Tag: february 2018

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Episode 5: Dignity and Respect

Now that we are halfway through “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” we can reasonably infer that there are no more bodies to fall. The fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot to death outside his Miami Beach villa in the season premiere. The Chicago real estate tycoon Lee Miglin was tortured and bludgeoned, and a New Jersey cemetery groundskeeper, William Reese, was fatally shot, execution-style, in Episode 3. Two more men were knocked off in Episode 4: the Minneapolis architect David Madson and the Navy veteran Jeff Trail.

So as this second season of “American Crime Story” works its way backward in time, we have moved past the body count to what should be the most interesting moment in any serial killer’s story: the moment before he starts to kill.

Yet frustratingly, five episodes in and with four more go to, we are barely any closer to knowing what turned Andrew Cunanan into a pathologically mendacious psychopath, much less a killer.

There is still time to explore that question, but by structuring this narrative in reverse chronological form, the show’s creators have demanded a great deal of patience from viewers — and taxed the patience of this one — as they’ve asked us to bear witness to ruthless, grisly violence.

So far, I don’t feel my patience has been rewarded. I’ve given this season credit for some unforgettable characters — especially Marilyn Miglin, the tycoon’s widow, and David Madson, the semi-closeted architect (thanks in large part to exceptional performances by Judith Light and Cody Fern). But I increasingly find Andrew Cunanan, as portrayed by Darren Criss, to be more an irritation than an enigma. His self-absorption, narcissism, casual cruelty, lack of empathy and penchant for self-pity have not been leavened by any redeeming qualities.

To be frank, I have come to find him so charmless that I nearly cringe any time he appears onscreen. I do not care for his petty lies — the Walter Mitty world in which he is the scion of a pineapple magnate, the builder of sets for the movie “Titanic,” the owner of a fabulous condominium in San Francisco — and, what’s worse, I’m starting to lose interest in how he turned into a killer. It will be a real challenge for this series to create a back story that makes Cunanan’s crimes explicable.

Unlike Episodes 3 and 4, which were effectively character studies of two lives upended by Cunanan’s malevolence, Episode 5 doesn’t have a singular focus. It begins in Milan, where Gianni Versace announces to his sister, Donatella, and to his partner, Antonio D’Amico, that he plans to come out, through an interview in the gay magazine The Advocate. From there, it jumps to Minneapolis, where Jeff Trail, Cunanan’s first victim, works at a propane plant, having been forced out of the Navy for being gay. It then moves backward in time to San Diego, where Trail, in his first visit to a gay bar, meets Cunanan.

The episode’s narrative arc connects the coming out of two men — Versace and Trail — who, other than being gay and getting killed by Cunanan, seem to have little in common.

Versace is depicted as wanting to show gratitude for being alive despite having received a diagnosis of what we’re led to believe is HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. (The Versace family has disputed the notion that Versace was HIV-positive, as hypothesized by the journalist Maureen Orth in her book “Vulgar Favors,” on which the series is based.)

Versace shares his plans with his sister, who is worried that Versace’s coming out as gay will hurt the fashion empire he has worked so hard to build. She worries that “the rock stars, the actors, the royalty whose endorsements we cherish — they might not want to be associated with us.”

“You live in isolation, surrounded by beauty and kindness,” she tells him. “You have forgotten how ugly the world can be.” Their exchange reminds us how recently spheres that now seem safely liberal — Hollywood and fashion — were still hostile to open gayness, an aversion that is far from vanished today.

We first meet Trail at the propane factory where he works. A co-worker, an ex-Marine, learns that Trail worked on an aircraft carrier that was decommissioned after the first Gulf War. Trail says he misses the military life, and regrets leaving. The Marine, who was enlisted, is startled to learn that Trail, a Naval Academy graduate with two siblings in the military, left a promising career as an officer. Trail flies into a rage, shouting, “It was my decision!”

Trail’s back story turns out to be more complicated.

In 1995, he broke up a homophobic attack on a gay sailor who would otherwise have been beaten to death. For his valor, he was quickly suspected of being gay himself, and subjected to increasing harassment. In one cringe-inducing scene, he tries to cut off a tattoo for fear that it could be used by military investigators to identify homosexuals who have had hookups aboard the aircraft carrier; in another scene, he puts on his dress whites and comes close to hanging himself.

It was the time of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Clinton-era policy in which gay and lesbian service members were ostensibly tolerated as long as they did not come forward. The compromise was an uneasy and often dishonest one, embodied by a scene in which Trail is given a comic-book-style “training guide on homosexual conduct and policy.” Its title, “Dignity and Respect,” seems like a cruel joke.

Trail leaves the military and decides to give an interview to CBS News — his face is obscured — in which he comes forward about the agony of being gay in the military. If he hadn’t stopped the gay-bashing attack, he says, “no one would have suspected me” and his life wouldn’t have been ruined. “I did a good thing, and I can’t tell you about how many times I’ve dreamed about taking that moment back and letting him die.”

That interview is juxtaposed with the far more positive disclosure in which Versace tells The Advocate about D’Amico. It is an affirming and empowering moment, one that demonstrates the obvious point that coming out, while never easy, is vastly easier for some than for others.

