Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?
A) I have just finished Miss Saigon on Broadway. During that, I did a couple of readings of a new musical and also a workshop of a new musical. It was really amazing and at the same time exhausting. They call it “double duty.” I would rehearse in the morning through the afternoon and then go straight to the theater to do the show. The amount of lifting in Miss Saigon, I said, “I will never do that again!” [laughs] All of them are exciting though! One of them is a workshop of The Sting. They are doing a musical version of it and that’s exciting!
Q) We’re seeing you on “American Crime Story.” How was your character Modesto Cunanan originally described to you?
A) I would say, without being simplistic about him, he’s a person who thinks he is a big fish in a small pond. He wants to swim with the big sharks in the ocean. He has this really distorted vision of the American dream – how it should be and how you get it. So, he has built huge, elaborate lies around him.
Q) That must be where his son gets it.
A) Yeah! They didn’t give him a chance. That’s exactly how they raised their child – to think he is special and better than everyone else. Even his siblings. There are instances where a child gets lucky and gets away from that because that’s not how they are built. For the most part, you raise your child like that and they will grow up like that.
Q) What kind of research did you conduct into playing this real life individual?
A) First of all, I remember this. In 1997, my wife and I were about to leave Germany where we were doing Miss Saigon. Maybe we were back in the states by then, but the one thing that resonated with me is that he is part Filipino. It sounded exciting in a distorted way because I thought, “Oh my God! I’m Filipino!” When I auditioned, I tried to find out as much as I could about Modesto and found out where he came from. I found clippings of interviews with writeups about him, but not a lot from him personally. So, what I gathered were YouTube videos where they are trying to get to him, but all you see is him in the background waving them away. As soon as I got to set, Matt Bomer (my director) was really amazing about it because he gave me a copy of Maureen Orth’s book Vulgar Favors, which the TV show is based on. I found out so much about him! Also, I had a moment with Maureen talking about him because he’s met him. Also, Tom Rod Smith who is the main writer of the show and I asked so many questions about him that helped me prepare for the scenes.
Q) What was the process you went through in order to get into character?
A) laughs] When people ask me my process, I don’t know how to answer that. What I do is try to trace the history of the person. Where did he come from? How did he get to this place? How did he get what he wanted? Me, being a Filipino, that kind of helped me because I understand where he came from – the need to get out of one place. For him, it was how did he get to be somewhere where everyone is talking about streets paved with gold and grow money from trees. That’s how Filipinos talk about America. Watching Hollywood movies developed our mentality about America without being there. So, all of this wanting and needing – I try to grasp that from the character of Modesto. And the writing helped me so much because it was so good. It just flowed. Also, the direction and guidance from Matt Bomer helped me a lot.
Q) Was that the most challenging part of your portrayal – that there wasn’t much information on him?
A) When you’re trying to portray someone who actually lived you don’t want to overdo it. You want to do them justice and not just show them as the bad guy so you can also show them as the good guy. You have to humanize this person and audiences should be able to understand and go, “Yeah, I know this guy.” It’s not just black and white. So, every time I do a scene I try to talk…This is the biggest TV role that I’ve done. So, I always turn to my director and ask, “How was that? It felt real. It felt good. How did it look?” I want to really do justice to the role and to the character, who actually walked in those shoes.
Q) What was it like working with Ryan Murphy and Matt Bomer?
A) Unfortunately, Ryan was not there. He was already working on his show in New York. So, I didn’t meet him until they saw my show on Broadway. When I flew out of New York to begin filming in LA, Matt Bomer met with me at Fox Studios and we talked for a long time. We sat down and talked about Modesto Cunanan and how he wants to bring out this character and what he knows about and how he wanted to shoot this – which helped me a lot! For my roles in other TV shows, I was not really playing a big part. So, this was basically the first time I was directed and guided by a director. Matt is an amazing artist. He is so talented. He is such an amazing human being…And he looks like that! It’s not fair! [laughs] I love him. I love working with him. I wouldn’t mind being directed by him again. Also, Dan Minahan (who directed the ninth episode) is an amazing human being and just so open. Dan is one of the executive producers as well. I was just very blessed to have been given this opportunity.
Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from filming “American Crime Story?
