There is an attention to detail in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story that’s both powerful and unsettling.
The series, based on the work of Vanity Fair journalist Maureen Orth, was brought to television by the careful hand of producer Ryan Murphy who has painstakingly made it walk, sometimes literally, in Versace’s steps.
Notably, the series filmed on the steps of the former Versace mansion, Casa Casuarina, where the famed fashion designer was gunned down on July 15, 1997, aged just 50 and at the height of his creative and commercial success. He was declared dead a few hours later at nearby Jackson Memorial Hospital.
“That made the whole process so moving for everyone, even for me as I was [playing] unconscious but I was listening to everything and the idea that he might have listened to the sobbing, crying, all the pain and all the craziness going around him,” says actor Edgar Ramirez, who plays Versace in the series. “That idea haunted me for weeks.”
“I was only playing dead but I was playing someone who was dying, so who knows if he was aware, if he was listening and he couldn’t say good-bye, he couldn’t explain what happened,” Ramirez says. “The fear, the terror of being paralysed. It was very moving for everyone.”
The series, written by Tom Rob Smith and directed by Murphy, Tom Minahan, Matt Bomer and others, stars singer Ricky Martin as Versace’s partner Antonio D’Amico, Penelope Cruz as his sister Donatella and Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan, the 27-year-old who assassinated the designer on the steps of his Miami home.
Understanding the Versace empire, Ramirez says, requires exploring the designer’s early life in the south of Italy, surrounded by Roman ruins.
“He interpreted the world through the Roman Empire, and when we think of that we think of statues in white and beige marble but that’s the ruins of the Roman Empire,” Ramirez says. “What we discovered was how he was actually very lush and vibrant and the blues were blues and the reds were reds, it was very explosive in colour.”
Notably, Ramirez says Versace built a world in which he was emperor. “He was like an emperor, he was the centre of the universe,” Ramirez says. “And he knew very well that once this sun disappeared, the whole universe would collapse. And that was one of the main tragedies that his family had to go through.”
What lingers in popular culture is a memory of the lavishness of the world, Ramirez says. “Many people think about the House of Versace and think about the mystique and what he created, we think about the parties and the wonder, the luxury and the lush exuberance, all the parties and the excess and the richness.”
And yet, Ramirez says, the man himself was very ordinary. “He would rather go to bed early and wake up early, as any other craftsman would do, that was an interesting contradiction,” Ramirez says. “He was fascinated by beauty and luxury but as a source of inspiration, he would have all these parties but not really take part in them.”
Martin says his conversations with the real D’Amico revealed a similar aspect to Versace: that the real man, in contrast to the fashion czar the world knew, was quite an ordinary man.
“[Tony] was extremely open and he was very beautiful in saying like, Gianni was extremely powerful and he was very organised with everything that happened toward the empire but at the end of the day when he would take a shower, he would take off his clothes and leave a mess,” Martin says.
The couple’s open relationship, while a complex topic for some, sat comfortably with Martin when he accepted the role.
“With what we show I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong and a relationship being open and that’s just the way it is,” Martin says. “It was something that we needed to explore because this is a reality of [same-sex] couples nowadays and there’s nothing wrong with the openness.
"Whatever level of trust that they have between each other, they could play with fire like this,” Martin says.
The role also sits in a fascinating context when reflected against Martin’s own professional life as a high-profile recording artist, much of which was spent denying his homosexuality publicly.
“The scene where he actually brings me in, when he’s going to come out, and says, this is the man that I’ve been with … it’s something I can feel both sides because we meet in the 90s, [when] I was hiding my voice,” Martin says. “And I was very egotistical and self-centred.
"I needed to keep it quiet because, in my head, the stupid fear, which is an illusion of if I come out everything is going to collapse, that’s where I was. So when I did this scene, I could see Gianni’s side and Antonio’s side, and me playing both, because I’ve been in both situations.
"It was very, very beautiful to be able to talk about this and to normalise my family. Which is one of the reasons why I jumped into this [role] because there is a lot of injustice in this story, from homophobia to the fact that he was not allowed to come out because everything was going to collapse in the eyes of everyone around him.
