Despite what the Versace family thinks about The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Penelope Cruz says she’s remained on good terms with Donatella.
The Oscar winner portrays Gianni’s sister in the FX mini-series, and ahead of presenting with her co-stars at Sunday’s 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards, she shared with ET’s Nancy O’Dell how she became involved in the project and how Donatella felt about being depicted on the small screen.
“When [ACS creator] Ryan [Murphy] told me, I said to him, ‘This sounds really interesting, but I have to make this call and I have to talk to Donatella,’” she recalled. “I called her and we spoke, like, for an hour. I needed that conversation to say yes.”
Cruz insists that she and Donatella have no bad blood between them. “It was a conversation where, I cannot share everything we talked about, but we have a good relationship,” she disclosed. “She just sent me flowers before I came here.”
Doting on the 62-year-old fashion icon, the 43-year-old actress added, “She’s such a loving person, so I wanted to put out there the love and respect I have for her. It’s in my performance for sure, and I hope that when she sees, she will be happy about it.”
While Cruz feels confident in her portrayal of Donatella, the Versace family told ET in a statement that they do not see the mini-series as an accurate account of Gianni’s life or his murder in 1997. They also do not endorse Maureen Orth’s book, Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U. S. History, which is the inspiration behind the mini-series.
“The Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace,” reads the statement. “Since Versace did not authorize 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.”
During the Golden Globes, ET also caught up with Darren Criss – who portrays Gianni’s murderer, Andrew Cunanan – and he admitted that he didn’t have a lot to work off of when cultivating his character.
“Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of material on him, so it gives me a lot of leeway to try and fill in the dots myself,” the 30-year-old actor said. “I guess the pressure is more to remain sensitive to the people whose lives are still affected by this 20 years later. So, we think about them and we try to shed some light on things that …a spotlight hadn’t been on before. Hopefully we can do the victims a bit of due justice.”
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story premieres Jan. 17 on FX.
Tag: interview
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Darren Criss finds way into serial killer’s mind in ‘Gianni Versace’ series
LOS ANGELES – When the cast of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” shot at the fashion designer’s Miami home, the feeling was overwhelming, according to actor Darren Criss.
“You had this sense of that which was and that which was taken away,” he says. “This is where it happened. It was the stairs. It was the street. Everything is as it was. Only the stains have been removed.”
In the FX miniseries, Criss plays Andrew Cunanan, the man responsible for Versace’s death. A serial killer, Cunanan was responsible for at least five deaths, including one in Minneapolis that reportedly began his spree. Enamored with Versace’s extravagant lifestyle, he made his way to Miami where he shot the designer on the steps of his mansion. Eight days later, Cunanan committed suicide on a houseboat. Since he didn’t leave a note, writers have had to speculate about his motive.
To play the role, Criss says he had to find some kind of way into the man’s personality.
“Whether you’re a football player, a scientist or, in this case, a spree killer, you have to take into account not only the worst moments but also the best moments. You have to find as many common denominators between you and the person.”
In the series, creator Ryan Murphy and company show the life Cunanan led before he got to Miami. As result, Criss didn’t interact much with the other actors (including Edgar Ramirez as Versace, Penelope Cruz as his sister Donatella and Ricky Martin as his lover). He told one story; they tracked another.
“People wonder, ‘How could you possibly find something good with this person?’ But I want to find the good in everybody,” he says, “and exploit it as much as possible.”
Had the limited series been a murderous slog, the former “Glee” star never would have done it.
“When you think of the worst things that people have ever done, that moment is much shorter in the span of their life,” he explains. “Because he would separate himself in so many different ways, that kind of allows me to compartmentalize my own life away from him. Luckily, it isn’t 10 episodes of watching me lurk around, doing horrible things constantly.”
Because television is shot on a faster schedule than film, Cruz and Martin were surprised how prepared they had to be for each scene.
“The pace is breakneck,” Criss says. “I’ve been doing it for a while now and my mind is calibrated to that way of working.”
The days at the Versace mansion, however, were otherworldly.
“I had a moment when I walked in the building where I could really feel Gianni’s presence,” Criss says. “Not to be super hippy-dippy, but you walk into Versace’s house and you feel steeped in his oeuvre. Every design, for the most part, is Gianni Versace. I felt myself waking in there and talking to him.”
While the actors got to film in Miami for several weeks, many of the interiors were recreated on sets in Los Angeles. There, Murphy made sure there were little touches unique to the designer. Those who have been in both locations say the sets are startlingly accurate.
That sense of who Versace was – and why he proved attractive to Cunanan – is key to the series.
To make the necessary connections, Criss talked to several dozen people who knew Cunanan.
“Andrew was so many different personalities to so many different people,” he says. “We see him at his best. We see him at his worst. We see him at his most charming. We see him at his most hurt. It’s all over the place…and we really do get to know him as a person.”
“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” airs at 9 p.m. Jan. 17 on FX.
Darren Criss finds way into serial killer’s mind in ‘Gianni Versace’ series
‘ACS: Versace’: Darren Criss Explains How He Was Able To Relate To Killer Andrew Cunanan
In an EXCLUSIVE chat with Darren Criss, he tells HollywoodLife how he was able to get into the mindset of Gianni Versace’s murderer, Andrew Cunanan.
Darren Criss, 30, had to find a way to make murderer Andrew Cunanan a relatable being while portraying him for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. When HollywoodLife asked him EXCLUSIVELY at the FX’s presentation for the Television Critics Association how he was able to get into the mindset of “crazy” Andrew, he immediately corrected us by saying, “See that’s the trick right there, I don’t look at him as a crazy person. We do. But I can’t. It’s my job to not think of him that way. It makes it too simple. I guess with any character, anybody, you have to approach everything from common denominators. This is very eyeroll-y actor jabber, but you find the primary colors.”
“The very basic things that aren’t so complicated. We’re all 1’s and 0’s so the first couple 1’s and 0’s are things like, everybody knows what it feels like to want something that you’re not allowed to have, wanting to rise higher than your station,” Darren added, talking to HollywoodLife. “Then you add on the other layers of what was happening in his home life, what was happening in his social economic situation, what was happening with his own sexuality and that kind of adds the other colors. I think you start with the things that you can relate to and then you let the script and the world around you, at least the one that Ryan [Murphy] is curating, to kind of do the rest of the work. It’s not as hard as it would seem. And any time you’re doing things that seem extreme and hard to relate to, these extreme acts of violence, if you go far enough back in the 1’s and 0’s you remind yourself that these acts come from places of pain, places of hurt and places that I can relate to. I don’t relate to the execution of said emotions, but I can relate to the emotions. I’m not saying it makes it easy, by any stretch of the word, but it makes it more accessible.”
HollywoodLife pressed for more information, asking Darren what some of the more relatable aspects of Andrew’s life were for him as a person. “Well, we both went to Catholic school, that’s a big one. There’s like basic things,” Darren shared. “I think we both had a desire to stand out. His was for sort of social gain, mine was because I just didn’t want to be like everybody else. So, they were kind of routed in different places. He did something very interesting where he was the kind of kid they said would put dimes in his penny loafers. To not put pennies. And I thought, ‘Hell yeah, I would have put dimes in my penny loafers!’ Our motivations were different, but I understand the desire to not be ordinary.”
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story premieres on January 17, 2018 on FX.
‘ACS: Versace’: Darren Criss Explains How He Was Able To Relate To Killer Andrew Cunanan
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