If there’s anything Ryan Murphy knows how to do, it is how to capture a specific time. In “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” he focuses on the Italian designer’s murder in 1997 and the years leading up to it. Murphy takes the sensational ripped-from-the-headlines crime, like he did with “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” and broadens it to explore the prejudices surrounding the LGBTQ community and the emotional underpinnings of the AIDS crisis.
“New Girl” actor Max Greenfield plays Ronnie, a man who represents the fear many in the community lived with during the period, if not because of the virus, then of the lives they had to hide in plain sight. Ronnie is unknowingly tangled into the series of events when he meets killer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) and forms a brief kinship.
amNewYork spoke with Greenfield about slipping into Ryan Murphy’s world for season two of “American Crime Story.”
You previously worked with Ryan Murphy on “American Horror Story.” What was it like to be directed by him again?
Ryan knows what he wants and is specific in the sense that he’ll give you a lot of room to explore and play with it. He’s very honest if you’re doing something he doesn’t like and you sort of have to be OK with that. You’re constantly making adjustments off notes, so I don’t think I’ve enjoyed working with someone as much as I’ve enjoyed working with Ryan, ever.
So you were given freedom to create texture for Ronnie, even though he’s not a fictional character?
Yeah, totally. In the period of time it was two years after they figured out the correct medication to treat HIV, so you have all these people who were affected by this disease, many of whom had accepted their own fate, and had for quite some time and were waiting to die. And then there was this treatment, and you saw patients that were extraordinarily sick better within 30 days.
Ronnie was one of those characters who had sort of given up on life and was then given a new lease. It was a complicated time for a lot of people. I know, specifically, that’s what I tried to focus on. So when he meets Andrew there’s a friendship. For somebody who is so completely on their own in Miami, living minute by minute, still confused and bewildered by everything that has happened over the past 15 years, to find any sort of friendship, was so important for him. He didn’t want to believe Andrew could’ve done something very harmful.
For the generation that’s coming up now, that period seems unfathomable. How did you tackle playing that specific window of time?
I did a lot of research. I do have some recollection, but certainly not to the degree that was necessary to understand it. I’m not sure I do now. You talk to people who were around during that time, specifically those in the LGBT community. The documentary “How to Survive a Plague” really tackles it well. Imagining these very human feelings is so overwhelming.
Gianni Versace is a brand to a lot of people. This story humanizes the designer. With that in mind, were you surprised by how this story unfolds?
Yeah, I didn’t know much about it. I was 17 years old at the time, so it was a headline for me. “Oh my Gosh, Gianni Versace was murdered? I can’t believe that!” And then you go to school the next day. I didn’t know Andrew’s back story and that this was one of five murders [he committed] or how deep it went.
What was the most gratifying thing about playing this character?
It was being a part of this story and the creation of Ryan’s world. Some of the things that this series talks about are really important issues. It’s hard for people to digest but I think it’s an important series. He’s not afraid to speak up and create content that addresses issues that people find uncomfortable.
Tag: interview
GMA: @DarrenCriss talks about the much-anticipated ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace,’ which premieres Wednesday night #ACSVersace
Darren Criss on Playing Andrew Cunanan In The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
In 1997, I read a newspaper article about a 27-year-old gay man from a posh private school in La Jolla, California, who was on the lam, wanted for four murders in three states. Vanity Fairassigned me to profile him, and the issue with my story in it was almost at the printer when news broke that Andrew Cunanan, the man I’d been tracking, had gunned down the fashion designer Gianni Versace on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion. Suddenly, Cunanan—and the spectacularly failed manhunt for him, which ended with his suicide eight days after Versace’s murder—was a national obsession, and I re-wrote my article, then expanded it into a book, Vulgar Favors: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Both are now, in turn, the basis of Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, set to premiere on FX on January 17.
