Unlike his other hits, Ryan Murphy’s macabre and sometimes downright scary The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story has little to no hilarious moments — that is, until Episode 6, when one of Norman Blachford’s friends Gallo shows up to tear Norman’s live-in con artist friend Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) to shreds. “Only the queen of England has two parties,” Gallo quips to Andrew, who’s convinced his benefactor to fund two soirees.“I’m afraid you’re not that sort of queen.” But the zinger of all zingers comes when Gallo shoots the unforgettable searing dagger, “What a volatile mix you are — too lazy to work and too proud to be kept.” Gallo, as the kids say, read that bitch for filth.
Gallo’s lines are expert examples of the gay tradition of “reading” and “throwing shade,” but the wig-singeing sass with which the barbs are delivered is hardly accidental: the man tearing Andrew a new one is Terry Sweeney — a pioneering writer/performer who was the first openly gay cast member of Saturday Night Live.
Sweeney’s casting in Versace has several layers of resonance — mostly because Sweeney is a living embodiment of the series’ main thesis about societal homophobia. Despite becoming memorable for his impersonations of celebrities including Nancy Reagan, Joan Rivers and Diana Ross during his run from 1980-1986, Sweeney spent 10 years after SNL out of work, as Hollywood balked at hiring an out gay actor. But that’s only partly why Sweeney’s scene-stealing role in Versace feels like a full circle moment. In his early SNL days, a young gay reporter reached out to interview him for a story. That reporter’s name? Ryan Murphy.
“I was one of the first people he ever interviewed,” says Sweeney, who left Hollywood for Beaufort, S.C. in the mid-2000s. “I could tell he was a young kid and we had a great interview and he wrote a lovely article about me. Who would dream years later someone that works for him would find me and hire me for this part?”
Sweeney got the part after meeting a producer for Versace at a dinner party in Ojia, Calif., a small, New Age-y town about two hours northwest of Los Angeles. “He was looking at me during dinner and said, ‘You’re the person we’ve been looking for, you’re Gallo.’” Not mentioned in the source material for the show Vulgar Favors, Gallo seems to be a composite of Norman Blachford’s older, wealthy friends who were trying to warn Norman about Andrew. It’s Sweeney’s first dramatic role. “I can now officially call myself a drama queen,” he quips. Director Gwyneth Horder-Patyon patiently guided him through relaxing into his body, “doing less” for the camera and reminding him of Gallo’s purpose. “She wanted me to be a tough, scary old queen” he says. “Gay people, drag queens — we have this ferocity we can call upon that is fearless and it’s intense. That’s what I was calling upon in that character, our strength.”
In the years after Saturday Night Live, Sweeney called on that strength as well as self-reliance to keep afloat. He wrote for movies (Shag), sketch comedy (MadTV) and got parts here and there; Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David hired him to tussle over a tennis racket with Elaine on Seinfeld, and he got roles on Family Matters and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But for a gifted comic actor with several seasons of SNL under his belt, the offers were nowhere near what they should have been, a fact Sweeney recounts somewhat ruefully but with a sugary aplomb rather than the bitterness that could’ve easily consumed him. “At that time [gay people] were so invisible. People said ‘Wow, you’re so brave I would never want to destroy my career like that.’ Or ‘Why couldn’t you say you just haven’t met the right girl yet? Well, the right girl would have to have a penis. People would call you in to audition and the agent would go ‘They went another way. And you’re like, ‘Hmm what could that mean?’”
As Versace depicts, Sweeney’s early adult years coincided with rampant anti-gay discrimination that not only affected his career prospects but also seeped into everyday life. His time on SNL ran parallel with the onslaught of AIDS — the day he signed his contract, newsstands blared the news that Rock Hudson had contracted the disease — and he, like many other creatives in New York, lost friends in droves. The irony of impersonating Nancy Reagan, who, along with her husband Ronald famously refused to acknowledge AIDS, wasn’t lost on him. “They were acting like nothing was happening. I thought really? I’ve been to 10 memorials for people who are in their 20s. So something is happening. I hate to ruin your dinner on your new china.”
The death toll ebbed in the 1990s but the institutionalized homophobia lingered; Sweeney recalls a confrontation with a police officer in Beverly Hills who’d hurled a slur in his direction around 1994. “I couldn’t stand it anymore. I said, ‘Hey! I’m a faggot. I live in Beverly Hills, and this faggot pays your salary and doesn’t want to hear you talking about him like this in a public place!” Even so-called liberal spaces weren’t an entirely safe haven: Sweeney turned down an appearance on a “coming out”-themed episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show because a producer told him he couldn’t talk about drag on TV. “[The producer] says, ‘We’re trying to put a positive image out about gay people, that you’re not freaks; you’re just like everyone else.’”
Now married (he and longtime writing partner Lanier Laney have been together 36 years) and the author of a comic memoir Irritable Bowels and the People Who Give You Them, Sweeney is keenly aware of how humor can be a weapon against bigotry. But he’s grateful for the activists too, for being unafraid to get confrontational when it’s called for. “It’s time for all kinds of people to reassert themselves. Whether it’s kids protesting guns, African-Americans…all kinds of groups are coming out together.” Versace, he says, does a good job of showing just a small piece of what gay people were up against only 20 years ago; it is, as Ryan Murphy told TV Guide, a work of activism in its own rite. Of course, Sweeney and Murphy were thrilled to reunite so many decades later, the resonance of the occasion not lost on either of them.