But what does it add up to? That Versace and Trail both made sacrifices to come out as gay men does nothing to elucidate for us why they were targeted by Cunanan, or whether anything other than cruel coincidence cut short their lives at his hands.

We see glimpses of Cunanan’s potential to be charming, when he helps to usher Trail into the gay world at a bar. (Trail’s first time, as he reveals.) We learn that the romance, if there was any, quickly wore thin. When the two reconnect in Minneapolis a few years later, Trail’s sympathy is nearly depleted: Cunanan sent his father a postcard outing him, but claims that it was an innocent mistake. Back at Madson’s apartment, Cunanan gives Madson an expensive watch and declares: “You are the man that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Will you marry me?” Madson looks horrified.

“We can’t get married,” he says. “We can’t. You understand? Even if we could, we can’t.”

Madson urges Cunanan to stop telling the crazy stories. But Cunanan can’t let go of his delusions. “I told you I’m going to start a new life in San Francisco, and I just need someone to share it with,” he says. He is at his most vulnerable, but instead of doing what a sane person would — seek out the solace of friends and family, and perhaps professional help — he can’t let go.

He hovers outside Madson’s apartment, watching in anger and envy as the architect brings another man home. Later, in Trail’s apartment, he rummages through the closet and takes out Trail’s dress uniform, enraging him. “I don’t know you,” Trail shouts. “I don’t know what you stand for. I don’t know who you are. You’re a liar. You have no honor.” Confronted by the truth, Cunanan tears into Trail, calling him “a washed-up queer” reduced to “bitching about how you could have been someone.”

He continues: “When I found you that night at the bar, I was there for you, I saved you.”

Trail replies: “You destroyed me. I wished I’d never walked into that bar. I wish I’d never met you.”

We have yet to learn how their relationship soured, or what made Cunanan turn from cruelty to bloodthirst. But at this point, his character is so deranged, vile and incorrigible that I’m not sure I care to know.

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Episode 5: Dignity and Respect

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ star Finn Wittrock on his heartbreaking role as Cunanan victim Jeff Trail

Finn Wittrock is well-known to fans of Ryan Murphy’s work from his performances HBO’s The Normal Heart and three seasons of American Horror Story, most notably his role as Dandy Mott in Freak Show.

But he’s never been as heartbreaking as he is on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Wittrock plays the first victim (and former friend) to Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). Trail was also in the Navy during the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell era and was one of the first people to speak out about life as a closeted gay man in the military.

EW talked to Wittrock about the role and whether he’ll return to the world of AHS anytime soon.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What made you want to play this part?
FINN WITTROCK: Well it was sorta kinda a story that kept opening up for me, I would say. At first I was intrigued by the way Ryan was telling the story and the way Tom Rob Smith structured the narrative. I didn’t know much about Cunanan and his downward spiral.

But then I just really became enamored with Jeff and the kind of guy he was and what kind of upstanding American and true Patriot he was. He loved his country and loved being in the military and just had this secret — he knew who he was and was trying to make himself at peace with that and find some self but also it wasn’t compatible with the life he was living at that time. I was just really, really intrigued by that dichotomy of a guy who’s just really all-American, does everything right but the fact that he was gay he couldn’t ever really overcome that because he was stuck living two lives. And how amazing and sad that it was not that long ago? It’s not like we were talking about the ‘50s — it was like 1996.

The final relevant thing for me was it was right around when Trump did the transgender people in the military ban. When I was reading it at first, I was like, “Well this is a good story but it’s a little dated.” Then, that happened I was like, “F—! This is not dated at all. It’s more relevant than ever.”

Did you reach out to Jeff’s family? Or what kind of research did you do?
I didn’t. I felt weird about that. We had some really good Navy help on set in terms of getting the technicalities right. And then there is that real interview he did. It really does exist. His face is in shadow but it’s like a 20-minute interview about him coming out amidst Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Often as an actor, you have one thing as your anchor. That was it for me. I kept that video on me at all times. It’s an amazing introspection and a really brave thing for him to do at that time. Then, we had Maureen Orth’s book.

What was it like shooting this because you start with your murder and it goes backwards? It must have been challenging as an actor.
Yeah, and the nature of the shoot was already out of sequence because of the schedule. We were shooting different episodes one day to the next so I sometimes lost track of sometimes which episode I was actually in.

What I did when I first got the script was, I just tore them apart and put them in chronological order. I had to kind of do that because the structure is really fascinating to read but as an actor I had to kind of re-adjust my internal compass. The nature of his and Andrew’s relationship erodes over a few years so to really kind of be specific and map that was a challenge and was a kind of on-going conversation, like, Where are we right now? What’s happened?

I spoke to Edgar Ramirez about this, but is it more emotional to shoot a death scene when it’s a real person?
It can be haunting. I find you tread more carefully, if that makes sense. It’s more precious. Like when we’re doing Horror Story, it can be really dark and torturous. But it’s also like we’re just letting our imaginations run rampant and just running loose. This you feel a little more obliged to take things carefully and watch your steps and realize the preciousness of the story you’re telling.