A) There are two that stand out. One of them is a very intense scene with Darren Criss and it was so dynamic. It was so amazing and intense that we just went for each other. He was such a giving actor. Even when the camera was not on him he was just so giving. I felt like, “Oh my God! I’m an actor! I’m a TV actor!” It felt so good and it gave me so much confidence. The second one goes back to Darren Criss. I can’t say enough about him. I’m just so excited for him because this is a role that will showcase him and really show what he has – what he is about. He has so much to give. We were shooting this scene that was really difficult (which I can’t really say now) and we were having a hard time with it. We were rehearsing it and I kept cringing. Darren looked at me and said, “I understand.” And we talked about it. He talked me through, he calmed me down and said, “We don’t have to go there unless you want to.” He put me at ease and it was so tender. He was so gentle with me. He understood my dilemma. I felt so safe. I get emotional talking about it. He’s amazing! I love him. I love them all!
Q) What is it about the Gianni Versace story that makes it so fascinating?
A) I think it’s because it is that time where being gay…Maybe it was a turning point about talking about it and being open about it. It was something that even the powers that be during that time were trying to push aside as not important thinking, “He’s only killing homosexuals anyway.” When that happens…When a big name is one of the victims it becomes more than that and people actually had to do something about it. I think it is the failure to understand. Failure to open minds and accept people and accept that we’re all the same. It’s a shame that it took a famous person to die for them to take it seriously.
Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the instant fan feedback you’ll receive to episodes?
A) I don’t know. [laughs] I joined social media because it was fun. It’s fun to do my thing and share it with people who follow me. I would 99.9% of the people who follow me are really nice people and really positive people. I might not be looking forward to the negative ones. I tend to take it personally and I don’t know if I can handle that. I will engage positive people just talking about beautiful weather, but the negative ones I don’t know if I have the patience or the cleverness to tackle that. For the most part, I will talk to the positive ones because life is too short.
Q) What did you personally take away from working on the show?
A) I always believe that things happen for a reason and I think this is something that happened at the right time. I was having a conversation with Darren Criss about the show and he said, “I’m just so blessed, but it’s interesting that this blessing comes at the expense of someone else because it happened to someone else and now I’m playing it and it’s such a great role.” I told him I feel the same way. Someone had to do a horrible thing for us to get this. But I’m just grateful and if we can shine a light on this story and to this topic then I’m very humbled. And if this produces more work than I would humbly accept it. Amen.
Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?
A) My deepest gratitude. And I apologize for not being as interesting as a lot of people in the industry, but I promise to work hard and tell a lot of stories. And tell them well.
Tag: january 2018
@HornChristine: #BehindTheScenes of @ACSFX with our fabulous cast! Be sure to catch US tonight on #FX! #ACSVersace
ACS: The Assassination of Gianni Versace (Ep 1 Review)
Ryan Murphy’s newest installment of his anthology series American Crime Story proves that dead is the new sexy, and in the world of high-end fashion, murder is in season. Even after just one episode, it’s obvious that this series will be total 180 from the dingy, starkly-light law offices in the first installment, The People Vs OJ Simpson. This story takes places in the beautiful, luxurious Miami, where the sun and bright colors inspired the famed fashion designer. It’s a highly stylized show in the way that People Vs OJ just couldn’t be. The OJ Simpson case was a mystery that rocked the country and blew to scales way outside those actually involved, while the assassination of Gianni Versace was very much a crime of passion.
And of course by passion I mean one of love and lust. The murderer, revealed within the first 5 minutes to be the charming Andrew Cunanan (played by Darren Criss), was a man with a very devious plan to get to the top by any means necessary. Cunanan is the definition of a hot mess — he’s suave and uses seduction to get what wants, and what he wants is to be impressive and important. But under his smooth exterior is a disaster of a human being, evident in the first episode when Cunanan is immediately shown to be a pathological liar. He approaches Versace in a club in 1990, refusing to leave until Versace shows him proper attention. He wessels his way into Versace’s good graces and they get rather close while at an opera show Versace designed the costumes for (Cunanan tells his friends that Versace invited him there personally, which wasn’t the case at all).
The episode alternates between their meeting in 1990 and the murder in front of Versace’s mansion in 1997. In the 1997 clips, it is revealed that Versace is Cunanan’s 5th victim. I think it’s really interesting that the show is quick to set up Cunanan’s psychosis, and the real intrigue comes from watching Cunanan descent into the person he is at the time of the murder.
No doubt about it, the best part of this show (besides the cinematography) is Darren Criss. This is the role of a lifetime for Criss, and in just one episode he already has me begging to see more of this guy, crazy as he may be. Criss will be matched by Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace. She makes a brief appearance in episode 1, and I’m really intrigued how her character will play a role in the story.