"When I came out a lot of people around me, people I love, told me, this is the end of your life if you come out, so I beg you please don’t do it,” Martin says. “I did it because I had to and I had the need and it was fantastic, why didn’t I do it earlier? It’s one of those things.”
For Ramirez, encapsulating the character of Versace was not so easy. And simply imitating the designer, the actor says, was never an option.
“I’ve portrayed real-life characters before and in some ways it is a recreation of what their life would have been,” he says. “It’s never a photograph it’s always a painting. So what you try to capture is the essence of these characters and try to bring to them as much empathy as possible. It’s not about imitation, you can’t really imitate life.”
Impersonation, he says, is not a form of art. “Art needs to be created and free and new, it is a creation, it needs to have dimension,” Ramirez says.
“Impersonation does not have dimension. It’s flat. I cannot, for example, walk onto a balcony standing like a boxer if I’m playing a fashion designer like Gianni Versace. You have to respect certain traits that are inherent to that character but you have to make it your own.”
Tag: interview
How Ricky Martin found catharsis on ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]
Ricky Martin believes the “stars were aligned” for him to play Antonio D’Amico, Gianni Versace’s longtime partner, on “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.” Unbeknownst to creator Ryan Murphy, the singer/actor is good friends with co-stars Edgar Ramirez and Penelope Cruz, and Ramirez had already told Martin that he had been cast as the late fashion designer before Murphy, with whom Martin worked on “Glee,” came calling to have dinner.
“I went there and he said, ‘I have a project I want you to be part of.’ And the thing was Edgar had told me he was going to be playing Gianni,” Martin tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview (watch the exclusive video above). “I was like, ‘That’s fantastic! Whatever you need from me. Whatever you need, let me know.’ Two weeks later, Ryan calls me and he tells me he has a part for me to be Antonio. Of course, I was screaming inside, [but] I didn’t want to show it. I said, ‘Who’s playing Donatella?’ ‘Penelope Cruz. No one knows.’ I’ve known Penelope for many years.
“The fact that I was going to be surrounded by an amazing, amazing group of actors and friends made it even more special,” he continues. “When I told him, ‘I love Edgar, I love Penelope,’ Ryan teared up. It just felt right that the stars were aligned for this to happen.”
But more meaningful than working with his close pals was the message behind the limited series. While the title is ostensibly about Versace’s 1997 murder at the hands of Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), the show was, among other things, an exploration and indictment of failings of the FBI investigation and how homophobia allowed Cunanan to go on a killing spree in plain sight.
“I think the story is full of injustice, homophobia,” Martin says. “I do this for my kids, for my family, and to create awareness, to create consciousness. At the end of the day, this is a story that could happen again. The fact that we’re being so loud and direct to the audience, and raw and real about this unfortunate crime is something very important.”
For Martin, “Versace” was also deeply personal. Having been closeted during the height of his music career before coming out in 2010, Martin says playing Antonio was cathartic and “extremely emotional.” One vital scene is when Versace brings Antonio with him for his interview with “The Advocate,” in which he came out at a time when bold-faced names weren’t.
“As an actor, I was now on the other side of the fence of most partners I had been dating when I was in the closet,” Martin says. “For Edgar to see this what this scene meant to me was extremely powerful. I lived in the closet for many years and I created a sabotage to love, from the people I was dating at the time and for self-love and dignity. It was extremely powerful.”
Martin hopes the series helps normalize open LGBT relationships and for “more people with the power that Gianni had” to come out to aid in that. “When I came out, the love from the audience and social media was amazing, but when I was doing the scene, I was like, ‘Oh, I wish I could come out again!’” he says with a laugh. “Because it is extremely important and that is one of the reasons why I said yes to this story.”