Did Jeff actually attempt to cut off his tattoo?
It’s a bit of dramatic interpretation. I know everything Rob wrote in that is from real accounts of guys who were gay in the military. It’s not all his necessarily but it’s based on factual stuff. There’s a lot actually we don’t know about Jeff.

What was it that drew Jeff to Andrew in your opinion? Was it that he was so open and charismatic?
It is still a mystery. He seemed like such an upstanding guy who really believed in a moral right and standing up for what you believe in and all these admirable values. Then it’s like, How did you become involved with this guy who was so obviously a sociopath? But that’s the thing about them is, they know exactly what to do to make you trust them.

I think there was something in Andrew’s freedom and letting himself loose that really appealed to Jeff at that time. We’ve all maybe had friends who at certain times of your life came in and were just what you needed and you had a great, fun time. Then, you kind of grow out of that and you kind of move on and they don’t but the level of the friendship is so strong that you can’t just disown them so you’re caught with this person sort of hanging on you. I think that was part of the downfall — Andrew did not like getting shaken off.

How was that final fight between Jeff and Andrew to shoot? How was it working with Darren?
I remember that being a hefty day. It was a lot of dialogue and a lot of heated stuff. We kind of played with the temperature of how much is it an all-out battle. He’s a very easy partner to dance with. He likes to explore it and try different ways and try one way hotter and one way colder. It was a fun conversation in that way. It’s really interesting to watch him work. He was kind of playful on set and I know from playing some f—ed up people it can be a survival mechanism to kind of stay light when you’re not in it because otherwise it can kind of eat you.

What do you want people to take away from Jeff’s story?
It’s sort of a warning about what happens when you don’t share your real self with the people you love. It’s also a warning about our society not letting people be who they are and the dark road that can lead people down.

Is there any chance you can return to American Horror Story?
I don’t know. I would love to. I am committed to staying in the Ryan Murphy universe as long as he will have me.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ star Finn Wittrock on his heartbreaking role as Cunanan victim Jeff Trail

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Two gay men speak out publicly

We gave in an A

The core of this episode is two interviews about being gay: One interview is extremely public; the other is hidden, both literally and figuratively.

Since we’re moving backward through the story, Gianni Versace is still alive, arguing with Donatella about his decision to do an interview with Advocate magazine in which he will openly say that he’s gay. But Donatella does publicity for the brand and knows the world still isn’t kind to openly gay men. They compare Versace to Perry Ellis, the designer who walked his final runway show weakened by what was believed to be AIDS shortly before succumbing to the disease; Gianni sees it as the most important show of his career, Donatella as the moment people stopped buying his clothes.

Antonio also has a perspective: For 13 years he’s been mistaken for Gianni’s assistant, and he wants their relationship to be public, which makes Donatella even more prickly. She sees Antonio as a climber and a leech; the family business should concern only family.

Cunanan has his own argument across the country, albeit a less glamorous one: He’s on the phone with American Express, asking them if they can expand his credit so he can book a flight to Minneapolis. He has two friends there, he explains, and they owe him money. If only he can get to Minneapolis, all of his money issues will be solved and he’ll be able to pay his credit card bills. The voice on the phone sighs and seems to reluctantly answer in the affirmative. Cunanan injects heroin between his toes, and we’re afforded a wider view into his private life: a miserable, bleak apartment, a closet full of well-pressed clothes. And then behind the clothes: a collage of Gianni Versace, including that inevitable Advocate interview.

Cunanan is met at the airport by both David and Gulf War Navy veteran Jeffrey Trail — two of Cunanan’s victims, back from the dead thanks to the show’s backward timeline. Trail is equal parts savvy and prickly; his repeated “I made the decision” to a co-worker about leaving the Navy implies there was something else going on with his discharge, and as soon as he links up with David in the airport he makes his feelings for Cunanan clear. “Everything he’s told you about his life is a lie,” Trail says. David is more sympathetic to Cunanan — he feels sorry for him, but Trail has nothing but teeth-clenching anger and a debt to pay. Cunanan had “accidentally” tried to out Trail to his father with a postcard signed, “Love, Drew, kiss kiss,” but Trail says he still owes Cunanan, at least enough to let him use his apartment for the weekend so long as they don’t have to interact.

Cunanan comes home with David, who slowly seems to be coming to the same conclusions that Trail already reached. When Cunanan proposes, with a $10,000 watch, David reacts with shame and pity and humiliation for both of them. Cunanan, with his typical dissociated bounciness, tells him to think about it.

David gives him his answer at a polka club that night, where he and Cunanan have come to meet David’s co-worker, Linda (the same woman who will find Trail’s body, and who will tell the police about Cunanan). David says he’ll never marry him, that their relationship isn’t real. “It’s just another story,” he says, thrusting back the watch. Later, Cunanan will watch David bring another man back to the apartment.