Cunanan, who was driven to his murderous deeds by the desire for fame and revenge, would have relished being portrayed by Darren Criss, who shares his striking good looks, his outgoing charm, and his half-Filipino heritage. But the similarities end there, obviously, and Criss is empathetic enough to understand that, for all its juicy details, the Versace saga is an epic story of real-life suffering. “My heart is really sensitive to the people who experienced something so horrible that I’m trying to breathe life into,” says Criss, 30, who grew up in the Bay Area and previously worked with Murphy on Glee and American Horror Story series will be told in reverse, tracing Cunanan’s path backward from the Versace murder, through his previous killings, all the way to his childhood growing up as the gifted and spoiled son of an accused-embezzler father and a victimized, mentally ill mother. Versace’s lush life contrasts with Cunanan’s descent into drugs, and his double life in the gay demimonde and in the closeted upper class.
Cunanan, Criss says, was “someone who had the potential to do so much more. How does that person become synonymous with something so sad, violent, or scary?” He adds, “It’s a story about the have and have-not—the ultimate creator and the ultimate destroyer.”
Darren Criss on Playing Andrew Cunanan In The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
For ‘Versace’ actor Darren Criss, SF childhood still shines brightly
Darren Criss is pleasant and dutiful during an interview on a recent Thursday afternoon, answering questions about his role as serial killer Andrew Cunanan in the new FX miniseries “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”
But when the subject shifts to his childhood in San Francisco, the actor is downright joyous.
Criss happily remembers stories that have been buried for a while, including the time he called San Francisco actor Peter Coyote, whose son was a classmate of Criss’ brother, for advice about getting into acting. Criss was 7 years old.
“The synapses in my brain are suddenly awakening,” Criss says, talking faster. “I remember really, really nervously looking at the school roster, getting the number and going into the closet and shaking nervously, and saying, ‘Hi, is Mr. Coyote there?’ For a child to be talking to an adult on a level other than, ‘Can so-and-so come over to play video games?’ it was a nerve-racking experience.”
Criss says Coyote gave him a vote of confidence, and talked to him about enrolling in the Young Conservatory program at the American Conservatory Theater. Criss flourished there, and appeared in the musicals “Fanny” and “Do I Hear a Waltz” with 42nd Street Moon when he was 10.
The St. Ignatius College Prep graduate went on to University of Michigan, where he co-created “A Very Potter Musical” in 2009. It became a YouTube hit, and he has since glided effortlessly between film and stage, performing as openly gay singer Blaine on television’s “Glee” between 2010 and 2015, and in a “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” revival that started at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre in 2016.
But his most challenging performance — maybe anyone’s most challenging TV performance this year — is as Cunanan, the designer-obsessed serial killer in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”
Criss is onscreen more than anyone in the highly anticipated follow-up to “The People Vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” which won nine Emmy Awards in 2016. “Versace” co-stars Edgar Ramirez as Versace, who was shot by Cunanan in 1997. Penelope Cruz plays Donatella Versace, the designer’s sister.
Told in a challenging but rewarding reverse chronology, Cunanan comes off at first as a monster. But the pulpy exterior also gives its lead characters nuance; the series presents Cunanan and Versace as talented gay men with parents born outside the U.S.; with one finding the American dream and another becoming a living nightmare.
Speaking by phone from his Los Angeles home last week, Criss is reserved about his performance. While most reviewers have already seen all eight episodes, Criss had only seen four — and binged those the night before.
“It’s hard to watch anything you do objectively,” Criss says, when asked for his first impressions. “That sounds so unenthusiastic, but I promise you it’s not. I’m thrilled with how a lot of things turned out.”
One thing Criss insists is that he didn’t follow the dark character — there are scenes of physical and emotional torture by Cunanan, followed by an alarming lack of empathy — into the abyss.
On the worst days, Criss says, he would execute a pratfall down a stairway on set or provide other blooper reel material to lighten the mood. And he insists that while the victims of Cunanan both living and dead weighed on his mind, the most violent scenes were not as harrowing to perform as they look on screen.
“You have to remember that, (A) of course, it’s fake, (B) there’s not this creepy music looming in the background,” Criss says. “And there are 30 or 40 people around you who you can crack jokes with and grab a tea with, and give you the sort of necessary levity.”
Levity seems to be Criss’ default position, especially after the questions about Cunanan end and the San Francisco conversation begins again.