“We just love each other,” Sweeney says. “He was a joy to work with. He loved what I did and he was quoting my lines. I have so much respect for what he does.” Recognizing the shift that’s taken place in society and Hollywood, he’s back in Los Angeles, ready to share his talents one more time. “I want to do worthwhile work,” he says. “I think now there’s more opportunity than ever.”
Tag: interview
‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’: Cody Fern talks playing David Madson
It’s quite possible you had never seen Cody Fern before. The young Australian actor has only a few credits to his name. But Fern is unforgettable on FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story as Andrew Cunanan’s second victim and good friend, David Madson. Viewers saw David’s murder in episode 4, but due to Versace’s backward structure are now able to see the beginnings of the relationship.
EW talked to Fern, who was recently cast on the final season of House of Cards, about landing this major break and acting in this true-crime saga.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you get this Versace role?
CODY FERN: I was actually in London at the time because I was working on a feature film that I was writing and directing. So I was in London because I went to work on the script with my writing partner. I was in a little bit of a rut in terms of where I was as an actor. I was always up for big roles, and it was always between me and one other. I was really selective about the work I wanted to do. I was frustrated because I wasn’t getting the gig. It always came down to star name, this that and the other. So I actually decided I was going to take a year off from acting and just focus on writing and directing. I had jokingly said the only thing that was going to put this production on hold would be if Ryan Murphy, HBO, or David Fincher called. So it’s funny now.You grew up in Australia. Were you aware of the Versace murder?
Being from Australia is isolation from this story in once sense, but I also think it’s a generational divide. I knew there was Gianni Versace, but I didn’t even know Versace had been murdered. So I was new to the story as a whole. Before I started filming, I read Vulgar Favors. So I came to know everything as I was actually in the story, and that was phenomenal. I think it’s something the series does so brilliantly in the kind of switch-and-bait of we think we’re entering the world of one killing, but we’re actually entering into this story that hadn’t been told: There are four other victims that nobody knows about.Was there any thought to reaching out to David’s family?
I considered reaching out to the Madson family. First and foremost, we have Maureen Orth’s book. Second, you have Tom Rob Smith, who’s phenomenal as a writer. There was some discussion whether it or not it was appropriate for the actors to reach out to the families because it’s really dredging something up. I think everyone had a sense of wanting to protect the families from that kind of exposure. There are survivors of this tragedy and they are the family members, and it will be up to them as to whether or not they watch the series, so I think we wanted to keep it as their decision. I didn’t approach the Madson family out of respect. But when you have Tom Rob Smith’s writing and Maureen’s research, you’re in a good place.Tell me about episode 4, which was the most intense for your role. The entire hour is a building sense of dread, ending with David’s death. How was that shoot?
Emotionally, it was incredibly fraught. It was a huge upheaval. It was something I couldn’t separate being on set and taking the work home. It really affected me psychologically. It was so dark. At the same time, I felt so supported and so free to explore and to take risks and to really go there. So in one way it was the easiest thing I’ve ever done because Ryan works in a particular way where he selects every single person he’s working with. Being on set, it runs like a family so you feel very protected and very safe and nurtured. But then, of course, emotionally it’s one of the most taxing things because not only are you dealing with the literal things David is going through, but he’s also going through an incredible amount of shame that has built up since he had conscious thoughts. I think that was something that was also a layer we wanted to bring to the show, in dealing with homophobia and internalized gay shame. So that was the hardest thing to deal with.The murder of Jeff Trail and the hostage situation that ensues was its own particular beast, but I had Darren [Criss] to act opposite. He’s so unhinged and so brilliant. I never knew what he was going to do or what choice he was going to make. It was a wonderful experience, but it was also incredibly difficult.
The way the show is structured, you basically have to create your character backward. Like we meet David at the breaking point of his relationship with Andrew, and in tonight’s episode we see the beginning. That must have been a great challenge as an actor?
I actually preferred it in a strange way because what we see of David is somebody who’s at the end of his rope in his friendship with Andrew. Pretty soon on, Jeff is killed, so you have a character that is thrown into complete emotional disarray. So you get to explore the extremes of what David is feeling, the end of what he is as a human being. It was easier to find the crystal of who David was and what he was willing to fight for. Episode 4 really explores the arc of shame and his feelings of complicity in this murder, and he has been in the closet for so long and thought it was a sickness that brought this about. At the very core, David is fighting for what is right and what is good. Finally, fighting for his life in a way that says, “I’m not going to go down for this thing just because you say I am.” It meant that working backwards, I knew the very essence of who David was as a person. Then you get to form chemistry as actors, between Darren and myself. We became such good friends. We went through such extreme things together.It was just announced you’re joining House of Cards.
I’m over the moon. I’m thrilled. House of Cards I’ve watched since the first day. I was shaking the first day meeting Robin [Wright] because she’s such a powerful figure to me in the course of who I’ve become as an actor. It’s thrilling.Can you tease anything about your character?
There have been rumors about who my character was. I read an announcement saying I was the lover of Kevin Spacey’s character, which is completely inaccurate and false. That’s not the case. But I can also tell you I’m NOT a good guy.
‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’: Cody Fern talks playing David Madson
Versace: Andrew Cunanan’s Relationship with Norman Blachford
There was a brief time between 1994 and 1996 when Andrew Cunanan was living the gilded life of luxury he had long envisioned for himself. As a man of minimal work ethic, though, the route he took to richness was a shortcut—existing as the paid companion of Norman Blachford, a socialite who made his money in sound-abatement equipment. According to reports, Blachford was not Cunanan’s first sugar daddy. He had a darker distinction—being the last benefactor before Cunanan began the downward trajectory that would conclude with his multi-state murder spree.