Since he has the keys, Cunanan heads to Trail’s home and begins picking through the man’s belongings. He puts on his Navy hat and peels his uniform out of its box, revealing a VHS tape hidden underneath. He watches the video: a news report about gays in the military in which an anonymous man — presumably Trail — talks about his experience, his face shrouded in shadow. Cunanan also steals Trail’s gun and points it at the screen in what we in the television recapping industry like to call foreshadowing.

We flash back to two years earlier to see Jeffrey Trail in the Navy, and witness firsthand the incident he spoke about in the interview, where he saved a gay sailor’s life and it cost him his anonymity. First, he broke up a fight between several sailors attacking one man, and then later, he rescued the man again when he was tied to his bed and beaten, inches from death. Trail comforts the sailor in the bathroom; someone sees him, and that’s all it takes.

Someone makes a sneering remark about identifying gay sailors by their tattoos and Trail tries, in a panic, to take a knife to the ink on his kneecap. With seemingly no way out, he begins to hang himself in the bathroom, until he changes his mind, gasping for breath, and goes another way: to a gay bar, where he meets Andrew Cunanan.

Cunanan is charming and flirty, exactly the type of man someone like Trail would have wanted to run into on his first night attempting to experience life as a gay man. The two become close, close enough that Cunanan tries to talk Trail out of doing the anonymous interview with CBS. But Trail knows: It’s just something he has to do. It’s the same sentiment echoed by Versace: a shared, quiet bravery that makes their deaths all the more aching.

On the day of Jeffrey Trail’s murder, Cunanan eats the most sinister bowl of Froot Loops since Get Out, while Trail returns home, infuriated that Cunanan touched his uniform. He sees Cunanan for what he is: a selfish fraud, a stark contrast to a soldier who’s willing to sacrifice himself for something. “You’ve never believed in anyone but yourself.”

Cunanan protests, asking Trail to remember everything that he gave him, but Trail just spits back bile. “Everything you gave me,” he says, “It means nothing. You have no honor.” Cunanan says he saved him. “You destroyed me!” Trail fires back. Cunanan tells him he loves him, and Trail answers, “No one wants your love.”

From there, we know how the events play out. Cunanan brings Trail’s gun to David’s house and tells Trail to come and get it. While David goes downstairs to let Trail up to the apartment, Cunanan grabs a hammer. Trail’s sister went into labor, and she and her parents call, over and over, to tell him to come to the hospital. Their voices are recorded on the answering machine, playing out to an empty apartment.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Two gay men speak out publicly

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Recap: Why Did Andrew Kill Jeff Trail?

For the fifth episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, we learn about Jeff Trail. The last episode opened with the unknown young man being bludgeoned to death with a hammer by Andrew Cunanan. But who is he and why did Andrew kill him?

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as the title suggests, also focuses on one of the major themes of the show, dealing with the shame of being a closeted homosexual. Jeff’s story is equal parts tragic and heroic in that respect, and it’s beautifully contrasted by the return of the titular fashion designer.

Versace Comes Out

The episode opens in June 1995 in Milan. Gianni Versace is back, informing his sister Donatella that he’s going to do an interview with The Advocate and publically come out as gay.  She is skeptical of the idea, thinking that Antonio is behind this because he wants to be famous. She’s also worried that it may hurt their business, but Gianni is insistent.

Despite her warning, he wants to do it because the brand is all about bravery and he wants to show that he is brave. She’s a realist, recognizing that the world can be cruel, but after getting sick, Gianni simply wants to be himself. Given what we’ll see with Jeff Trail, it’s hard to ignore the fact that coming out is a luxury that Gianni Versace can afford because he’s a celebrity. It may cost him some money and business, but that’s nothing compared to the cost for Jeff.

Andrew Comes to Minnesota

Four days before Jeff’s murder we see Andrew in San Diego, doing drugs and sweet-talking a lady from the credit card company into extending his credit limit so he can buy a one-way plane ticket to Minneapolis. He’s obviously in deep debt and promises that he’ll be financially solvent and repay his debts thanks to his two friends, Jeff and David, in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, former Navy officer Jeff Trail is in Minnesota, working at a propane factory. When he learns that Andrew is flying in he meets David at the airport, explaining to him that everything Andrew says is a lie and he has no one. The only reason Jeff still puts up with him is because Andrew was there for him once, but he’s done with Andrew after this weekend and encourages David to do the same. David still feels sorry for Andrew. There isn’t much tension here since we already know how this weekend ends for both of them.

Andrew arrives and he’s his cheery, obviously fake self, acting like everything is wonderful. Jeff gets into it a bit about how Andrew “accidentally” sent a postcard to Jeff’s dad that almost  outed Jeff to his family. Jeff is staying with his sister for the weekend so Andrew can crash at his place.

Andrew’s Proposal

When Andrew and David go back to his apartment, Andrew proposes and David tries to decline as politely as possible without hurting Andrew’s feelings. Andrew is throwing out about a million red flags and it should be clear to David that this guy is seriously mentally unstable.

Andrew and David go out to a polka club with David’s co-worker (the one who will discover Jeff’s body in a few days).  David eventually declines Andrew’s proposal as forcefully as he can. Back at the apartment David tries to give back the expensive watch Andrew bought him, explaining that it’s OK to ask for help and Andrew doesn’t have to make up elaborate stories about how amazing his life is.