Ricky Martin Interview: How he found catharsis on ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’
Ricky Martin Interview with Gold Derby editor Joyce Eng: How he found catharsis on ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace.’ Unbeknownst to creator Ryan Murphy, the singer/actor is good friends with co-stars Edgar Ramirez and Penelope Cruz, and Ramirez had already told Martin that he had been cast as the late fashion designer before Murphy, with whom Martin worked on “Glee,” came calling to have dinner. | 10 May 2018
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
UNDER THE COVER WITH AMERICAN CRIME STORY
A behind the scenes chat with the cast of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story during their emmy Magazine cover shoot with photographer, Robert Ascroft. | 15 May 2018
American Tragedy
It’s not quite five o’clock, but Darren Criss is sipping his first glass of champagne moments after arriving in a small basement lounge in Park City, Utah.
The Sundance Film Festival is in full swing, accounting for much of the activity in the cramped space, but Criss isn’t here for that. The star of FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace just wrapped a set nearby at the ASCAP Music Café, where he performed angsty songs from his sophomore solo release, Homework.
Though plenty of Hollywood types are in town for the indie film festival, Criss says he recognized no one in the crowd at his gig, save for his fiancée, Mia Swier, who has also been joining him on the ski slopes during the day. It’s a bit of a celebratory trip, given that the pair recently got engaged and Criss just finished shooting the final episode in season two of the American Crime Story anthology series, in which he plays megalomaniacal spree killer Andrew Cunanan.
Belting out tunes for a roomful of strangers can be just as gratifying as heading an ensemble cast for his former Glee boss Ryan Murphy on Versace, where he played (briefly) opposite titular victim Edgar Ramírez and on a parallel but separate track from costars Penélope Cruz (as Donatella Versace) and Ricky Martin (as Gianni’s lover Antonio D’Amico).
The nine-episode storyline moves in reverse chronological order: Criss operates in his own thread, which traces the roots of the Talented Mr. Ripley-esque maniac, once dubbed “most likely to be remembered” by his graduating class at a posh San Diego high school.
“One of the great goals in my career is to keep things as versatile as possible and to confuse and to throw people off,” he says. “So, I like it when you have a room full of Sundance people, you know, music folks, music supervisors, filmmakers that are like, ‘Wait, what? He’s a songwriter?’ That really excites me. The same way that, when I was mostly playing music and booked an acting gig, people would be like, ‘What? You’re an actor?’”
Unlike his famous costars, who have toplined studio movies (Ramírez), won an Oscar (Cruz) and enjoyed huge musical success (Martin), Criss has been waiting for his breakout.
‘The Assassination Of Gianni Versace’s Darren Criss Searches For Humanity In Killer Andrew Cunanan
Perhaps surprisingly, preparing for the role of notorious real-life Gianni Versace killer Andrew Cunanan in FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story wasn’t such a terrifying leap for Darren Criss, despite his upbeat musical theater background. Formerly best known for his work on Ryan Murphy’s Glee, Criss embraced this new, dark role, which not only brought him back into the Murphy fold, but gave him the chance to showcase his impressive acting chops.
“Are you kidding me? This is the role of a lifetime,” Criss says of the challenge. “People wait their entire careers for something this juicy to come along. I’m thrilled to be here.”
Criss’s talents are undeniably far-reaching; he sings, dances, composes, writes scripts and plays piano, guitar, harmonica, mandolin and violin. He’s also passionate about literature, and, it seems, something of a poetic romantic, as he recalls Anne Bancroft talking about the sound of her husband Mel Brooks coming home. “I want to get this right,” he says, visibly concentrating. “Bancroft said, ‘I get excited when I hear his key in the door because I think, Oh, now the party’s going to start.’ Can you imagine feeling that way about someone? I even put it in a song I wrote.”
Cunanan was incredibly astute, clever and crafty. A fabulist, he reportedly stayed awake for days, teaching himself about opera and fashion, and building entirely new backstories for himself. He’d tailor himself to what he believed people wanted to hear, and craft wildly intricate lies to order; a methodology which, to some extent, won him popularity. Friends who grew up with Cunanan and attended the Bishop’s School in a tony part of La Jolla reportedly said that he was a likeable character, voted ‘least likely to be forgotten’ by his senior class.