As Vanity Fair contributor Maureen Orth reported in Vulgar Favors: the Assassination of Gianni Versace, on which the current season of American Crime Story is based, Cunanan met Blachford in 1994—shortly after Blachford, then 58, lost his partner of over 25 years to AIDS. “Norman was alone and very eligible,” wrote Orth. And Cunanan, well, “Andrew did his homework,” according to a San Diego restauranteur who spoke to Orth for a report that ran in Vanity Fair. “He would investigate older, wealthy gay men who didn’t have families, and he would place himself in those circles. And that was his living.”
“Andrew had his own rise,” explained American Crime Story writer Tom Rob Smith. “He found these various, wealthy older men to live with. He ended up in a multi-million-dollar condo in La Jolla—this beautiful paradise. He was given an allowance and traveling to the South of France. And he throws it all away—he can’t tolerate the notion that he is a kept man.”
Indeed, in Wednesday’s episode, “Descent,” a friend of Blachford’s astutely tells Cunanan, “What a volatile mix you are: too lazy to work and too proud to be kept.”
The irony of Cunanan’s commitment to being kept is that he worked hard to be considered “a jewel in the crown of La Jolla’s closeted society”—according to a source for The Washington Post. The same friend alleged that Cunanan could “hold a conversation on nearly anything—politics, antiques, wines, Elton John. If an older man was interested in orchids, Cunanan would go out and buy every book available on orchids and plants and soon he would be talking about the subject as if he had studied it all of his life.” He ensured that he was cultured—visiting the opera, museums, and society events—and he studied the interests of eligible men as though he was preparing for a test.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Smith made an important distinction about Cunanan’s motivations.
“I think it’s wrong to think of him as the ‘Talented Mr. Ripley,’ [the cutthroat, scheming character Patricia Highsmith created],” Smith said. “Mr. Ripley is someone who is always hustling and is aware that he’s angling things… . I think Andrew thought he was a husband or a partner in his own right. I don’t think he understood that he was a hustler, otherwise he would’ve been happy with his lot.”
“Descent” provides a snapshot of Cunanan at the moment he should have been satisfied. He had found Blachford, a man who reportedly provided him a monthly allowance of $2,500; a brand-new Infiniti; trips to New York to see Broadway shows; international vacations; access to credit cards; and a front-row seat in his high-society circle. He had been able to convince Blachford to sell his property in Scottsdale, Arizona—as he told his friends, he disliked the climate and allergies he suffered in Arizona—and eventually upgrade the La Jolla home to a handsome property atop Mount Soledad, overlooking the bay. He finally had found the means to live the illusion he had been spinning. In his mind, though, Cunanan deserved more.
According to Orth’s reporting, Cunanan complained to friends about Blachford’s cheapness, and suggested that he was actually doing Blachford a favor by being his companion—alleging that the relationship disqualified him from a (fictional) large family inheritance. Cunanan was restless, and according to a report in New York Magazine, by the time the couple made it to Southampton for a week in the summer of 1996, “Cunanan struck out several nights on his own and popped up at a round of gay house parties, introducing himself as ‘Andrew DeSilva.’ To exacting South Fork playboys, his act was pretty transparent. ‘He was a flaccid conversationalist, and there was nothing really distinctive about him at all,’ says the man who put Cunanan and Blachford up at his house. ‘Every other word from his mouth was about how rich his father had been in La Jolla.’ ”
Blachford was able to look past Cunanan’s obvious tall tales, and see his potential. Blachford encouraged Cunanan to go back to school, but Cunanan would not have it. Cunanan’s ego had inflated to fit his grandiose illusions. When the couple returned from their vacation in 1996, Cunanan threatened to leave Blachford if he did not buy him a $125,000 Mercedes convertible; fly him first-class; raise his allowance; and write him into Blachford’s will. In “Descent,” when Blachford refuses to acquiesce to the demands, Cunanan packs his bags, expecting Blachford to beg him to return. Blachford does not, though. And Cunanan, having miscalculated, finds himself in free fall. Not only is he suddenly without a benefactor, but he is without a lifestyle and a love interest. (Though the American Crime Story episodes paint a hazy timeline, David Madson had pulled away from Cunanan by this point because of his secrecy.)
“Andrew’s descent is that [after the breakup with Blachford] he moves into a small apartment in Hillcrest and descends into crystal meth until he’s lost everything,” explained Smith, who notes that in next week’s episode, viewers will see how Cunanan’s fall from grace mirrors his fathers.
“Whereas his dad flees to Manila and restarts, Andrew has nowhere left to go … [so] he goes to Minneapolis and has a breakdown,” said Smith. “When you look at the shapes of [Cunanan and his father’s] lives, that, to me, was absolutely the key of Andrew. As a child, Andrew absolutely believed his dad’s lies and that he was this amazing man. And then suddenly that was all ripped away [when his father left the family].”
In “Descent,” Smith wrote a brief exchange that cuts through the complex psychological saga of this serial murderer with ice-cold precision. At Cunanan’s 36th birthday party, he is cornered by a skeptical friend of Blachford’s who sees through Cunanan’s duplicitousness. When the friend insults him, Cunanan replies by pointing to the party guests in the next room, saying, “That room is full of people that love me.”
Without hesitation, the friend replies, “Then that room is full of people who don’t know you.” And for a split second, before shifting back into delusion autopilot, even Cunanan seems to agree.