Criss and his musician brother, Chuck, who put out a pop album together last year under the band name Computer Games, took every advantage of the San Francisco art community. Criss says he hung out with theater performers in their 20s and 30s when he was a preteen; and their lessons were in the forefront of his mind as he created “A Very Potter Musical” and subsequent musicals.
But his parents recently moved out of San Francisco after 40 years, seeking a warmer climate in Southern California. When Young Conservatory director Craig Slaight retired after 29 years at ACT, Criss says, Slaight’s party doubled as Criss’ own goodbye.
“It was a nice time to get a couple of drinks, and say, ‘Fare thee well, San Francisco,’” Criss says. “When I go back, I’m a stranger in a strange land — I’m on Yelp, I’m on whatever hipster blogs. I treat it like a true tourist.”
There’s no bitterness for Criss about the changes in San Francisco or in any other part of the interview. Criss says that during the 1990s, there were probably a lot of natives from the 1950s and ’60s who were angry. That won’t be him.
“It’s always going to be different, everyone is going to hold their experience of a city higher than the people ahead of them,” says the 30-year-old actor and singer. “I try not to be a curmudgeon, because to me that’s the fastest way to be old.”
And that San Francisco childhood will always be with Criss, as long as the synapses are still firing. Asked if he remembers co-starring in “Fanny” when he was 10 years old, he provides a couple of warm stories, then sings a few bars from his 20-year-old performance. (“Be kind to your parents/ Though they don’t deserve it …”)
“ACT is such a huge part of my life, and I’m so forever grateful for them existing,” Criss says. “If I grew up in any other city in any other circumstance, I don’t know if I really would have had the support system in place to make this dream a reality.”
For ‘Versace’ actor Darren Criss, SF childhood still shines brightly
Darren Criss Plays the Happy-Go-Lucky Killer in the Versace TV Drama
Miami — At 6:30 in the morning, Darren Criss was bright-eyed and perky as he bounded out of his South Beach hotel and into a black car. It was the last day of shooting for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” Ryan Murphy’s nine-episode follow-up to “The People v. O. J. Simpson.”
Mr. Criss plays the assassin and, the night before, he had been up late shooting a manhunt scene that blocked off a stretch of Collins Avenue, to the chagrin of nightclubbers and Uber drivers.
“That was a very cool rock-star moment,” Mr. Criss said in the car, wearing a ball cap and jeans. He flashed an easygoing grin, the kind that endeared him to legions of young fans of “Glee,” on which he played Blaine Anderson, the preppy, harmonizing love interest of Chris Colfer’s Kurt Hummel.
His new role on “American Crime Story” (which has its premiere on FX on Jan. 17) couldn’t be less gleeful: Andrew Cunanan, the gay gigolo turned serial killer who shot Mr. Versace in 1997, after killing four other men.
Mr. Criss, 30, leaned over and pointed out the window. “See that?” he said. “That’s the houseboat, perfectly recreated.” In Indian Creek, the crew had built a replica of Mr. Cunanan’s final hide-out, where he met his demise after a frenzied eight-day manhunt. The series makes use of several real locations in Miami Beach, most notably the Versace Mansion, the site of the murder, now a boutique hotel.
Darren Criss Plays the Happy-Go-Lucky Killer in the Versace TV Drama
Darren Criss, far from ‘Glee,’ takes darker turn as Gianni Versace’s killer
Darren Criss doesn’t have to worry that he’ll be forever typecast as that cute, preppy singer from Glee.
FX’s limited series, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (Wednesday, 10 ET/PT) roughs up that wholesome image.
Versace, a follow-up to last year’s Emmy-winning O.J. Simpson courtroom saga, recounts Cunanan’s 1997 murder spree, which claimed five lives as the 27-year-old traversed the country, ending with the iconic fashion designer outside his mansion in Miami Beach.
Criss, 30, best known as Warblers singer and Kurt’s lover (and eventual husband) Blaine Anderson on Glee, reunites with executive producer Ryan Murphy on a darker story with a bigger, weightier role.