David sees the real Andrew and how unhappy he is, offering to help. But people seeing his true self seems to be Andrew’s primary trigger for his insanity.

Andrew then goes to Jeff’s apartment, suspicious that David and Jeff are dating. Andrew snoops through Jeff’s things and finds his Navy uniform, a video of a news report about gays in the military…and his gun. Andrew watches the video, in which Jeff was an anonymous gay officer in the Navy talking about how they would never accept he. He talks about how the military knows he’s gay because he saved a gay sailor who was being attacked, but now he regrets that moment.

The Tragic History of Jeff Trail

Jeff goes to his very pregnant sister’s house. She knows he’s gay and thinks he should stop letting Andrew have this sort of control over him and just come out to their parents.

We flash back to November 1995 to see the story Jeff was talking about, saving the gay sailor. This epitomizes my biggest problem with this season. Why show us a video of Jeff telling the story, then show us that same story in a flashback? It’s excessive and takes away the dramatic tension because we already know what’s going to happen, just like how we already know that Andrew is going to kill Jeff and David.

Jeff tries his best to protect the other gay sailor, but in the process he fears he may have outed himself. This leads to a brutal and graphic scene of Jeff trying to cut off his own tattoo so he can’t be identified by a captured gay soldier who may report him.

All of the fear and paranoia of being a closeted gay man in the military gets to Jeff, to the point where he tries to hang himself in the bathroom. It’s a tragic moment, but one that he doesn’t follow through on.

After his suicide attempt, Jeff goes out to a gay bar and meets Andrew. Andrew is accepting and encouraging, exactly what Jeff needs in this moment. It’s Jeff’s first time in a gay bar and Andrew helps him through it, explaining the debt Jeff owes Andrew. Andrew was a friendly face who met Jeff in his darkest hour.

The Two Coming Out Stories

Jeff tells Andrew about a reporter wanting to interview him for a news story that includes his side on the issue of gays in the military. In a brilliant bit of contrast, we see Jeff going to a seedy motel and being interviewed in the shadows while intercutting it with Gianni Versace doing his interview for The Advocate in a fancy hotel, being greeted warmly and asking Antonio to sit by his side and do the interview with him.

It’s a very effective way to show how different this experience is. For Jeff, it’s the hardest thing he’ll ever do, he regrets saving the gay sailor’s life and it will likely cost him his career. For Gianni, it’s an affirming, positive experience with a photo shoot, allowing him to live his life open and free.

It’s a heartbreaking juxtaposition. After these interviews, Jeff can’t live the life he wants anymore, being in the military, but Gianni gets to live his life exactly how he wants.

The Death of Jeff Trail (Again)

The show is back to the day Jeff dies, which we saw last week. Jeff returns to his apartment and sees that Andrew went through his stuff. Jeff gets angry and tells Andrew that the life he gave him with the bars and men wasn’t real. Jeff only ever wanted to be in the military and that’s what he wishes he had.

Jeff doesn’t care that the military doesn’t want him. He calls out Andrew for being a liar with no honor. Andrew claims he saved Jeff, but Jeff wishes he never walked into that bar and met him. Jeff gets a bit violent, yelling that “No one wants your love.”

Andrew is trigger and leaves to David’s place, with Jeff’s gun. That night Andrew calls Jeff and tells him that he took his gun because David’s stalker is back in town. Jeff agrees to come over to get it, but after that he’s done with him.

This leads to the moment we knew was coming, when Andrew kills Jeff with a hammer (which was definitely premeditated). In one final emotional punch to the gut, while Jeff is dead in David’s apartment, his family calls his home and leaves messages on his answering machine that his sister went into labor and had her baby, with his parents saying how much they love him and want him to meet his niece.

Did Jeff’s tragic story break your heart?

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Recap: Why Did Andrew Kill Jeff Trail?

Did Gianni Versace actually admit he was gay to “The Advocate?” Yes, and it’s something Ryan Murphy greatly admires

Throughout this season of American Crime Story, Ryan Murphy and FX have often been forced to use their imagination. As many of the real people depicted in the series are dead and the victims’ families have largely kept quiet, The Assassination of Gianni Versace has often had to take creative liberties when recreating the narrative. Using a plethora of source material, from Maureen Orth’s Vulgar Favors to newspaper articles and FBI reports, FX has had to imagine interactions between Andrew Cunanan and his victims — and even depict events never confirmed by the victims’ families.

In the opening moments of the fifth episode “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Gianni (Édgar Ramírez) tells his sister Donatella (Penelope Cruz) that, much to her chagrin, he’s going to publicly disclose his sexuality to The Advocate. Donatella derides Gianni’s decision and tries to dissuade him, concerned that coming out as gay could put their company in jeopardy but Gianni remains steadfast in his decision.

In a moving moment during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Gianni interrupts his own interview with the Advocate to introduce his longtime partner Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin) to his profiler, Brendan Lemon, revealing that they’ve been together for 13 years. Often publicly relegated to the position of Gianni’s assistant, Antonio is visibly moved.