And of course, things are about to get really complicated as a love triangle becomes a love pyramid, and then a love cube, and then a love web. Versace was known for his string of lovers, and something tells me that’s what this murder is all about.
Final Rating: 7/10
Edgar Ramirez on ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’
From executive producer Ryan Murphy, the FX limited series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story illustrates what happened when the cross-country path of destruction of spree-killer Andrew Cunanan (chillingly played by Darren Criss) landed on the steps of the 1997 South Beach residence of Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez), where the international fashion icon was murdered. Based on the book Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth, the series examines how fame, wealth and failed ambition collided with homophobia and prejudice, which ultimately delayed law enforcement’s search for one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted.
While at the TCA Press Tour presentation for FX, Collider got the opportunity to sit down with Edgar Ramirez for this 1-on-1 interview about the appeal of playing Gianni Versace, why he needed some convincing that he was right for the role, the relationship between Gianni and Donatella (Penelope Cruz), the homophobia that clouded the manhunt, whether he spoke to anyone in the Versace family, working with this incredible cast, and why he’d collaborate with Ryan Murphy again.
Collider: Really fantastic work in this!
EDGAR RAMIREZ: Thank you very much!
What was the appeal of signing on for something like this?
RAMIREZ: Gianni was a disrupter. I have a very strong attraction to characters that somehow consciously or unconsciously change history, and that was the case with Gianni. He changed the time that he lived in and had a huge impact on culture. The culture of fame and celebrity and the obsession with bling and fashion was something that he basically created. We’re living in a time that was partially forged by Gianni. That was very appealing to me.
Gianni Versace also seemed very aware of just how much he was changing things, as he was doing it.
RAMIREZ: Yeah. He didn’t have any choice because he was an outsider and he always lived as an outsider. He had no other choice but to change things because he was always looking in from the outside and he had to force his way in. That was something that had marked him, since he was a kid. He was always ready to fight and to change things because nothing was gonna be given to him or handed to him, and that’s something he had experienced since he was a kid.
It’s interesting that Donatella did seem to initially be as driven as Gianni, and he had to push her out there a little bit.
RAMIREZ: They were a dynamic duo. Donatella was Gianni’s soundboard. And then, later on, she became the force that she is today. At the time, she was his little sister, but she was very important to him.
Did you get to talk to Donatella Versace, at all, or do you know what she thought of you taking on this role?
RAMIREZ: No. I wanted to be as respectful as possible with her and with the family, in general. This is a family that went through a horrible tragedy. I speak on behalf of all of us, that we wanted to be as respectful and compassionate as possible, so we took on this project with the utmost respect for the family and for their loss. Deep inside, I think that one of our greatest hopes is to get some facts right for people. Even today, people who you would think would be informed aren’t informed. People have a lot of facts wrong, based on the prejudice and all of the stigma that surrounded this case. With Gianni, there was victim blaming, at the time. There are still people today that suggest that he had it coming because he invited his killer into his house, and it wasn’t that way. That speaks about a greater subject that I actually think is the theme of the whole series, which is homophobia. Gianni was basically killed because of homophobia. Something that comes back, over and over, when you look into this investigation is the don’t ask, don’t tell element. This is an investigation that was dusted over because all of the victims were gay men. A guy who was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list, and who was on national television every night for months and months, was never caught. At the time, which was only 20 years ago, he didn’t represent a public threat because he was only killing gay guys. Even the title of the series, The Assassination, has a political overtone, which is very important because he was targeted. For me, it was very interesting to be a part of that. One of Ryan Murphy’s biggest and most precious talents is the fact that he’s always sensitive enough and sharp enough to find and identify stories that are dramatically gripping, and at the same time, they speak about greater subjects that are going on in society.
What was it like to work with this incredible cast, including Penelope Cruz, Ricky Martin and Darren Criss?
RAMIREZ: Everyone was very committed and very respectful. We just wanted to do the story in the most respectful way possible because we all feel a lot of admiration for what Versace did and for what the family overcame, after his assassination. We had a sense of clarity and a sense of compassion that really played into the story. It’s a love story and a family story.
Even though this is, at times, dark material, you must have had so much fun making it.
RAMIREZ: Yes, very much!
Ryan Murphy seems like someone who, once he gets his hooks in you, you never get out of his ensemble of actors. Are you game to work with him again, in one of his wild worlds?
