imparato a parlare inglese con accento italiano. E ha scoperto di assomigliare moltissimo all’uomo che adesso interpreterà in televisione. Così Édgar Ramírez si è trasformato nello stilista calabrese, ucciso a Miami nel 1997. E, mentre recitava, si è trovato a fare anche un altro mestiere, per il quale aveva preso una laurea.

La prima cosa che fa Édgar Ramírez quando arriva sul nostro set fotografico a Los Angeles è mettere la musica. Dopo cinque minuti, stiamo tutti cantando «Tu mi fai girar / tu mi fai girar / come fossi una bambola» e «La prima cosa bella / che ho avuto dalla vita» insieme alle vico di Patty Pravo e Nicola Di Bari, che escono dal telefono di Édgar.

«Sono canzoni che ho scoperto perché piacevano a Gianni Versace», mi dice. È appena atterrato da Buenos Aires, dove gira La quietud di Pablo Trapero con Bérénice Bejo, e mi fa subito notare una coincidenza. «Oggi gi è il 2 dicembre. Sarebbe il compleanno di Gianni, avrebbe compiuto 71 anni e siamo qui a parlare di lui». Di lui e della molto attesa serie televisiva in nove puntate American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, che andrà in onda dal 19 gennaio su FoxCrime. Ramírez, che è anche interprete di Bright, appena uscito su Internet, è venezuelano, figlio di diplomatici, laureato in giornalismo, nel privato si definisce «single ma speranzoso», anche se qualche giornale gli ha attribuito un flirt recente con Ana de Armas, rivelazione di Blade Runner 2049. Lui, invece, è stato scoperto grazie a un’altra serie biografica, Carlos, sul terrorista venezuelano, diretta da Olivier Assayas e uscita nel 2010: uno dei primi prodotti televisivi firmati da un grande autore di cinema. “Eravamo pionieri di uni tendenza, forse al momento neanche ce ne siamo resi conto.”

Una delle cose che colpiscono di più è la sua somiglianza con Versace. Se ne era mai accorto?

«Né io, né altri. Fino a quando sono stato chiamato da Ryan Murphy (produttore, regista e autore della serie, ndr)!».

Si ricorda dov’era il 15 luglio 1997, il giorno dell’assassinio dello stilista?

«Avevo vent’anni, ero in Venezuela, mi stavo preparando a partire per un viaggio in Europa. Nella memoria, la morte di Versace e quella di Lady Diana sono strettamente collegate. Alla fine dell’estate, quando morì la principessa, ero da amici a Bergamo. Il caso Versace mi colpì moltissimo perché, all’epoca, i miei genitori vivevano a Miami e quando li andavo a trovare, io e mia sorella passavamo spesso davanti alla casa di Gianni. Era il momento del boom di Ocean Drive e adesso capisco come lui avesse intuito, da visionario, che cosa stava diventando Miami: una capitale della diversità culturale e sessuale, oltreché un luogo dall’immenso potenziale immobiliare».

Come si è preparato?

«La serie si basa su un libro (L’assassinio di Gianni Versace della giornalista di Vanity Fair Usa Maureen Orth, ed. Tre60, ndr) che io non ho voluto leggere perché è tutto su Andrew Cunanan, il serial killer. Cunanan è legato alla morte di Gianni, non alla sua vita, che è quello che interessava a me. Ho letto altro, guardato molte interviste e parlato con persone vicine a Gianni che mi hanno dato fiducia. Non chieda i nome: non rivelerò mai le mie fonti, sono stato giornalista. Posso dirle che non si tratta di persone della famiglia».

Anche perché la famiglia non ha avuto alcun coinvolgimento. Penélope Cruz mi ha detto che ha parlato con Donatella Versace, che lei interpreta, per rassicurarla che tutto sarebbe stato fatto con il massimo rispetto.

«Confermo. Non è una cosa sensazionalistica, non avrei accettato. E parlo anche a nome di Penélope e di Ricky (Martin, che interpreta il compagno di Gianni, Antonio D’Amico, ndr). Per tutti è stata un ‘esperienza di quelle che ti cambiano la vita. Siamo diventati amici, forse perché siamo latini e abbiamo colto l’essenza del racconto, che è la storia di un uomo che era, prima di ogni cosa, attaccato alla sua famiglia, che conosceva bene la gioia e i tormenti del lavorare insieme ai parenti e metteva gli affetti al primo posto. Inoltre, fin dal titolo, c’è un’indicazione politica: è l’assassinio di Gianni Versace, non la sua morte che andiamo a mostrare. Perché non è stato un incidente. Gianni è stato preso di mira perché era un simbolo».