Versace: Andrew Cunanan’s Relationship with Norman Blachford
What Finn Wittrock Found ‘Admirable’ About Darren Criss’ ‘American Crime Story’ Transformation
Finn Wittrock gives one of his most powerful performances to date as real life Andrew Cunanan victim Jeff Trail on “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” someone Wittrock admits he didn’t know too much about when he signed onto the show.
The 33-year-old actor became a breakout star of the Ryan Murphy TV universe after his debut as murderous Dandy Mott on “American Horror Story: Freak Show” in 2014. He followed that up with two roles on “Hotel” and a barely-recognizable turn as a hillbilly cannibal on “Roanoke.” For his most recent pairing with Murphy, however, Wittrock tapped into a completely different kind of mindset to play a military veteran and Cunanan’s first victim.
Based on Maureen Orth’s book, “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History,” and written by Tom Rob Smith, the new season of “American Crime Story” explores the serial killer’s past and the lives of those he killed, while highlighting the homophobia and gay panic rampant in the ‘90s. The Feb. 14 episode revolved almost entirely around Finn’s character, showing how Trail spoke out about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in a “48 Hours” interview and delving into his complicated relationship with Cunanan (Darren Criss) before his eventual murder.
With Wittrock returning Wednesday night – reminder: each new episode takes place before the last – TooFab caught up with the actor to talk about the research he did for the role, what it was like witnessing Criss’ transformation on set and how his storyline is still relevant today.
How familiar were you with the case beforehand?
I kind of knew as much as most people that I talked to I think. I kind of vaguely knew about the murder but didn’t know much at all about Cunanan, and so it was a big education. I mean the book, Maureen Orth’s book, was a huge piece of research for all of us and sort of created an incredible insight into that whole unfolding of the story. I think it’s funny, I talked to people from Florida though, like anyone who is from Miami or almost anywhere in Florida. And everybody I’ve talked to is like, ‘I know all about that.’ It’s like they know Cunanan, they know the other guys, they know the manhunt. I think for people who were living there at the time, especially around Miami, they got so invested in that story. It was like as big as OJ.
The show works backwards. What was your first day of filming? And did you guys film chronologically at all?
No. If there was a way to be the most opposite of chronologically, that’s the way we shot it. It was literally all over the place. My first day I think was in the airport when we go to pick up Andrew. And then like the next day or the day after I was getting killed and then the day after that I was on the aircraft carrier. I mean it was like all over the place.
I like tore the script apart and I put all the scenes together in chronological order so that I wouldn’t get confused. Like that death scene, is over the course of two episodes, so people were like, ‘It’s scene 96 in episode four, but it’s scene three in episode 5’ or actually vice versa. And it’s like I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Tell me where to fall.
Is this different than it usually is for you? That’s kind of what it seems like.
You know, I think any actor – anyone who works in TV – is used to it. I think because of the nature of the way the story was being told, I think like Tom Rob Smith had such an interesting structure out of working backwards like that. It kind of added a new challenge for everybody to kind of piece together where they were, what happened and you know. It’s like you already shot the future so you have to make the past that gets to to that point.
And now I know some of these scenes, they’re very serious or very dark. And when you are jumping around that much, how do you kind of get into the headspace for the day?
We trust a good script. If the arc of it is clearly defined in your head and you have people that you can really work with, then you can kind of jump anywhere and it doesn’t really matter. It can even sometimes be fun to go towards the end of something before doing the beginning scene. You can kind of figure out how to build up to it. It’s definitely a challenge, but there are perks to the challenge.
There is a lot of talk about Darren because he just loses himself completely into this role. What was it like seeing the light switch on and him becoming Andrew Cunanan?
It’s so cool because he really did, sort of, it was like a mask he threw on and off when he was in it, when he wasn’t. And I think it was maybe in some way the survival mechanism to not stay in it too much, you know. But it was really admirable to kind of watch him be his sort of buoyant energetic self and then sort of drop in at the drop of a dime to this sociopath. But he hates when you say sociopath. Understandably, because he has to play him.
Your character’s storyline, Jeff’s storyline, most of your solo episode was about ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ It’s crazy to think we’re still talking about similar bans, like the transgender ban, 20 years later.
It’s so funny, when I first read the script I was like, ‘Ahh, it’s probably a little dated to talk about ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ And then like a couple weeks later that whole transgender thing came out.
I know you watched the real “48 Hours” Jeff did to prepare. What was it like the first time you watched it and kind of getting into Jeff’s frame of mind at the time he filmed it?
You don’t see his face. He does allow his voice, but like you don’t see him. But you can see read so much off of him because he’s so composed, he’s such a put together, upright young man you know, who really believes in God and country, like really actually does and has a real patriotic feeling inside of him.
But you can also just tell that he’s bursting out of his skin, like right underneath of that composure. So that, I mean I just watched it over and over probably for the physical elements of replicating his voice a little bit and that, but that’s just also like hearing him and seeing him, you just really could feel by osmosis kind of internal struggle that was going on inside him.
What Finn Wittrock Found ‘Admirable’ About Darren Criss’ ‘American Crime Story’ Transformation
The woman recreating the iconic Versace looks for American Crime Story
It feels like we’ve been waiting a lifetime for this moment (or, at least since the show was announced at the beginning of last year), but tonight, The Assassination of Gianni Versace finally hits UK screens. The brainchild of Ryan Murphy, the man behind 2016’s The People vs. OJ Simpson, the series chronicles the lead up to – and aftermath of – the iconic Italian designer’s brutal murder at the hands of serial killer Andrew Cunanan on July 15, 1997.