RAMIREZ: Absolutely! Anytime! It’s great, what he’s been able to accomplish. He’s basically created a studio where people are empowered to come up with ideas and let their obsessions be free. Ryan is very faithful to his obsessions. He’s alluring and seductive enough to make you participate with his obsessions, and that is an amazing talent. I’ve worked with amazing people in this series, not only with my cast, who’s a dream cast, but everyone on the crew. Honestly, I’m not just trying to be nice. I’m just excited about it. Everyone, from the props people to the production designers to my make-up and hair people, is so in command of what they’re doing. That is a beautiful culture to work in. It’s not a fear-based culture.
He also seems to see things in his actors that they don’t even necessarily think or know that they can do.
RAMIREZ: He was the one who convinced me to become Versace. I didn’t see it, myself. It took a bit of convincing for me to decide to gamble on this. He was the one who saw it. I didn’t see it. I never imagined that I would be invited to play Versace. It’s something that didn’t cross my mind, and now I’m so happy.
When did you finally feel that you’d gotten why you should be playing Gianni Versace?
RAMIREZ: There were two moments. There was one when we were doing a photo shoot for the series, before we started, and I suddenly felt the physicality. Gianni was a strong guy, but he didn’t come off strong. His shoulders were a little bit forward. Those things are very delicate. I was always cautious and I wanted to be as respectful to his persona as possible. So, during that photo shoot, I played some music that Gianni liked and we were taking pictures with the models, and then I felt like something was coming alive. I felt like maybe his physicality wasn’t that far off. I was channeling him somehow. And then, there was a beautiful scene with Penelope [Cruz], where I felt that his heart was there. It was a process, but in that photo shoot, I felt that he was coming to life. It was a creative moment. We were taking pictures for real, and I felt like maybe that’s how Gianni felt when he was doing publicity pictures for his company. It was that moment where I felt like, “Okay, I think this is gonna be fun. I think this is clicking.” It was very fashionable.
Edgar Ramirez on ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’
DarrenCriss: This picture was taken from Gianni Versace’s rooftop observatory. His view was quite literally to the heavens. The man knew how to live beautifully.
@ACSFX continues tonight at 10pm ET.
Edgar Ramírez on Becoming Gianni Versace, from Prosthetics to Pasta
The emperor has no clothes. Or at least that’s how we first encounter Gianni Versace in the opening minutes of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story: bare-chested in bed, gazing up at the finely painted clouds on the ceiling. With the camera trailing a polite butler’s distance behind, we follow the fashion legend as he strides through his palatial Miami Beach home, donning slippers and a salmon-pink robe, until he emerges onto an oceanfront balcony. The regal stance seems to beg a proclamation—only for Versace, his clothes do the talking.
When episode one debuted a week ago—luring in 5.5 million viewers thirsty for fashion-world mythology, 1990s nostalgia, or prestige true crime—one revelation was that the story line had far more to do with serial killer Andrew Cunanan than the man on the marquee. The other revelation was that the Versace clan (highlighted again in tonight’s installment) shimmered, with Penelope Cruz playing the chiseled, platinum-blonde Donatella—sister, muse, empress—and Edgar Ramírez in a chameleonic turn as the designer, who fused Roman myth with Renaissance opulence to model a new kind of Sun King.
“It was part of his cultural heritage: He wanted to be ruler of the realm,” says Ramírez, referring to the Versace solar system, “with all these people orbiting around him.” Establishing that dynamic from the first scene—as the designer floats through Casa Casuarina, projecting an easy, unassailable confidence—called for a different sort of transformation for the Venezuela-born actor, whose recent roles had him dive into boxing (Hands of Stone) and extreme rock climbing and surfing (Point Break). “I tend to be very physical in the exploration of my characters,” he says, “as far as my health permits and the time permits.”
In this case, the challenge was to fill out Versace’s “typical Southern Italian, robust body,” says Ramírez. The first casualty was the actor’s catchall training regimen, which includes regular sparring sessions, Pilates, and CrossFit. “Boxing basically sculpts your arms and your shoulders in a very natural way, so I needed to let the muscle mass go to convey the body that Gianni had"—strong, yes, but not chiseled. Next came the Versace diet. "I had to put on some weight to fit his measurements. That was the fun part,” Ramírez jokes of the steady helpings of pasta and polenta, along with arepas—the Venezuelan stuffed pastries he tracked down while filming in Miami. “The hard part is to lose it,” he admits, “so I’m still in the process.”