Pensa che fosse un uomo felice?

«Appagato, certamente. Aveva ottenuto molto grazie al suo talento e al duro lavoro: era un workaholic, molto più timido e serio di quanto si possa pensare. Aveva rivoluzionato la moda. Per primo ha mescolato sensualità e glamour, he preso li libertà degli anni Settanta el’ha immersa nel clima edonistico degli anni Ottanta, catturando un momento preciso: non ci sono mai stati così tanti soldi nel mondo come allora, non c’è mai stato così tanto desiderio di lusso, lui ha creato gli abiti che rappresentavano lo spirito del tempo. Ha liberato la moda dagli atelier, contaminandola con il cinema e il rock’n’roll. Era un artista che si esprimeva disegnando vestiti, ma tutto lo ispirava. Credo sia stato anche il primo a mettere un pezzo d’opera – “Vincerò”, dalla Turandot di Puccini – come colonna sonora di una sfilata».

Fisicamente, come ha lavorato sul personaggio?

«Il trucco mi invecchia di dieci anni e sono ingrassato una dozzina di chili, cosa facilissima. Il difficile adesso è perderli! Ho girato in inglese, con accento italiano, cercando di riprodurre la voce di Gianni quando parlava inglese. Mi è già capitato di portare sullo schermo persone realmente esistite (oltre a Carlos, il pugile Roberto Duràn, ndr) e mi sento di dire che un’interpretazione non è un’imitazione. È un dipinto che cerca di restituire un’anima, non di fotocopiare una faccia».

‘Versace: American Crime Story’ Will Actually Be About Being Gay in the ‘90s

The premiere episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story boasts style in exactly the grand scale you’d expect from a TV series associated with the doomed fashion icon.

The camera turns its lens on the ostentatious opulence of Versace’s Miami Beach mansion almost as a fetish. The fashion is as late-‘90s glamorous and decadent as it is garish and tacky. Sex oozes everywhere, from the sweat of the South Florida beach setting to the lingering gaze on star Darren Criss’s exceptionally sculpted (briefly nude) body.

A hypnotizing, wordless first act, backed by a rousing string-heavy score, gives a Shakespearean start to the whole endeavor, echoed, of course, in the horror of the murder by gunshot that left Versace bleeding to death at the front gate of his home in 1997.

And just wait for Penelope Cruz’s entrance as Donatella Versace, an unveiling dripping with enough melodrama and high fashion to make you gasp. The Oscar-winner, donning what appears to be an upper lip prosthetic to aid in nailing Donatella’s almost indecipherable Italian accent, is perfect—as is the pilot, which thrills as much in its visuals and sensuality as it does in the graphic nature of its titular crime and ensuing manhunt.

Only the first episode of FX’s newest installment of its American Crime Story franchise, the first follow-up to its awards-guzzling People vs. O.J. Simpson season, screened Monday night, for a room packed with curious celebrity fans including Glenn Close, Patricia Clarkson, and Andrew Rannells. That’s not enough for a proper review of the new series, which officially premieres January 17. But creator Ryan Murphy, the producers and writers, and stars Criss, Edgar Ramirez, and Ricky Martin were on hand to tease the season and its perhaps surprising greater message.

More than a murder mystery or a lavish look at the life of a fashion legend, Versace will tackle what it was like to be gay in the 1990s.  

“Like in O.J., the themes we’re tackling in this show seem so modern to me,” Murphy said, referring to how the American Crime Story found renewed resonance in the identity politics, race and class bias, media circus, and misogyny surrounding the O.J. Simpson trial. “They don’t seem like they’re frozen in amber,” he continued. “They feel very alive and plucked from today’s headlines.”

The Versace season is heavily based on journalist Maureen Orth’s book Vulgar Favors: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

Orth had been investigating serial killer Andrew Cunanan (played by Criss in the series) for months before he murdered Gianni Versace (Ramirez) on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion while Versace’s partner (Martin) was inside. Cunanan had evaded police while successfully murdering five men that he knew, the last being Versace. Orth’s reporting revealed a highly intelligent sociopath—he once tested at 147 for his IQ—with tortured feelings about being gay, and perhaps even jealousy that he had all these gifts and promise yet somehow wasn’t succeeding in the same way as these other men.