Versace’s ostentatious collections were definitive of the late 80s and early 90s, epitomising the excessive glamour of the era, as he and sister Donatella jetted back and forth between lavish houses in Florida, New York and Italy. The moment he was gunned down, on the steps leading up to his Miami mansion, was a dark day for fashion: marking the end of an era of such levels of opulence within the industry, maximalism gave way to minimalism and the overstated became decidedly less so.
Central to the show, then, were the costumes worn by the cast. Step in American Horror Story and Glee costume designer Lou Eyright, who was tasked with outfitting Donatella (Penelope Cruz), Gianni (Édgar Ramírez), Gianni’s boyfriend Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin), Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), et al: a daunting task, given the designer’s formidable legacy. “It was hugely intimidating starting work on the show,” Eyright tells us over the phone from LA. “You know, I was such a fan of Gianni’s work and everything Donatella has done over the course of the last two decades, so of course there was some apprehension there. But it was also really exciting. He had such a distinct aesthetic and we had to kind of tread the line between being authentic to Versace and making it our own.”
Eyright needn’t have worried. The show is a flamboyant visual feast for the eyes, as Donatella struts around the set in (fabulous and hugely-covetable) vintage Versace pieces, Gianni sweeps down the halls of his Miami home in luxurious Baroque-printed silk shorts and gowns, and Antonio lounges on the (Medusa-mosaiced) pool in some v barely-there logo pants. Ahead of The Assassination of Gianni Versace’s launch, we caught up with the costume designer to talk about the search for the perfect Versace pieces, the challenges she faced during production, and her favourite looks from the show.
How did you prepare in the time leading up to the show’s production?
Lou Eyright: Well, I started by educating myself on the era and the style of the time beforehand, and I particularly studied Versace’s work in the 80s and 90s, you know the Baroque collection, and the pop art one too. For weeks and weeks I pored over every book I could get my hands on, not just from a fashion point of view, but from art and culture and everything that went with it; Versace’s collection of artworks, his houses, everything. Allison (Leach, co-costume designer) and I spent time at the Fashion Institute of Design in LA as well: they have a huge archive of Versace pieces that we studied prior to shooting. And, of course, the series is also about Andrew Cunanan’s life, so we needed to understand the era thoroughly to be able to dress him properly. There was a lot of trips to the library and late nights scouring the internet involved (laughs).
How was it working between two completely opposing styles simultaneously: the high-octane, OTT glamour of the Versaces and the more grungy, downbeat look Cunanan has?
Lou Eyright: Well, you know, that’s what we do! We set out to tell a story through clothing and whether we have one aesthetic to cover, or 10, or 20, it’s part and parcel on the job. But working on American Crime Story was particularly daunting as we didn’t have as much time as I’d have liked to research. Pressure is good though, you have to live up to the challenge. So it was fun for us to cover both ends of the scale, from Gianni and Donatella and Antonio’s fabulous looks, right through to Andrew’s more downtrodden, understated costumes.
Going back to Versace, were there specific pieces you set out to find when you were creating Donatella and Gianni’s costumes?
Lou Eyright: So some of the garments were scripted very specifically: there’s a point where Gianni was designing all of these Western-inspired pieces – the leather jeans, the leather shirts with the gold collar tips, and the heavy gold Medusa detailing – they were all part of the script, so really we had to find those. We searched the web for weeks to find some of the pieces. Some we managed to get on eBay, and we found a number of styles through private collectors that we got in touch with, including a few in LA, which was quite lucky. We managed to source a few original pieces and then have them replicated, which was great. It was important to Ryan for it to be authentic, and both Penelope and Edgar were both thrilled to be wearing pieces that were actually designed by their real-life counterparts.
The Versace family denounced the show early on in production. Were you a little disappointed that they’d declined to be involved with the show?
Lou Eyright: Of course, I was a little disappointed they’d distanced themselves from it, but I never imagined they’d really be involved to be honest. It’s a story that must still carry a lot of hurt for them, and it was important for everyone involved that it would be handled sensitively. I wanted to make sure I represented the house of Versace as well as I possibly could, though, whether they were involved or not. If they did see it, I wanted them to be happy with the way it looked at least.
Penelope Cruz has been lauded for her performance and capturing the essence of Donatella. Which look epitomises Donatella for you?
Lou Eyright: My favourite was one that didn’t actually make it into the show! It was an authentic Versace shirt with this really bold baroque print from around 1994 and it was cut in the editing suite. But to be honest, I don’t know if I do have a favourite for her, actually. I think what was most important was that Penelope was able to pull off Donatella’s silhouette and stance. And so it was more about finding the right corsets and shapewear to help her transform into Donatella. We went to Agent Provocateur, we went to trashy lingerie stores, we had some made for her. But key to Penelope’s portrayal was the silhouette, definitely.
Did Penelope have a lot of input when it came to costumes? She’s friends with Donatella in real life, so I imagine she must have felt a lot of responsibility on her shoulders…
Lou Eyright: She did have a lot of input, yeah, and she definitely felt a lot of responsibility to portray Donatella in the best possible light. So we worked closely with her to ensure the garments had the highest level of respect and precision that they could have. Very early on, Allison flew out to Madrid to fit Penelope for the first time, and she put on the clothes and just slipped into character, like, she was Donatella! She was very instrumental in making sure everything was just right, which really helped us out.
Did Penelope wear anything other than Versace?
Lou Eyright: For the most part, she wore Versace, like Donatella herself did. But there were a few pieces in there that weren’t: a couple of Alaïa dresses, a Dolce & Gabbana corset, and I think one of the pairs of studded leather pants was vintage. Mainly we tried to stick to Versace, though.