The second task: trading his thick mahogany hair for the older designer’s sparse gray. “It is a bald cap, and then I had four amazing wigs, depending on the time period that we were shooting,” Ramírez explains, adding that a prosthetic helped reshape his forehead and hairline (and making him feel “like a conehead,” he laughs). As important as that visual doubling was, it was just the beginning. “Impersonation is flat; it’s not alive,” he says. “In the end, [the goal] is to capture what his essence might have been.”
Working alongside Cruz, in a revolving lineup of sleek, barely breathable ensembles, offered as much a boost in character-building. “The bond between Donatella and Gianni came rather easily for Penelope and I,” Ramírez says of their close sibling relationships and Catholic upbringings. “And we’re Latin, so it’s pretty much the same cultural reservoir,” he adds, referring to an emotional brio that comes to the fore in tonight’s second episode, as Versace and his sister argue about whether their label should reflect market desires or his singular lust for life. “All this kind of heroine-chic look—he wasn’t into that. He wanted people to feel healthy and alive and vital,” Ramírez says, “because that’s how he was.”
Where would that exuberance fit into the world today, with feminine norms shifting and commerce reframing the fashion conversation? “For better or for worse, we live in a culture that was partially shaped by Gianni Versace: the exacerbation of fame, glamour, the whole bling culture,” says Ramírez. Prescient, too, was the way the designer injected unbridled sensuality into his work, from the red-carpet shutdowns to the supermodels still ruling the Versace runways. “He had a fascination for beauty in everything,” the actor adds. “It was about the women feeling gorgeous—he wanted the dresses to be a tool to be empowered.” With sartorial messaging on the awards circuit this year, that impulse lives on.
Edgar Ramírez on Becoming Gianni Versace, from Prosthetics to Pasta
Inside Max Greenfield’s Dramatic American Crime Story Turn
Max Greenfield made his The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story debut in a blink and you’ll miss it scene in the premiere, but come episode two, airing Wednesday, Jan. 24 on FX, viewers will learn a lot more about Greenfield’s character Ronnie.
Ronnie, a real person featured in Maureen Orth’s book Vulgar Favors, the show’s source material, is an HIV-positive man Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) meets in Miami after he has already killed four people. Ronnie’s a very different character than viewers are used to seeing the Emmy-nominated New Girl star in, from type of person right down to looks.
Greenfield said he’s on board with the dramatic transformations.
“I quite love it. What’s wonderful about working with [Ryan Murphy] is all of his department heads are incredible. You have wardrobe, hair and makeup and it sort of seems like we all work together under Ryan’s direction and by the time we end up on set, the acting part is the only thing left to do, and so much easier because we’ve created this external character in such a specific way. You’re like, ‘Oh, I know this guy,’” Greenfield said with a laugh. “It feels very collaborative that way, and to me it’s my favorite way to work.”
What kind of research did you do to get into character for Ronnie?
One of the wonderful things about Ryan is he’ll talk to you about a character and he speaks about characters in such depth, that when you go to do your own sort of work on it you have so much important information to go on, and you know sort of exactly where you then want to go. I think for Ronnie, my focus was the time period, which was 1997. It was a year or two years out from when they had figured out what the correct medication was for patients with HIV, and it left this group of people who were now living with HIV, where they had once thought—and accepted—that they were going to die. And having that feeling be so fresh for so many of these people who are now living with this disease—trying to listen to the people who experienced that was really what I tried to focus on.Had you read Maureen Orth’s book or did you after you got the part?
I read it later.I assume that could cloud any kind of character stuff you were doing.
Yeah, I mean I knew I was playing a real person. I knew that physically we don’t really resemble one another, I just thought that what I had read on the page in terms of the scripts, was so—what I felt like was meaningful, was all really there. And I wanted Ronnie’s story to really add to the overall themes of the show, rather than try to focus on playing a real person.Did this role require you to go to dark places? You were saying this was a time before there was this treatment. Did playing Ronnie affect you in anyway?
I mean, it certainly was a learning experience. [Pauses.] Yeah, there was such a sadness to this guy. You listen to people who still to this day are living with HIV, who had it at the time, and 20 years later some of them still talk about this idea that it’s still hard for them when they wake up to think that they’re not dying, that they might have another day. They lost so, so many people, and why are they still here? You know what I mean? It was a gut-wrenching, overwhelming time.Had you followed Andrew’s case in real life when it was happening? Do you remember the story?