“We didn’t understand, and you’ll see as the show goes on, that Versace was the last victim, and Andrew had killed people that he knew before this,” executive producer Brad Simpson said. “As we began to unpack the show, we realized this was about the politics of being out in the 1990s.”

Murphy revealed that the season will be telling the story backwards. The first and second episodes deal with the assassination of Versace and the manhunt for Cunanan in Miami, and then the series will head back in time so that, by episode 8, we are seeing Cunanan as a child. Then the final episode will deal with his eventual demise.

Broad cultural themes will of course be explored along the way. Said executive producer Nina Jacobsen, “I think what we realized during the first season is that we wanted every season of the show to ultimately be about a crime that America feels guilty of, and find a way to sort of explore what is a cultural crime as well as a specific crime, or in this case a series of crimes. In this case, to try to explore and re-conjure what it was to be gay in the ‘90s.”

Orth explained that Cunanan was from San Diego, a big military town, growing up while “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was in the news, which created agony for people who were conflicted over how they felt about being gay, whether they could express themselves, or whether they could be publicly out. The parents of two of Cunanan’s victims didn’t even know their sons were gay until after they were murdered, for a sense of the environment.

Equally fascinating was the incompetency of the police and investigators pursuing Cunanan, who struggled with infiltrating the gay community and understanding its nuances, something Orth said didn’t necessarily reflect a homophobia, per se, but an ignorance.

Then of course there’s the ever-resonant idea of fame, and the craven pursuit of it that is very much embedded in the fabric of today’s culture.

“I think the idea that [Cunanan] was willing to kill for fame, there was kind of a trajectory between that and getting famous through a sex tape like the Kardashians and then right down to becoming the president of the United States because you were a reality TV star,” Orth said.

Murphy said that each actor they cast was actually their first choice to play the roles, from Cruz as Donatella down to Martin’s revelatory dramatic turn. “I have a theory that in every singer is a great dramatic actor waiting to come to out,” Murphy said about the music superstar.

Martin, who spends much of the first episode shaken and in tears after discovering Versace’s body, explained that he actually got to spend several hours of quality time with Antonio D’Amico, the designer’s partner of 15 years, who also helped curate the roster of boys they would also be intimate with. “Every time I see this episode I’m just really moved,” he said.

Murphy first dangled the idea of playing Cunanan in front of Criss, whom he had worked with on Glee three years ago, going so far as to call it the role of the young actor’s career.

There’s an uncanny resemblance between Criss and the real-life Cunanan, down to the fact that they are both part Filipino. With just the first hour to judge by, Criss is extremely watchable in a complicated and potentially off-putting role: a sociopathic narcissist, whose gay self-loathing manifests in an unsettling violent streak.

“I think stories that bend people’s sense of empathy are what really interest me,” Criss said. “It’s Shakespearean. Is has this very operatic feel. It’s Greek in scale. I’m a good, old fashioned acting student. Put me in a Greek tragedy or a Shakespeare play. If I get to do that on FX with Ryan Murphy, then fuck yeah, let’s do it.”

For all the talk of broader themes, there’s one specific detail that Murphy wanted to drive home: the unusual experience of filming the series in Versace’s actual Miami Beach mansion. That meant actually recreating his assassination where it really happened, in front of the house that Versace curated every detail of, which still emanates his soul and passion. It “was one of the most emotional, profound, moving, experiences,” Murphy said. “The day we shot that the crew was crying. The actors were crying. It was very intense.”

It wasn’t just that day, but the entire experience that was emotional for Ramirez, who spent months channeling Versace and living with his unnecessary death—and what that death said about the value of a certain demographic’s life at that time in the U.S.

“Me living in Venezuela, I knew about Andrew Cunanan,” Ramirez said. “He was on the news in my country. [I’m disturbed by] the fact that it took so long to get him, because apparently he wasn’t a threat to society because he was killing gay men. I feel very proud to be part of a project that talks about love and family but at the same time, hopefully makes something light out of something so dark.”

‘Versace: American Crime Story’ Will Actually Be About Being Gay in the ‘90s