Is there anything you would have done differently? Any pieces that you’d have loved to get your hands on?
Lou Eyright: I wish I’d had a little more prep time to really thoroughly study Gianni and Donatella, and really been able to get to grips with their relationship and the essence of their being. But that’s television, you know, you only get a few weeks to put it all together. I would have loved to have been able to go into all the Haute Couture work, and maybe visit the atelier if I’d been allowed to. But we just didn’t have the time or the resources to do that.
What did you think when you saw the show for the first time?
Lou Eyright: Oh, of course, I picked everything apart (laughs). But overall, on the whole, I think it looks beautiful. There’s always something you wish you’d done differently, or something you think you missed. That said, I’m very proud of the team that worked to create the show, and helped Ryan (Murphy) realise his vision. It’s a beautiful show and I’m so happy we all pulled it off.
The woman recreating the iconic Versace looks for American Crime Story
Inside ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’s’ Story of High Fashion, Homicide and HIV
Are you watching The Assassination of Gianni Versace on FX? The series is the second in the American Crime Story anthology, the folks who brought you The People versus OJ Simpson. It’s based on the book Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth about Andrew Cunanan’s murderous spree in 1997 that ended in the shooting of the famous designer on the steps of his Miami mansion.
With openly gay Hollywood producer Ryan Murphy (executive producer, known for creating Nip/Tuck, Glee, Feud, and American Horror Story, among others) at the helm, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is sensational. Truly, it causes all the sensations. It’s super gay. It’s got fabulous ‘90s Versace fashions. It’s violent, bloody, and disturbing. It’s a little bit sexy (as sexy as you can be in a series about a spree killer) with a soupcon of nudity and a smidge of S&M. There are drugs, nightclubs, models, and hot military guys. It’s got an amazing cast, starring Darren Criss as Cunanan, Penelope Cruz savagely portraying Donatella Versace, Ricky Martin as Versace’s partner Antonio, and Edgar Ramirez – who looks and acts so much like the real Versace that it’s spooky – and featuring performers such as Judith Light, Mike Farrell, Finn Wittrock, and Broadway’s Annaleigh Ashford. The plot contrasts the pampered opulence of Versace’s privileged life with the underbelly creepiness of Cunanan and his development from a pathetic, disillusioned liar into a deranged, notorious killer. It’s fantastic, delicious television.
The show also includes a very powerful HIV storyline. Gianni Versace is revealed as being HIV positive at a time in history when homophobia and AIDS panic were rampant. Not only is Versace portrayed as HIV positive, he is shown to be at times so weak from advanced sickness that he needs help even to walk. Then, in later scenes, he’s shown to be recovered after (presumably) being put on antiretroviral therapy, which became available in the mid-1990s.
After his recovery, Versace decides to use his new lease on life not only to continue creating fashions but also to come out as gay at a time when not many celebrities were brave enough to do so.
“I was sick, but I didn’t die,” he says in Episode 5 of the show. “I have a second chance. It’s a miracle that I’m alive. And yet, I ask myself every day, what have I done to deserve this? Why am I still here? To be afraid? No. I’m alive, and I must use it.”
The Assassination of Gianni Versace might be the first major media movie or television show to present a person sick with advanced HIV infection and then recovered and vibrant due to the miracle of HIV medications. This is an amazing and important landmark for HIV in film/television, and the storyline is told with a lot of respect for those of us living with the virus. By exploring other aspects of the AIDS crisis and its implications in the aftermath of Versace’s murder, the series shows in living color what it was like to be living in the good ol’ bad ol’ ’90s.
I had a phone conversation with award-winning executive producer Brad Simpson and screenwriter and author Tom Rob Smith about the production, the creative process, and the decision to use HIV in the storyline.
Charles Sanchez: Why do you think it’s important to tell this story about Andrew Cunanan and Gianni Versace at this time?
Brad Simpson: This story, in a lot of ways, was a journey through the politics of gay identity and what it meant to be out in the 1990s. The 1990s being this volatile time – even though it’s still volatile for a lot of people – of the Defense of Marriage Act, and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and celebrities starting to come out, and the sort of shift and also the transformation with AIDS drugs that happened and a generation of activists who’d been politicized by the AIDS crisis, all intersecting in this decade – and it felt like, you know, for us, true crime is bigger than just a murder. It really felt to us like there was something to be said about the 1990s and about where we are today, by telling this story.
Tom Rob Smith: [Cunanan] is very unusual. One of the things we’ve confronted is that people are talking about him as being a serial killer, and that’s just simply not the case. This is someone who didn’t have a pathology of violence. He wasn’t committing arson or sexual assault, all of the early warning signals that you have with lots of serial killers. This is someone that, if you had jumped back and met him at age 20, and said, “You’re going to be a killer,” he would have found it impossible to believe. Exploring him presents lots of challenges, and … it was very interesting to contrast [Versace] as someone who creates, as someone who is curious about the world, and someone who experienced intolerance and managed to navigate around it, with Cunanan, who just seemed to be defeated by it.
Simpson: Gianni Versace was one of the few people who were celebrities who were out [as gay] in the 1990s. It was actually shocking to us. We went back to make a list of who was out pre-Ellen [DeGeneres] coming out, and the list is 5, 6, 7 famous people? No fashion designers.
I think this is a show that only Ryan Murphy could get on the air. Because I like to think that we’re incredibly advanced, but the show is deeply gay and touches on things that you haven’t seen dealt with on TV before. There’s a freedom that Ryan’s success gives to allow us to tell a story like this.