While Gianni’s decision to publicly come out was a big deal in and of itself, it had a lasting effect on him. During the Television Critics Association tour last summer, Murphy opened up about what Gianni coming out in the Advocate interview meant to him and what it was like to film the interview.

“I admired that and always did,” Murphy said. “I loved him and looked up to him, and was so proud and excited when he did that interview in the Advocate. At that time there weren’t a lot of people brave enough to live their lives in the open. So for me, I had a great passion for it, and I was very emotional shooting it.“

The scene was incredibly moving, especially interwoven with Jeff Trail’s (Finn Wittrock) anonymous CBS interview regarding being gay in the military, reminding viewers that while Gianni Versace was able to live a proud life as a gay man, many others were forced to remain in the closet for the sake of their lives.

Did Gianni Versace actually admit he was gay to “The Advocate?” Yes, and it’s something Ryan Murphy greatly admires

‘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

In ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace,’ the Camera Stays on the Victims

When Jeff Trail (Finn Wittrock) and David Madson (Cody Fern) return to the latter’s sleek, minimalist apartment, something is immediately amiss. David’s dog is tied to a coffee table, and their mutual friend Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) is waiting unseen across the hallway. That’s when it happens: Andrew snaps. He bludgeons Jeff with a hammer, blood spraying everywhere. David (and his poor dog) can only look on in horror from the other side of the room; as most of this unfolds, the camera remains affixed to David’s terrified expression. Blood occasionally splashes on his face.

Gruesome scenes like this one at the start of “House by the Lake,” the fourth episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, are a familiar sight for a medium that’s been historically obsessed with killers. But each portrayal is different, and how a TV series depicts a murder tells you a lot about its intentions. Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal turned many of its deaths into baroque pieces of bloody art, relishing in the creative ways victims could be disposed (death by electric eel is definitely … different). On the opposite side of the spectrum was Dexter, whose eponymous serial killer would do just about the same thing every time — a calculated routine devised over decades that carried out like an everyday chore. As for Versace, Cunanan’s murder of Jeff Trail is the beginning of a violent, agenda-driven killing spree.

Because Versace plays out almost entirely in reverse chronology — beginning in the premiere with the fashion mogul’s death at the hands of Cunanan before the opening title comes into view — the audience knows we’re seeing is Cunanan’s first murder, despite it being the final one presented onscreen. The show continuously folds into itself, in the process delving into Cunanan, studying how and when the seeds were planted before they blossomed into this narcissistic, entitled, and dangerous personality.

However, what makes Versace a unique presence in an ever-crowded television landscape has less to do with its Nolanesque chronology or its insidious killer than it does how much attention the show dedicates to the people who were killed, the lives that were affected by these murders, and how a society plagued with systemic homophobia enabled Cunanan to claim five total victims — culminating in the death of Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramírez) on the steps of his opulent mansion. By devoting screentime to Versace and Cunanan’s lesser-known victims — with the exception of William Reese, whose death was the result of a man being in the wrong place at the wrong time — the show empathizes with the discrimination each faced as a gay man in ’90s America and the institutions that failed them. In Versace, there’s more than one killer.

The fifth episode of the season, which aired Wednesday night, flashes back to Trail’s first meeting with Cunanan, in addition to his time as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. The title of the episode, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” is self-evident, and Trail suffers from the Clintonian policy. When one gay soldier offers to out other gay military members who frequent a well-known hookup spot as part of a deal to avoid dishonorable discharge, Trail uses a knife to remove his biggest identifier, a tattoo on his leg. The closest Trail gets to coming out is agreeing to be interviewed by a news program for a “don’t ask, don’t tell” package. Trail’s experience in the episode is juxtaposed with that of Versace’s coming out in a magazine interview with The Advocate. As Versace is invited to a glitzy hotel suite to sit down for a cover story alongside his partner Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin), Trail meets his interviewer in an unbecoming motel room, his face is shrouded in darkness to avoid identification. It’s less of a coming out than an affirmation that he needs to stay in the closet — or leave the Navy entirely.

Versace makes his decision to come out in spite of his sister, Donatella (Penélope Cruz), who pleads with him to reconsider for the sake of the financial future of their business. The show paints this less as a success of the individual than an indictment on just how large you have to be to avoid public discrimination — coming out might be OK, so long as you’re a multimillion-dollar fashion designer. How the gay men of Versace react to societal homophobia affects them in wildly contrasting ways — Versace sits atop a fashion empire, while Cunanan, fixated and jealous of the designer’s rarified experience, becomes a con man and, eventually, a spree-killer targeting other gay men. Then there’s someone like Trail, suffocating from the effects of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” “I can’t help feeling that by talking to you it’s the end of my career,” he tells his motel room interviewer. “But maybe my career actually died a long time ago.”

Cunanan leverages this rampant homophobia against both Trail and Madson. He sends Trail’s family a letter addressed to him that heavily implies their son is gay while he’s still closeted, trying to force his hand. And after killing Trail in Madson’s apartment in “House by the Lake,” Cunanan convinces Madson that calling the cops is the worst possible idea — he’s a gay man with a dead body in his apartment, who are they going to believe? — and that they need to run off together. Cunanan preys upon these men’s insecurities, using society’s homophobia as a trap, while also seemingly lashing out because of it.