But while Cunanan was obviously an out-of-control sycophant, Criss managed to find a way to relate to him, however distantly. “I’m totally a people pleaser,” he says. “I’m not really sure why. It could be that I’m a baby brother, or perhaps it could be my Catholic upbringing, but I want to make people happy.”
Perhaps this desire partly motivated Criss’s attraction to musical theater. He studied theater, musicology and Italian at the University of Michigan, and even now will occasionally spontaneously break out into song.
Embodying a bon vivant escort-turned homicidal maniac was not as traumatic as it might seem, Criss says. It was really more about finding those aspects of Cunanan’s character that made him more human. “I didn’t feel like I had to go to this extreme dark place to find Andrew, quite the opposite really. It was important to make him empathetic, someone we could all identify with, [because] otherwise it would’ve been a complete disaster.”
Indeed, it is the humanness he brings to the role that makes it such a success. “I am in no way excusing anything that Andrew Cunanan did,” he adds. “His behavior was absolutely repulsive. But if I was going to pull this off, I had to find a way to make him sympathetic or his character wouldn’t have been interesting at all. We all loved O.J. [Simpson] at one point, didn’t we? Even the worst people have their good moments.”
It’s been posited that Cunanan may have had antisocial personality disorder, meaning he had no real control over a total and complete lack of empathy. “He had a lot of pain in his life,” Criss says. “Yes, he was horrible in many ways, but that’s sad.”
After exploring this tragic story, Criss has found some solace in his beloved music once again with a new side venture. He and his fiance Mia Swier recently opened their own club in the heart of Hollywood, a piano bar called Tramp Stamp Granny’s. It’s a place where friends can gather to drink and sing around the piano, in line with the music festival he also co-founded, Elsie Fest, where Broadway and pop stars meet to sing show tunes.
“I wasn’t your typical theater geek but I love everything that comes with that,” he explains. “I like to think that I’m friends with a wider swath of people, and get along with everyone. But yeah, I was known to belt out songs at cast parties and such.”
Criss’s new business was partly motivated by his love of old-style seedy dive bars. His favorite bar in the world is the Claremont Lounge in the basement of an abandoned hotel in the Poncey-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta. As the city’s oldest and longest running strip club, he loves the place for its diversity. “It’s the only place in the world you’ll see a group of frat boys sitting next to your typical hipsters. And then down from them at the other end of the bar will be a group of drunk businessman drinking whatever they can. Every celebrity working in Atlanta has to stop there.”
During Tramp Stamp Granny’s opening week, Criss was seen taking his place behind the piano almost every night. His energy seems boundless, as he never appears to stop moving and working. “Why would I?” he asks. “I don’t have the luxury that some people have, that people are just offering me roles. And actors are only as good as the parts they get, so I can’t wait around. I can create whatever I want whenever. Whether it’s music, or a new show, or a new drink, that’s what I am going to continue to do for as long as I can, and for as often as I can.”
‘The Assassination Of Gianni Versace’s Darren Criss Searches For Humanity In Killer Andrew Cunanan
Q&A with Lea Michele
EN: Absolutely. So many tears shed watching the show. I miss it so much! But, speaking of Glee, one of your costars, a gentleman named Darren Criss and you are going on a little tour this summer. Can you tell us what we can expect from the show?
Lea Michele: We’re so excited. So Darren and I obviously met during Glee, but we really found a great friendship. Out of everyone on the show, I would say that Darren and I are definitely the closest. We spent a lot of our time outside of the show together. Our families are close. And we not only sang on Glee together, but we would always get asked to perform benefits together and do little shows here and there. It only felt right that eventually, we would put together a show for the two of us. I went on tour last year and it was incredible, but you know, it’s difficult being on the road and being by yourself. So, I wanted to find an opportunity to tour with someone and when I found out that our schedules would work out, we were so excited. We are currently putting together an amazing set list.