“I had a great time doing Blaine, (but he) is part of a more ensemble piece,” he says. “It was nice to be on a bigger playing field with Ryan and to get our hands dirty.”
Murphy said Criss was the first actor he cast for the pivotal role in Versace, based on Maureen Orth’s book, Vulgar Favors. The high-powered cast also includes Oscar winner Penelope Cruz as Versace’s sister, Donatella, and Ricky Martin as his partner, Antonio D’Amico.
Criss acting against his Glee image works well in Versace, executive producer Nina Jacobson says.
People might ask, “How could that (Glee) guy be this guy? (just as) the people who knew Andrew said, ‘How can that guy be this guy?’ “ she says.
Criss has a likability but also an ability to go darker, Jacobson says. “Andrew was not your garden-variety psychopath, torturing animals as a child. He was well-liked, warm, connected to people. To watch his descent and see his humanity but still never excuse his actions, I thought Darren just had that: the glibness, on one hand, and the depth.”
Criss, a San Francisco native who has been playing musical instruments since childhood, likens being part of the troupe Murphy calls on for his various projects to the repertory nature of the American Conservatory Theater, where he was accepted to a youth program.
Criss says Murphy first mentioned the Cunanan role to him three years ago.
“Lady Gaga had just been announced to do American Horror Story, and so I remember jokingly saying to him, ‘Well, let me know if you need a wily bellhop to run around.’ I was kind of joking — but not,” says Criss, who appeared in two episodes of that season’s AHS: Hotel. “He said, ‘I’m doing this O.J. (story). It’s more of a courtroom drama and I really want to do a manhunt. I want to do this Versace-Cunanan story. How much do you know about him?‘ ”
Criss felt an obligation to understand the well-educated gay man, whom the series portrays as initially killing out of personal passion but later adopting more political motives. Versace, one of the most prominent openly gay men of that time, was his final victim before he took his own life on a houseboat, a week later.
“It’s my job to be empathetic. If I set out to paint him as a monster, then there’s no point in telling the story. This isn’t a Bond villain,” he says.
Criss shares some surface similarities with Cunanan: Each is from California, has a parent from the Philippines and is college educated.
With an education, friends, a gift for storytelling (or lying) and no history of social problems, why did Cunanan become a murderer?
Orth suggested the young man was willing to kill to become famous and that he envied Versace, who had the fame, riches and romantic relationship he desired.
That contrast is emphasized in the Versace, writer Tom Rob Smith told the Television Critics Association.
“This is a story of two men born in very different circumstances, a lot of similarities, both gay, both understood that they could be destroyed at any point, and how one person navigates that destruction by building this amazing empire and how he protects against homophobia by surrounding himself with money and power and success, and (how) someone else who fails to do that, who is then destroyed.”
Cunanan had disadvantages and setbacks that many others encounter without suffering such “an extreme fall from grace,” Criss says. “There are things that happened with him that would have changed most people and made them think about their lives differently, whereas Andrew, instead of facing reality, continued to cover it up with more lies and more fantasy that would ultimately” lead to tragedy.
Darren Criss, far from ‘Glee,’ takes darker turn as Gianni Versace’s killer
‘American Crime Story’ Season 2 tackles assassination of Gianni Versace | 12 January 2018
Ricky Martin on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Fighting Human Trafficking and Life on the Road With Kids
Ricky Martin, the Grammy-winning “Livin’ la Vida Loca” singer, 46, plays Antonio D’Amico, the lover of international fashion designer Gianni Versace(Edgar Ramírez) in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, premiering January 17. The second installment of FX’s American Crime Story will focus on the shocking 1997 murder of the Italian designer and the search for his killer (Darren Criss).
Why tell this story now?
We’re going to learn a lot about Versace’s creative process, his relationship with his sister Donatella [Penélope Cruz] and his relationship with Antonio, who he was with for 15 years.
What did the real-life Antonio share with you?
He was an open book, but he was a little bit afraid of what was going to come out. I said, “Antonio, I want you to know that I’m doing this part because I can’t stand injustice. We’re going to focus on the love that you and Gianni had for each other.”