Sanchez: Speaking of things we’ve never seen before, I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen [on film], from an HIV standpoint, a person with HIV, sick and near death, turning around and becoming miraculously better through medications. What was the process of deciding how to tell that part of the story?
Smith: The reason we told that … it was just very powerful that Versace was very sick in ’93-’94 when his symptoms became severe, and it’s debated by the family, so I should put it in as a caveat that the family, they dispute this, but …
Sanchez: I believe in the book it says that, publicly, he had cancer.
Smith: Yeah, that’s right. I think they say “ear cancer,” and we know that is infamous [as code for HIV]. But we do know that he was very sick in ’93-’94, that he was on the brink of death, that is uncontested, and we know that he was refusing to submit to this illness. And that he would walk, still, when he was very sick, from his house in Miami to that news kiosk; he would go with Antonio [his partner], and he’d be so weak that Antonio would have to carry the magazines back. I thought it was a remarkably powerful structure [for the script] to have that walk contrasted with the walk when he’s then fully recovered. And he is then, in ’97 [when he’s shot], walking to that newsstand, not needing anyone’s help. He’s full of the joy of life in many ways. This medication gave him a rejuvenation.
And it was a great life force, you know, [Versace] was saying: “I want to live, I have so much more to give. I have so much more work, but also in terms of the people I love, my grandchildren, my family. I’m going to cling on to life for as long as I can.” And this new wave of medication came along, and he was saved.
Simpson: There’s something bittersweet about the fact that he thought he was going to die and had been given this new lease on life. There was this generation of men who thought they had a death sentence and then were slowly realizing maybe they didn’t. He was starting to create again, and right at that moment, his life was taken away.
There were rumors that ran at the time, the hysteria after Versace was killed, there were these rumors spread by the media and some nefarious friends of Andrew that Versace gave Andrew AIDS and this was a revenge murder, and this is a widely held belief that is actually still held by a lot of people. It was revealed in Andrew’s autopsy that he was actually HIV negative. It was a narrative that was out there and one that we wanted to correct with the show: The evil murderer was actually not the one who had AIDS; it was the victim.
Sanchez: What do you think the responsibility of the media and artists of your caliber is in telling stories about HIV in the modern world?
Smith: It’s hard to come up with a generalized formula for it. I think you have to react to the nature of the period and the people involved. In the ’80s, the stories were horrific. It’s very hard to go into the ’80s and find stories that weren’t heartbreaking. And so, if you were telling that story, I don’t see how you could put a demand that somehow people be upbeat about it.
The responsibility just comes from looking at the truth of it and not landing on what appears to be an easy explanation. I think that’s both wrong and offensive.
Simpson: Ryan, you know, obviously did The Normal Heart. We had a lot of conversation in terms of how to portray the AIDS-related illnesses. We’re adapting Maureen’s book, and this is her position that, you know, [Versace] was positive. We felt that to not portray that would be to play into the stigma that still surrounds HIV to this day.
Sanchez: Speaking of stigma, I wanted to ask you about that. You and Nina Jacobson [Simpson’s producing partner] were on NPR at the end of January, and you both stated [while talking about the series] that HIV stigma was no longer prevalent. Then, two prominent HIV bloggers [Josh Robbins and Mark S. King] called you out on it on social media. I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about it.
Simpson: Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, I feel horrible about it. On radio, unlike an interview like this, you’re like racing through it and trying to be compact in your answers. I did not say want I meant to say. That’s not an excuse; it’s just an explanation.
We talked about this a lot in terms of how to talk about Versace’s HIV status. One of the conversations we had, we felt that were we to ignore our belief in that status and Maureen’s beliefs on that status, then we would be playing into the very stigma that we’re all trying to get rid of, that we would be reifying the stigma and shame of living with HIV by denying that part of a character. What I meant to say was that we didn’t want to play into the stigma of having HIV. What I ended up saying was that there is no stigma to having HIV today. I don’t believe that at all!
I’m not going to pretend that I know what it’s like to live with HIV or how complicated it is to decide how public to be about your status with partners, with friends, with family, or how to navigate the health care system. That’s something that I can’t know, that I can only hear about. But obviously, or maybe not obviously, I’m sorry that I misspoke, and I regret it. Of course, I know that there’s a large and unfortunate stigma to having HIV, still, in so many ways.
Smith: One of the reasons we wanted to do this [show] is to attack the stigma. This stigma is so wrong, and it’s so corrosive. It still exists today; we’re not just talking about something that is historic. We talk [on the show] about the idea that you could build a company that’s worth billions of dollars, be a fashion icon, and that it could be reduced to having no value simply by the factor of an HIV diagnosis. That isn’t an exaggeration. It seems to me to be a real injustice.
Yet, when you look at Gianni Versace’s words, you know, to me it was code. I can’t declare for sure what he was saying, but when he says in the ’90s after he recovers from the most severe symptoms, “I’m not going to live my life filled with regret and shame anymore,” to me, that’s him saying: “I’ve recovered, and I’m not just recovered physically. I’m not going to walk around feeling terrible anymore. I’m going to live; I’m going to love.” And I found that very powerful, and I really wanted to capture that.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Inside ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’s’ Story of High Fashion, Homicide and HIV
@bbc5live: “It’s the kind of story that everyone saw but no one saw”
Writer @tomrobsmith on showing the ‘darker story’ behind the assassination of Gianni Versace in new TV drama. #ACSVersace
Interview with Tom Rob Smith on BBC Breakfast | 28 February 2018
American Crime Story: Why did Gianni Versace die?