Trail, Madson, the Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell) from Versace’s third episode — these are tragic figures, undone by shame brought upon by outdated norms. Seeing them broken down in reverse chronology, knowing they’ll fall victim to Cunanan, makes it all the more heartbreaking. That Versace devotes the time necessary to show how these characters were victims — specifically to a rage-filled spree killer and more broadly to a repressive society — speaks to what the series cares about. Versace could luxuriate in the violent, sociopathic tendencies of Cunanan, or, as more befitting of creator Ryan Murphy, envelope itself in Versace’s elegant, campy world of fashion, but it doesn’t. At times Versace might be more interesting to think about than to watch unfold onscreen, but the series’ intentions — much like its time-bending narrative — are a particularly unique sight on television, and especially among crime shows.

In ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace,’ the Camera Stays on the Victims

Ricky Martin on ACS: Versace, Coming Out, and ‘Normalizing’ Open Relationships

There are obvious parallels between Ricky Martin’s life as an international celebrity and Gianni Versace’s brand of glamour and hedonism. Both sold sex appeal as part of their brands while living as gay men. In the FX show American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Versace makes a conscious decision to publicly come out in 1995 during an interview with The Advocate. Martin came out in 2010, saying that the act made him feel free and liberated: “I could say I love myself completely,” he told Oprah afterward. In ACS, Martin plays Antonio D’Amico, the supportive, longtime partner of the late fashion designer.

“Unlike Darren [Criss, who plays serial killer Andrew Cunanan in the series] I brought all my emotions back home with me,” an exuberant Martin told a group of reporters after the TCA panel. In a brief but warm interview with Vulture beforehand, Martin discussed his conversations with Antonio D’Amico, the homophobia of the police interrogation, and how he wrestled with his own coming-out process.

Did you meet Antonio D’Amico, the person you’re portraying?
A couple of times we met. It was difficult for me to find him, but then I found him. It was like, “FBI, find Antonio!” Because I just wanted to do justice to his story, you know? I’m telling the story of someone who is alive, and I cannot jump in front of the camera without having an interaction with him. So we found him, and he was so open and so vulnerable. I told him, “Antonio, I just want to do justice to your love for Gianni. And I want you to tell me what your love was about, for the audience to see what it was about.”

I want to normalize relationships like this. It’s good for the world; it’s good for me as a gay man with kids. It’s important that we shed some light on power couples like this, even though he was quiet and behind the scenes and he was just there supporting his man for 15 years. I also believe there was a level of homophobia going around in his family where he was hiding, even though he says, “My relationship was very open and free with Gianni.” So I used that as well in front of the camera, and for that, I will always be very thankful.

What kind of insight did he give you into his relationship with Versace?
He told me about Gianni’s character, and he told me about how he would react when there were different situations that would arise in the day-to-day. “Gianni would not pick up his clothes from the floor. He would take a shower and he would leave his shirt there, so it was me after him, picking up,” and “He was extremely organized with everything that had to do with Gianni the Enterprise. Extremely organized, very focused and extremely on top of things with everything! But in his personal life, he had me picking up after him.”

The silent person behind the scenes.
The silent person behind the scenes, yeah. One of the toughest scenes that I shot [was] the first, the interrogation when the FBI is investigating Antonio. It was a very excruciating scene for me. I mean, this guy was opening every door that was a secret from Gianni’s and Antonio’s relationship. I’m talking about bringing men into our lives. I’m talking about bringing escorts. That exposure is very heavy, and it can be extremely uncomfortable for me, for the family, but I’m here doing a job, and the story, once again, needs to be told, for people to see the level of unity between these two. The level of commitment after 15 years. The level of security between them and trust between them is so solid. We want to normalize another kind of reality for open relationships. And that’s what we’re doing. There’s absolutely nothing wrong. We’re just two very self-secure men that are completely in love with each other, that trust each other to the maximum level, and here we are. But the scene was very intense and painful. Excruciating. It was a long day.

How much do you feel like homophobia was a part of that?
Ignorance! Oh my god, every question was so ignorant coming from this guy. And I’m like, “What are you talking about? He’s my boyfriend, my partner.” But even for me, in the ’90s, it was difficult to say the word “boyfriend.” I wish I could have said “my husband” back then, in order for people to understand. But before that interrogation, it’s still confusing, even now, if you have a boyfriend that brings escorts to you for you to have intimacy with. But that is the reality for many men and women, and I cannot say only in the gay world. There are many relationships that are open.

