The highly anticipated second season of American Crime Story is returning to Foxtel, centring around the murder of legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace. Actor Darren Criss spoke to Sky News about the show and his role as the fame-seeking Andrew Cunanan. | 19 May 2018
Murphy has several shows competing for this year’s awards, including some that will face off against each other for nominations — in particular, “American Horror Story: Cult” and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” in limited series. His new first-responders hit “9-1-1” is eligible in the drama categories, but broadcast procedurals generally don’t do as well at the awards show.
“I never try and manipulate anything like that,” he said. Murphy is particularly bullish on “Versace,” including “the actors in that, and the crafts people. I think it looked incredible and sounded incredible. At this point for me I just root for my people, I never know where the wind will blow.”
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The last time I spoke with Ricky Martin, he was a bit emotional. Mostly anxious.
His nerves were getting the best of him as his acting skills were about to be on full display. Martin was one of the stars of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, the tense TV anthology exploring the murder of the iconic designer that aired in the first quarter of 2018 on the FX network. The international pop star played the role of Antonio D’Amico, a model and designer and Versace’s longtime partner.
“It was very challenging, a very dramatic story and I had some really insanely deep scenes,” he said. “I get a little emotional just talking about it because the level of focus you need to do a good job as an actor portraying a man suffering the loss of his partner, it’s heavy.”
It was a big job, but he wouldn’t want it any other way. Martin is a born performer, a fact that’s obvious to anyone who’s seen his show All In at Park Theater at Park MGM. “I said yes to the role because we need to talk about this and shed some light on this story,” he said. “It feels great every time you finish a scene but it’s also very nerve-wracking. Once you do the shot, you can’t go back.”
Since Assassination aired to great reviews—86 percent on Rotten Tomatoes—Martin has returned to his electrifying residency on the Strip and continues to thrill audiences with English and Spanish hits. He also released the fiery new single, “Fiebre,” with reggaeton duo and fellow Puerto Ricans Wisin and Yandel and returned to Las Vegas yet again to open the Billboard Latin Music Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
NO: Are there any aspects of this softer, more empathetic culture that you do appreciate, particularly as a gay man?
BEE: Look we all would benefit from that, but I don’t believe that’s life. I don’t believe that’s in our DNA. I don’t believe utopia is in our DNA. I think we’re deeply flawed animals with a sort of sexual lawlessness, that we are violent, that we want to be on top, that we want to be in control of things. We obviously don’t want to be killing each other in the streets, but we’ve got to get realistic about who we really are and what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a man, what it means to be a gay man. This is a bit of a digression, but I was watching The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the Ryan Murphy show, and I was thinking oh God, what are they going to do with this? I know a lot about the case; I’d read all the books about the case. Andrew Cunanan had gone around saying that he had helped to write Less Than Zero. I never actually met him but he was obsessed with some of my work. Anyway, I was really impressed by the fact that it shone a light on truths about gay men that are really … well you would think they were not acceptable today: body fascism, objectification of other men, an obsession with youth, an obsession with beauty. I was very surprised that Ryan Murphy went there and portrayed it accurately.
[PRESS RELEASE]
The role of serial killer Andrew Cunanan in season two of the FX anthology series American Crime Story was more than a challenge for actor Darren Criss— in a sense, it was his destiny. In the latest issue of emmy magazine, the series’ creator Ryan Murphy describes how Criss and the rest of the hand-picked, all-star cast embodied the real-life characters in The Assassination of Gianni Versace.
The award-winning official publication of the Television Academy hits newsstands May 22.
In the emmy cover story “American Tragedy,” Murphy shares his fascination with Gianni Versace and how the murder of the renowned fashion designer became the focus of the highly anticipated second season of the popular anthology. Murphy took great care to ensure the project was as authentic as possible, from gathering all related law-enforcement files as source material to casting appropriate actors in each role.
In Murphy’s mind, Criss was destined to play Cunanan, who shared a similar Filipino-American heritage. “I didn’t want to whitewash that part,” says Murphy, aware of Hollywood’s tendency to cast Caucasian performers in Asian roles. “I had been obsessed with the Cunanan and Versace story for years and years and years. And I remember when I first cast Darren on Glee back in 2010, just filing it in the back of my head. Like, ‘Well, there’s your Cunanan.’”
Filling out the ensemble cast, Murphy secured his preferred actors for each role—Édgar Ramírez as Versace; Penélope Cruz as the designer’s sister, Donatella; and Ricky Martin as Versace’s lover, Antonio D’Amico.
Martin and Cruz reached out to D’Amico and Donatella Versace, respectively, to help them approach their roles. In Martin’s case, his conversations with D’Amico provided important social context and helped him better understand the LGBTQ experience in Versace’s era.
“Gianni struggled with coming out because people were like, ‘You’re going to destroy your career,’” Martin says. “So it was a flashback to my reality, my story.”
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Cruz really gets animated discussing another pet project of hers, the acclaimed FX limited series The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story in which she plays Donatella Versace. There is strong Emmy buzz for the performance, but when I ask about it she says she won’t think about it unless it actually happens. It is a transformative role and her first for television, but she says it was such a good experience she is open to trying it again, especially to work with producer Ryan Murphy. | 16 May 2018
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