How aware of Versace’s murder were you at the time?
I was living in Miami at the time. Miami took a hit after this unfortunate event; I think Miami hasn’t been able to recover still. I was in Europe touring when I heard about it and it was the saddest thing. It was a very intense summer; first it was Versace, then it was Lady Diana.
You did some work in fashion. Did you ever meet Versace?
I never met him personally, but I remember being scared of how it happened. I remember thinking that the LGBT community could all be victims of someone like Andrew Cunanan. I would say fear is the emotion that comes to me when I revisit those days. Andrew Cunanan was in Miami Beach, not hiding from anybody. He was on the list of most wanted men by the FBI. So the question isn’t how did it happen, no. The question is why did it happen? Why did we allow this man to even get near such a powerful fashion icon?
What was it like to actually film at Versace’s home in Miami?
Oh, my God, it was a luxury for us to be able to shoot in the actual house where everything happened. We shot the scene where Antonio finds his body in front of the house early that morning and, of course, the setting helps you so much.
I never went to the house when he was alive. I was invited to many events and parties while I was living in Miami, but for some reason I was never able to go. Years go by and then I walk into this house for the first time to shoot the scenes and I say, “See, this is exactly why I was not supposed to come to this house before,” and I used it. It was amazing that we could do it. Then, obviously, we went back to L.A. and the magic of Hollywood, where you can build amazing sets.
It sounds as if this project became personal for you.
When you jump into such a big production, you have to commit yourself. The only thing you must allow for in your schedule is anything that has to do with Gianni Versace and this story. So, yes, I was a bit obsessed with it.
You have to get emotionally invested in order for the audience to find truth in the story that you’re telling. Surrounded by amazing actors like Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez and Darren Criss, I felt like one of the luckiest men to be able to create such a beautiful dynamic between my fellow actors on set. I think that also reads on camera.
Starstruck Darren Criss Performed a Ricky Martin Song for Ricky Martin While Shooting Versace
Darren Criss didn’t get to spend too much onscreen time with his American Crime Story costars — but they more than made up for it when the cameras weren’t rolling.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, Criss opened up about shooting the upcoming FX series, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which chronicles the 1997 murder of the Italian designer outside his Miami Beach home at the hands of Andrew Cunanan, played by Criss.
“He was a spree killer, a very troubled young man who does not follow the typical prerequisites of a killer,” said Criss, 30, of Cunanan. “He didn’t kill small animals as a child, or have a history of violence. Such is the exploration of our show — how a kid with so much promise becomes somebody so destructive.”
Asked if he had “fun” playing the killer, Criss said, “I don’t know if fun is the polite word, but it certainly goes to dark places. We see the good sides of him, the sad sides of him.”
“But the fun part, truly, if I have to just be a big stargazer, is I got to do this show with this insane-o cast of huge superstars,” he continued, referencing A-list cast costars Edgar Ramírez as Gianni Versace, Penélope Cruz as his sister Donatella and international pop superstar Ricky Martin as Versace’s lover, Antonio D’Amico.
“So you have Latin royalty, and then the half-Filipino kid,” quipped Criss of himself.
Criss said he “made sure” to spend time with his costars offscreen, because “for plot reasons — and you can do the math — I don’t actually spend a lot of time with their characters at all onscreen.”
During production, Martin had everyone over to his house “several times” — and, according to Criss, the singer is quite the host.
“I’m sort of the Pied Piper of karaoke in singalong situations. I usually don’t bring booze, I usually don’t bring food, but I’ll bring a guitar and we’ll have a singalong, so that was my contribution,” said Criss. “One of my favorite memories of shooting the show is we’re at Ricky Martin’s house, which is already a place-setter of like, ‘Woah, this is wacky.’ And I’m sitting there next to his five or six Grammys, and what Ricky thought would be nice as a host was he got pedicures for people.”