What’s your relationship like with Penélope Cruz? Because you have an adversarial relationship in the show, but I assume that’s not how it is in real life.
First of all, we’ve worked together many, many, many times, philanthropically. We’ve done fundraisers together. We were sponsors of a very beautiful orphanage in Calcutta, so we did fundraising galas, and we’ve known each other for a long time. It’s funny because as I am shooting the scene of the investigation, I hadn’t seen Penélope. She walks onto set already dressed up as Donatella, and of course, I am drained and I’m tired and it’s been hours of this excruciating interrogation, and all of a sudden she walks in and I just go like [Martin holds his hand out]. I want to hold you, but I want to hold my friend. But I go like that [holds his hand out again] and Ryan goes, “Great idea! We need this for the shot, so stay there, and you cannot hug him. You hate him.” She came back to me and goes, “Rick, I saw you devastated. Your eyes were swollen. I needed to give you a hug.” And I’m like, “And you didn’t.” “But I wasn’t allowed to!” “You didn’t.” “I wasn’t allowed! It was better for the acting.” I’m glad we didn’t hug because all that made even more of [an] impact for the series.

You used the actual emotion that you felt.
I wanted to hug you. I really wanted to. But Antonio, after being interrogated for nine hours, he’s filled with blood. The first person that he sees that he knows is her, and even though they don’t have a good relationship, he’s like, “Hug me, I need someone to hug me.” And it took it to the next level. And Penélope is amazing. I was very honored to work with her.

The scene where Gianni decides to come out to the interviewer and then he brings you with him was really emotional for me.
And for me. You have no idea.

What was it like to shoot it?
Well, you know, for many years I lived in the closet, and you will never know how easy it is to be out of the closet until you actually decide to come out of the closet. If I knew how easy everything was going to be afterward, I would have done it way before. So, I went to that moment and I went to the relationship, where I held my partners pretty much prisoners of my closet, so as an actor it was very easy for me to get somewhere emotionally. And I felt a joy, and I felt the love come from my partner. Honestly, I went to my real life where I was hiding them, and then the other side of the coin, my partner is exposing our truth, our reality, and it felt amazing and I cried. But it was joyful, and when I held Edgar — Gianni’s — hand, I wanted to kiss him, and we did. He was nervous. It’s one of the most beautiful scenes, I think.

It’s so joyful and empowering too.
And at the end of the day, I had no idea that he was going to bring me in, it just happened. I was like, “What’s going on here? Is this really happening? Oh my God!”

Because it’s not just “I’m a gay man,” but “This is the man who’s been with me for so long.”
It’s the love, and he needs to be recognized, acknowledged.

Gianni Versace has a line where he says, “Is the brand of Versace braver than the man?” when Donatella didn’t want him to come out. And I wondered if you wrestled with that question yourself in your life?
Yes. Everybody, people that I love, people that were really close to me told me, “You come out, this will be the end of your career.” You know, “Girls won’t buy your albums, they won’t buy your T-shirts, they won’t buy your concert tickets,” and that kept me from coming out many years. Because you work so hard to get to a place in the entertainment business and then they tell you if you talk about your nature everything’s gonna collapse. So you say, “Okay, no. Okay, let’s just not talk about it then.” But then there’s this emptiness; it doesn’t matter what you created. Living with this emptiness, it’s not how I want to live. And then one day you find the strength, you don’t know from where, and you just do it for yourself, you do it for your kids, and then with social media you realize the power and how important it is for us in the LGBTQ community to normalize families like mine, and then it wouldn’t be an issue. I mean, Harvey Milk said it many years ago, “Guys, you need to come out, ’cause then it’s normal.”

But I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a megacelebrity whose brand relied on sex appeal.
Yeah, you know, back then, Donatella or someone would say, “the board of directors advises not to…” and to me, it was “the record company advises not to,” which was b.s. Doesn’t matter. What’s important is what you need to do to become a better person, and with this — I go back to this scene — and how important it was to present this moment where you see this amazing fashion icon, a monster, strong, being vulnerable and afraid of sharing something as beautiful as your nature. You know, that scene where he holds me in the hallway before he walks into the room, that he gives me a kiss? He was trembling. And we all go through it at a certain point.

Did you ever meet Versace?
I never met Versace. I was invited to the house a hundred times to different events. I never met Donatella. I never met him personally. At the time I had a campaign with Giorgio Armani, so everything was Armani and Giorgio Armani outfitted two of my tours, but I was invited to the villa and I never went. So I used the fact that it’s my first time in this villa and it felt amazing.

Did you date back in the ’90s, early 2000s?
I was working like crazy in the ’90s. I had girlfriends, I had boyfriends, I had dog friends, I had cat friends. But my career never sabotaged my intimate life.

It didn’t?
It didn’t, it didn’t. Now, I think I could have lived more intensely and I could have had more experiences that the closet kept me from.

Did you have a partner?
No. I had my girlfriend, who was a woman that I dated on and off for nine years, and she’s like the Gala for Dalí. Dalí had Gala. And I had this woman who was amazing. Unfortunately, we don’t talk anymore, but she was amazing, and she was powerful and she knew about me. She knew I was gay, but we were together.

She knew?
Yeah, she knew. She knew and we were together. It was one of those things, but we broke up around ’97, ’98, and then I just worked. I worked so hard. I dated, but nothing as serious, as formal as Antonio and Gianni.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Ricky Martin on ACS: Versace, Coming Out, and ‘Normalizing’ Open Relationships