It’s definitely going to be an awesome show – when we sing a song together, it’s so nostalgic. We’re going to do a ton of songs from Glee, songs from our solo albums, a bunch of Broadway songs. We want people to feel like they’re having a one-on-one, intimate time with the two of us. Darren is incredibly spontaneous. So I know that every show is going to be different and unique. Definitely, go if you love the show or our solo music, but there’s something in there for everyone. Nashville is our first stop, and we already said that no matter what, we’re going out while we’re there. I don’t want to pick favorites, but we’re very, very, very excited to get to Nashville.
EN: Ok. So, I am currently ‘marathoning’ The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Are are you a little creeped out with Darren after his performance in the show? Because it was terrifying.
Lea Michele: So, it’s really funny. When we first finished Glee, I went off to New Orleans to do Scream Queens he ended up watching me play a psycho killer on that show. Then, Ryan Murphy had him play Andrew Cunanan. So, we both left Glee to play psycho killers, which is hilarious. But Darren was so incredible and you know, what people may not know is that Darren really wanted to play this part – he approached Ryan (Murphy) about playing it. So not only did he do such an incredible job of playing the role, but he also helped them make this project really happen. I don’t know many other people that could’ve played that character. He was truly incredible. And, if you know Darren, you know he’s nothing like that. He’s a hippie, laid back. I’m so proud of him. And, if everyone wants to know, yes his body does really look like that. There’s no body double.
EN: Um. Definitely no complaints re: those scenes.
Lea Michele: He posted this picture, which I’m sure you have seen, of him in the little like, you know, um, I think it was like orange bikini bottoms he posted on Instagram? But before he posted it, he sent me the photo and he was, “hey, do you think this is like, bad for me to post?” I was like, “why are you sending this to me, I don’t want to see that!” I’m sure that there’s a 100 people, a million people that want to see it. But, I was like; “this is really weird for me to say because you’re my brother. But you definitely need to post that.” He posted it in the world went crazy.
EN: Yeah. The world appreciates your advice in this matter.
Lea Michele: Yeah, I mean that’s the thing about Darren and I. I think in order to do tours together, you have to be friends, and you have to have stories and experiences. You know, Darren and I have spent holidays together with our families. We’ve done New Year’s Eve together. So, those are the things, those are the moments, those are the stories that we want to share and what we want to talk to our fans about. And so I think that these little glimpses into who we are and who we are as friends. It is definitely going to be very unique and very personal.
EN: Dream Duet partner?
Lea Michele: I love singing with Jonathan Groff. And, you know, I love Darren too. And Adele.
Hilliard Guess interviews Tom Rob Smith about his FX limited series The Assassination of Gianni Versace. | 10 May 2018
the renaissance of ricky martin
He seems barely changed from his Living La Vida Loca days, but almost two decades on, the entertainer is married with kids, in proud possession of his wrinkles and back with the acting role of his career. Words by Nicole Mowbray…
Being granted an audience with Ricky Martin is no mean feat. There are hoops to jump through, calls to be made and many emails to be sent to his gatekeepers in Los Angeles. Usually, none of this bodes well, but when I do get to speak to the 46-year-old Latin superstar – very late at night – the Living La Vida Loca star couldn’t be more charming. Calm, funny and with a thick Spanish accent (he was born on the Spanish-speaking Caribbean island of Puerto Rico) Martin is about to again be propelled into the nation’s consciousness but this time as an actor, with a starring role in the hit American Crime Stories docu-drama The Assassination of Gianni Versace, airing on BBC2 alongside Edgar Ramirez and Penelope Cruz.
Martin plays Antonio D’Amico, an Italian model and the long-term partner of fashion designer Gianni Versace who was gunned down on the steps of his Miami mansion on the 15th July 1997 by wanted serial killer Andrew Cunanan. What attracted him to the role?