“So I’m playing guitar — I’m playing ‘Let It Go’ and Penélope is singing that song, then I start playing one of Ricky Martin’s songs and Edgar Ramírez is singing it to me, he’s singing it to Ricky, we’re sitting next to his Grammys — and all the while, they’re getting pedicures. And I’m like … ‘How did this all happen?’ ”
“You’re now both livin’ la vida loca,” quipped host Jimmy Kimmel.
Starstruck Darren Criss Performed a Ricky Martin Song for Ricky Martin While Shooting Versace
TCA: Darren Criss Has the Role of a Lifetime in FX’s “Versace”
For former Glee star Darren Criss, the only thing to be gleeful about while tackling his latest role was getting what the actor describes as "the role of a lifetime.“ In FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, the latest installment of the hit Ryan Murphy limited series franchise, Criss not only portrays spree-killer Andrew Cunanan, the man responsible for the brutal slaying of famed fashion designer Gianni Versace and several other men, he embodies him. It was a challenge Criss relished and with which he wanted to take great care. "I think the actor’s job is to find the empathy in anybody [he is playing],” Criss (pictured above and below) told MediaVillage in a recent interview. "I don’t care if it’s a football player or a scientist or in this case a ‘serial killer.’ You have to take into account not only the worst moments but the best moments and find as many common denominators between you and that person as possible.
“That’s a lot easier than you think,” he continued. "[Andrew] is not your classic American serial killer as we know them, where there are a lot of tells. He was loved by many, was an enjoyable, delightful, smart kid brimming with potential, so you kind of reverse engineer that and latch onto those things. You then have to ask yourself at what point could this have been me, and what point in my life could I have done these things that we would conventionally understand as the most abominable?“
The Assassination of Gianni Versace begins with the murder of the designer on the steps of his Miami mansion in 1997 and backtracks through the lives of both Cunanan and Versace (Edgar Ramirez). For Criss, it was re-enacting the gunning down of one of the world’s most respected fashion icons – at the very location – he found most difficult.
“Yes, that was an overwhelmingly emotional day,” he admitted. "We spent a lot of time in that mansion and there I was, dressed as Andrew, with his likeness put on my face and hair. Andrew never made it inside the mansion, but there I was having lunch for a couple of weeks. That wasn’t lost on me.“
According to Criss it was the knowledge of what he, as Cunanan, would be depriving the world of that weighed so heavily on him. "You have this overwhelming sense of what was and could have been, then what was taken away,” he recalled. “The O.J. story, for example, was shot on sets, but this is where it happened! These are the stairs, it was the street, everything is as it was with the only difference being 20 years have passed and the bloodstains have been removed. I had a moment when I walked into the building and really could feel Gianni’s presence.
“I found myself walking in there and kind of talking to Gianni,” he continued. “Being like, ‘Look, man, this is a horrible thing that happened here and I’m so appreciative of what you gave the world.’ It certainly gave me a new appreciation of his legacy. Hopefully, we can start a new story dialogue that he might’ve been interested in and would have liked people to [know about]. I guess I found myself trying to make peace with it.”
Despite having to humanize Cunanan in order to portray him, Criss wants two things known. One: He’s not fond of serial killers. Two: while based on real events, the series is not a documentary. He’s appreciative of the fact that much of Cunanan’s dialogue and the events are conjecture, with only Cunanan and his victims, all of whom did not survive his wrath, a party to them.
That’s something executive producer and writer Tom Rob Smith was also aware of, as he told MediaVillage. “I made sure that the stuff I put in supports a greater fundamental truth, so the smaller inventions never contradict what I knew to be a greater truth,” he said.
“There has been a great sense of care that Tom has taken with Andrew,” explains Criss. "I think only he and I get to share this almost fondness, which I am scared to say, but it’s your job [as an actor] to humanize the person you play. As an over-empathetic person, I enjoy the challenge of people looking in and me saying, ‘How could you possibly find something good about this person?’ But there’s still that bleeding idealist [in me] who wants to find the good in everybody. I have to find that and exploit it as much as possible because we will [only] see the worst if not.“
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, premieres Wednesday, January 17 at 10 p.m. on FX.
TCA: Darren Criss Has the Role of a Lifetime in FX’s “Versace”
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