The audacious murder of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, shot in cold blood on the marble steps of his Miami Beach villa in 1997, has never been a “whodunnit”. The perpetrator is well known.
He was 27-year-old Andrew Cunanan, a serial killer who had already murdered four men before gunning down Versace on a sticky July day over two decades ago. Cunanan killed himself in a houseboat over a week later, following what remains one of the biggest manhunts in US history.
But mystery still shrouds the murder, with numerous conspiracy theories as to why Cunanan targeted Versace and whether the two had been lovers.
The second season of American Crime Story, entitled The Assassination of Gianni Versace, seeks to filter these murky waters, relying heavily on Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth’s bestselling book on the Versace murder, Vulgar Favours.
The series, starring Édgar Ramírez as Versace, Ricky Martin as his long-term lover Antonio D’Amico, Penélope Cruz as Gianni’s sister Donatella and Glee star Darren Criss as Cunanan, was filmed in Versace’s Miami Beach villa, now a boutique hotel, which looks much as it did when the designer lived there.
The series has received positive reviews from critics and viewers since it premiered in January in the US, with the exception of one family. The Versaces have broken years of silence to publicly condemn everything about the series and Orth’s version of events.
“The Versace family has neither authorised nor had any involvement whatsoever in the TV series about the death of Mr Gianni Versace,” reads a statement released by the fashion house.
“Since Versace did not authorise the book on which it is partly based, nor has it taken part in the writing of the screenplay, this TV series should only be considered as a work of fiction.”
Putting aside the family statement for a moment, it must be said that Orth is no slouch. She started following Cunanan after his second murder, analysing the gay scene in California where he had built a life on dreams and lies at a time when most of the mainstream media were nervous about broaching such topics.
She followed his trail from San Diego to San Francisco and on to Minneapolis and Chicago, and was ready to publish a piece in Vanity Fair on the unknown serial killer when she got the news that Versace might have been her subject’s fifth victim.
The story of a serial killer quickly became solely one about the murder of one of fashion’s greatest icons. “Versace’s killing meant calling the piece back, taking it apart on an impossible deadline and trying to stay ahead of what rapidly became the number one story in the country,” Orth wrote recently.
“The media circus was on; in this pre-social-media time, Cunanan’s murder spree was an early harbinger of someone willing to do anything to become famous.”
Orth had Versace’s name in her notebooks long before Cunanan ever arrived in Florida. She was then the only one on the scene with insider knowledge of the suspect during the manhunt, from interviewing countless of Cunanan’s friends and associates.
Many told her conflicting tales based on Cunanan’s tangled web of lies, but they almost all agreed on one thing: Cunanan had met Versace.
American Crime Story picks up this thread and runs with it, which was always the Versace family’s greatest fear. They not only strongly deny that Versace knew Cunanan, they also denounce rumors that the fashion designer was HIV positive.
The Versaces were able to seal Gianni’s autopsy report and keep it from the press, so no one outside the family knows whether the designer had HIV, a cornerstone of Orth’s version of events.
As the theory goes, Cunanan was worried he had had HIV and suspected Versace was the one who gave it to him. But as the Versace family makes clear in its statement, that version is conjecture: “Orth makes assertions about Gianni Versace’s medical condition based on a person who claims he reviewed a postmortem test result, but she admits it would have been illegal for the person to have reviewed the report in the first place (if it existed at all).
“In making her lurid claims, she ignores contrary information provided by members of Mr Versace’s family, who were in the best position to know the facts of his life.”
Those who were in the Versace villa the morning he died also dispute facts in the drama’s version of events. As an investigative reporter, I covered Versace’s murder in the mid-1990s and recently travelled between Miami and Rome to talk to the people who were around him at the time of his death.
I had previously met Antonio D’Amico, Versace’s partner, now 59, but he had always refused to discuss the case. In the wake of the drama being broadcast, however, he finally agreed to talk to me about that day.
He told me the drama is in stark contrast to the actual events as he remembers them. “What is depicted is not what happened that morning,” he explained, saying that he never once touched Versace’s body, so therefore was not covered in blood as Ricky Martin is in the opening scene. “It is an inaccurate portrayal of [Gianni], of that day and of how we were as a couple.”
“Significant parts of the [series] do not reflect the reality of the events that took place. I feel – together with those who know me well – that my character… is a misrepresentation of myself and what our relationship was like.”
D’Amico only met Martin, who plays him, after filming was finished.
The drama also suggests that D’Amico regularly procured young men for himself and Versace, any of whom could have given the designer HIV. D’Amico has declared that he does not have HIV as proof that Versace didn’t either.
Others around him also suggest that there is no way Cunanan could have stalked Versace and learnt his daily routine, as is depicted in the TV series. According to Charles Podesta, Versace’s butler at the time, they had only just arrived in Florida from the designer’s couture show in Paris. Podesta remembers the details of that morning.
“Gianni stopped by the kitchen to say he wasn’t eating first, as usual,” Podesta told me in an interview in Miami last December. “Instead, he was going to the corner for some magazines.”
That wasn’t his usual routine. His staff regularly brought the morning papers to the outdoor table where he and D’Amico ate breakfast by the swimming pool. He also remembers the distinct sound of gunfire that followed, “a strange noise, several loud pops one after the other”. And it was he, Podesta, who called 911.
While such details may seem banal, in the bigger picture they do beg the question: what other lines have been blurred, by Orth and the programme-makers, between fact and fiction?
Fabiana Pascali interview for Athleisure Magazine | 27 February 2018
ACS news 