‘I lived in Miami in 1997 when Gianni was killed,’ Martin tells me, ‘I had actually been invited to Versace’s house and events there many times but I had a campaign with Giorgio Armani so I didn’t ever go. Gianni’s death really affected me. There was a lot of fear, knowing that there was a man on the run who was on the FBI’s most wanted list. Cunanan was in Miami – a very small city – he was not even hiding and still he was not caught, and that’s what’s so frustrating. There was a feeling that, because this was a gay man killing another gay man, you know, just turn the other way. We wanted to bring light and justice the story – Cunanan didn’t just kill Gianni Versace, there were at least four other victims.’
The show is based on the controversial book Vulgar Favours by journalist Maureen Orth, whose version of events leading up to Versace’s death have been vehemently disputed by members of the Versace family. Indeed, since airing, various people close to the deceased designer have spoken out, calling the show ‘a work of fiction’ and saying the family ‘never authorised nor had any involvement whatsoever’ with it. Was Martin daunted to be playing a real-life character in such a traumatic situation?
‘This was an amazing opportunity for me as an actor… but of course I felt pressure, I think everyone did,’ says Martin. ‘However, I was able to talk to Antonio D’Amico a couple of times to prepare. He was very generous, very kind, he shared with me some specifics about his relationship with Gianni and it was very beautiful to be able to talk to him. It took my performance to another level. I told Antonio that we were not doing a photo of events, we were doing a painting and by that I meant we can add colours and get rid of colours, but it is a big responsibility. When I first saw Penelope [Cruz] as Donatella it was very powerful. Her transformation has been one of the talking points of the show – her voice, her accent. It was very impressive. Donatella sent Penelope an arrangement of flowers because of the amazing job she’d done with the character.’
Despite gruelling daily starts of 5 or 6am for almost eight months, Martin says the cast hung out with each other every Sunday at a barbecue at his house. He looks in great shape in the show, and seems to have barely aged since 1999’s La Vida Loca days. How does he do it? ‘On the road, you’ve got to treat the body like you’re an athlete. I walk on stage every night for an hour and 45 minutes, sometimes 2 hours, and it’s full on cardiovascular performance, so I have to sleep and I have to eat well. We all get judged by our looks in Hollywood – women and men, and now with social media even more so – one bad picture and everyone is commenting; “you look tired”, “you look old”… You’ve just got to go with the flow and enjoy it. I am 46 years old, I don’t want to look 35. I don’t use Botox, I like my wrinkles. I think age is a beautiful thing and I feel strong.’
One element of the Gianni Versace story which strikes a chord with Martin, he says, is the politics around being gay in the late 1990s. Having found fame at the age of 12 in Latin boyband Menudo, Martin spent years dodging questions about his sexuality before coming out in 2010, in a letter posted on Twitter. Now married to Swedish artist Jwan Yosef, with twin 9-year-old sons Matteo and Valentino born by surrogate, Martin says he is ‘so happy’ but admits there are parallels between his and Versace’s struggle to be their true selves in the public eye.
‘Coming out for me was very difficult,’ Martin explains. ‘Just like Gianni, I had people around me – people that I love – saying “are you crazy? If you come out, it will be the end of your career.” I had to deal with that for many years until I couldn’t take it no more and I sat down and I wrote a letter and I posted it on Twitter.’
‘To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids where (sic) born with,’ he wrote, declaring himself a ‘fortunate homosexual man’. Was he afraid, posting that letter?
‘Yes, I was afraid, but the amount of love that I received after I sent that letter came from every direction. I had my haters, but I learnt that you gotta love yourself and what people think of you is none of your business. It took me a minute to get there, but I did it and if I only knew how easy and how amazing it was going to be, trust me, I would have come out much earlier. But I was afraid – the same thing that Gianni Versace went through, and I am sure there are a lot of very powerful men and women out there still struggling with their sexual identity and not knowing how to come out. They are victims of internalised homophobia, and I was a victim of internalised homophobia as well. Gianni Versace wanted to come out and even though he was an icon and owned a fashion empire, he couldn’t – or he was afraid to… That says a lot about where we were in the 90s. We lived in an era of “don’t ask don’t tell” and if Versace was afraid of coming out, imagine the fears of other people in the world? But at the end of the day he did and [by doing so] he stopped Antonio living in the shadows, as he had been for many years.’
