Tag: interview
The role Darren Criss was born to play
While Darren Criss’ most famous character saw him favouring bow-ties, cardigans and being an unabashedly good guy, his latest role calls on him to repeatedly drive a claw hammer into one of his victims, blood spluttering all over the walls of a downtown warehouse conversion.
Andrew Cunanan is most famous for gunning down Gianni Versace as he stood outside his beachside Miami mansion in 1997. But before he drew his weapon at the designer’s head, Cunanan had wreaked havoc with four other killings.
Even though American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace — with an A-list cast that includes Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez and Ricky Martin — appears to be a drama about the famed design house, Cunanan’s story makes up something like 80 per cent of the time.
By structuring the series in reverse linearity and opening with the Versace murder before each subsequent episode takes a step backwards, to the other killings and back to Cunanan’s adolescence and childhood, it seeks to explain how someone as charismatic as him could end up where he did.
With the weight of almost the entire nine episodes on his shoulders, Criss gives a nuanced and powerful performance that’s been talked about in terms of how many statues he’ll nab come awards season.
Darren Criss talks about the emotional complexity needed to play the man who murdered Gianni Versace
Darren Criss’ role as a real-life mass murderer could not be further from the job that made him famous.
In The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story – the nine-part series about the murder of the fashion designer, which also stars Édgar Ramírezas Versace, Penélope Cruz as his sister, Donatella Versace, and Ricky Martin as Versace’s lover, Antonio D’Amico – the 31-year-old actor, singer and songwriter portrays Andrew Cunanan, the man who became famous for killing fashion designer Gianni Versace in July 1997 after murdering at least four other people. It’s a far cry from Blaine Anderson, the singing and dancing ‘Warbler’ character Criss played on Gleefor five years.
That said, The Assassination of Gianni Versace and Glee have more in common than just Criss as a star, and that’s how he got involved in the first place. Both series are executively produced by Ryan Murphy, who was also behind Nip/Tuck, The New Normal and the American Horror Story.
Darren Criss talks about the emotional complexity needed to play the man who murdered Gianni Versace
Versace: Glee actor in a killer role
Pick of the day: Versace: American Crime Story, 8.30pm, Showcase.
It’s not hard to guess why, but Versace: American Crime Story arguably is mistitled to the degree it focuses not on Italian designer Gianni Versace but on the man who gunned him down at his Miami Beach mansion in 1997, Andrew Cunanan.
But by the end of this nine-episode series, Darren Criss’s depiction of the twisted fantasist and killer — his performance is being spoken of as an award contender — will sear into the memory.
Criss — best known for his role in Glee, created by Ryan Murphy, who also executive produces on Versace — tells The Australian his character begins the series mired in the lies he tells about himself.
“Cunanan exists in a larger-than-life headspace,” he says. “He is a classic narcissist in that he is somebody who can say something and ipso facto believe it is true.” Making him relatable, rather than alienating or appalling, was Criss’s focus.
“I latch on to the common denominators we can all relate to, and Cunanan’s flamboyant dishonesty comes from a sadly endearing place of wanting to impress people,” he says. “It’s less about lying; he’s a storyteller, this is how he survives.”
A key scene occurs in the first episode where Cunanan tells Versace (Edgar Ramirez) his largely fabricated life story.
“Edgar and I barely have any scenes together, but that is a key one in setting up the parallel between destroyer and creator, two very different but brilliant minds,” Criss says.
He says it was a “twisted providence” that Cunanan committed terrible crimes, which nonetheless has given the actor a career-defining role in a series he clearly is proud of.
“I’d like to think that if I’d done Cunanan first, I would have gone on to do something like Glee — I like taking as many twists in my career as possible,” he says. “We are all a million different people; I don’t want audiences to feel like they 100 per cent understand what my deal is.”
EXCLUSIVE: Darren Criss opens up about his killer new role!
He won our hearts as Glee’s Blaine Anderson, and now Darren Criss has returned to the small screen, joining Penelope Cruz, as Gianni Versace’s killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.
And the role officially has us scared out of our skin.
“He is terrifying,” the 31-year-old, who recently got engaged to his producer partner Mia Swier tells OK!.
“But he’s a complex character. It’s a killer role – in every sense.”
Here, we chat to the TV star about all things Versace!
How did you land the job?
Well, it kind of came to me on a plate.
[Director and screenwriter] Ryan Murphy and I talked about doing this four years ago [the pair first worked together on Glee] and because I share a close likeness to Andrew Cunanan – plus we’re both half Filipino and we were both around the same age – we’d talked about me playing the part. I said, “When you’re ready to go, I’m in.”
I’m forever indebted to Ryan for having faith in me to do this role.
Was it intimidating to take on a character who’s a real person?
Yes, kind of.I was really keen not to do an Andrew Cunanan imitation act, even though nobody really knows much about him.
The other actors like Penélope Cruz and Edgar [Ramirez, who plays Gianni] had to tread that line more carefully than I did because their characters are so well known.
What was it like working with Ricky Martin?
He’s awesome. He’s such a great actor, too, and I think that’s because as a performer, he knows how to connect. He has a fast lane to the human heart.
Did you meet him on the set of Glee?
No, but I knew he was a great actor and he did not surprise me on Versace either – he did such a wonderful job.
And what about Penélope?
We never got to do any scenes together, but it was incredible to be around her and watch her work. It was a real compliment she chose a Ryan Murphy show to be her first TV work – and I’m pinching myself that I got to share it with her. To be around people you truly admire and find they live beyond your expectations, it’s the dream.
For more about The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, pick up a copy of OK! Magazine, on sale now!
via Sthanlee Mirador’s Instagram Story | 22 May 2018
Darren Criss Talks ‘American Crime Story’: ‘I Was Really Lucky to Be a Part of It’ (Video)
During his conversation with Billboard’s Keith Caulfield at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday (May 20), Darren Criss discussed his role in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.
Criss, who portrayed serial killer Andrew Cunanan in the FX series, is asked how it feels to have so much positive buzz surrounding his performance.
“I’m just thrilled that people watched it,” he replies. “That somebody watched something you did is big enough. There’s so much content out there, whether you’re listening to music or to watching things on TV or film. There’s just so much that my main point of flattery is like wow, you actually took time to watch me do anything.”
“So in that sense,” he continues, “you already feel like you’ve won a victory of sorts…It’s a really good show and I was really lucky to be a part of it. So if there’s any buzz or recognition then I feel like it’s due to a lot greater minds than my own.”
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