While he admits things have changed in the last 20 or 30 years, Martin says there is still a lot to be done in terms of finding LGBT equality, but he’s up for the fight. A vocal ‘human rights defender’ and a UNICEF ambassador, he is supportive of the #MeToo campaign (‘how can you not be part of this movement which at the end of the day is protecting women?’) and has his own eponymous charitable foundation which he set up after witnessing child sexual exploitation over a decade ago in Calcutta.
‘More than 10 years ago I travelled to India because a friend of mine in the music business was building an orphanage. When I landed, we went straight to the slums to start rescuing girls who could be forced into prostitution. These girls were five years old, or eight years old… I was shocked. When I got home I realised I could not stay quiet, if I stayed quiet I was allowing it to happen, so I created the Ricky Martin Foundation and for more than a decade we have been rescuing sexual slaves and rehabilitating them. Right now, we have a holisitic centre with 136 children at risk of human trafficking and we educate them and give them options.’
Martin’s foundation has also done a lot of work in his homeland which was devastated by hurricane Maria at the end of September 2017. ‘It is very frustrating that still, today, four months after the hurricane, almost a million people have no power and no running water. It’s something I get enraged and frustrated about. But we do our part and talk to incredible and very generous colleagues of mine – the Leonardo Di Caprio foundation donated,Jennifer Aniston gave a million dollars… we are making an alliance with Habitat for Humanity to start building homes as soon as possible.’
So… Ricky Martin 2:0. An actor in the middle of a four-month musical residency in Las Vegas. Given the choice between acting and singing, which would he plump for? ‘Acting has always been incredibly important to me,’ he says. ‘I started acting when I was 15 years old with television series in Latin America. But I’m not embarrassed or ashamed to consider myself a pop star, on the contrary. I love performing and the immediate reaction of the audience – there’s something magical about a sold-out arena with 25-30 thousand people singing and dancing to your music. The audience is like a drug, it’s my favourite vice. I started performing at 12 and I love what I do and am still inspired to find cool rhythms and sounds to share with the audience, and I love being on the road. I don’t want to sound dramatic or cheesy but I want to die on stage and as long the audience is there I am going to keep giving them what they want.
Twentieth Century Fox’s Gina Brogi – WORLD SCREEN
Gina Brogi has been working for Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution for nearly two decades, first as director of finance for the television distribution division and currently as president of global distribution. The division has 11 offices around the world. There are thousands of television shows and movies in the company’s vast library. This includes a diverse range of product, from network series This Is Us and 9-1-1 and animated fare such as The Simpsons to the cable franchise American Crime Story and premium content such as Homeland, as well as feature films Logan, Hidden Figures and Alien: Covenant. Brogi talks to World Screen about the growing complexities and opportunities in the international distribution business.
WS: Of your more recent shows, which are resonating internationally?
BROGI: I would say that 9-1-1 is performing the best this season. It is probably our biggest, most broadly distributed and widely accepted new television series globally. It’s the procedural that everybody wants, and our clients are excited about it. It’s doing exceptionally well in the U.S.—the number one new drama of the season on FOX—and we are quite proud of it. We also have The Resident performing for us internationally as another highly anticipated procedural. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story is now launching in various territories, and it’s also doing well. It’s a thrilling, frightening and compelling show that is beautifully shot and very special.WS: Broadcast networks usually want procedurals, while serialized shows are best placed on SVOD or pay TV. Do you continue to see that?
BROGI: Generally, the longstanding rules tend to apply—procedurals do well on broadcast networks, and serialized shows tend to do better on SVOD or basic outlets where it’s possible to binge or just go back and catch up. But now, more and more free-to-air broadcasters have that capability. We’ve had great success with our shows on the BBC. They’ve licensed The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story and are really happy with it, and that is in part because the combination of their iPlayer and linear network allows them to maximize the show and what it has to offer.
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