No, I was 17 when it happened. I was a senior in high school, I didn’t live in Miami. I remember hearing about it, and had no clue that there were multiple murders, that there was a whole backstory to it, but yeah, I didn’t know anything more than the headlines.What do you make about the Versace family going back and forth with FX and Random House about the authenticity of the show?
I have not followed it. You know, look, it’s a really sensitive subject. It’s an odd thing. I found that doing press for this show has been very different from most of the press I’ve ever done for anything because there are real victims of this story, and the way that Ryan has chosen to show it—there aren’t a lot of fun elements to this. This is a very harsh look for many different perspectives on homophobia and issues that make a lot of people really uncomfortable. I think the hope is that you can watch it, it’s in your face, it is, I think, extraordinarily thought-provoking and I think—I hope—that it brings up a discussion that makes some these issues less uncomfortable for people and opens up a dialogue. But it is hard to talk about it…You get asked, like, ‘Did you wish that you had any scenes with Penélope Cruz?’ And you’re like, ‘No!’ I’m doing my job,’ and I was just, like, trying to honor this story and honor the way Ryan wanted to tell it.
edgarramirez25: Go deeper into The Assassination of Gianni Versace TONIGHT in the USA at 10p on FX • 🇪🇸 El Asesinato de Gianni Versace esta noche en los EE. UU. a las 10p en FX [En Latinoamérica mañana jueves 25. Confirma tu horario local] #ACSVersace
Via Darren’s Instagram Story (January 24th, 2018)
Darren Criss: ‘All Great Stories Are Great Stories Regardless of Color, Age, Gender, Sexuality’
We first noticed Darren Criss, 30, as Blaine, the super loveable Warblers lead singer on Ryan Murphy’s Glee. Now, he’s playing Andrew Cunanan, the serial killer at the epicenter of Murphy’s latest hit The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. While the roles feel like complete opposites, they do share one thing in common: Darren’s emphatic commitment to. We’ll let him explain…
What’s it like to go from playing the lead singer of a glee club to playing a murderer?
DARREN CRISS: I treat all characters, no matter how conventionally dark or light, with the same emotional currency. For the most part, actions that we consider abhorrent come from very real, relatable impulses like fear, hurt, embarrassment, ambition, or a broken heart. It’s my job in this case to humanize Andrew as much as possible. The pain that this man caused is so heartbreaking, but it’s my duty as an actor to try and paint the story with as much empathy as possible.
Speaking of empathy, you’re an activist for LGBTQ rights…
DC: All great stories are great stories regardless of color, age, gender, sexuality. I’ve been lucky enough to have been given really great roles within the LGBTQ community and to be a vessel for those people. I consider that one of the greatest privileges of my career thus far.
Did you feel any specific responsibility when you took the role of Andrew?
DC: The biggest burden that really stuck with me the entire time was I thought about Andrew’s family and friends, especially the people whose lives were directly affected by this. It’s been 20 years, and I couldn’t help but think of the children…There’s a son of one of the victims that is probably around my age. I think about those people and their families and how this is something they’ve been trying to put to rest, and while I’m part of perpetuating the narrative, I hope that somehow we can gain a better understanding of how this happened and in some way help these people [extricate] themselves from a really tragic series of events.
What else do you hope viewers take away?
DC: The show does a really great job of juxtaposing a lot of these lives against each other, particularly Gianni and Andrew. When I think about [Versace’s family], I see them somewhere in Italy scoffing at the idea that I could possibly compare these two men, but the truth is brilliance takes all forms. You had two very brilliant men that channeled that creativity in very different ways; one was the ultimate creator, and one was the ultimate destroyer.
Following the massive success of the first season, People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, does it feel like you and the cast have big shoes to fill?
DC: I joke that I can only join second seasons of successful first season Ryan Murphy shows! This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity that I felt so extremely lucky to be a part of every day. The fact that there is this peripheral buzz and attention on it is certainly a nice bonus and another bonus: social relevance. It checks all the boxes off any artist’s wish list. I honestly have been so happy that I could puke. So where do I go from here? I’m kind of screwed!
Hardly. You seem like a big overachiever—a classically trained violinist, you taught yourself to play five other instruments, co-founded your own musical theater company, and you write and record your own music in addition to your acting. What makes you so driven?
DC: I am painfully ambitious, It comes down to wanting to tell a story, which comes down to wanting to connect with people. My bleeding idealist heart just wants to give people a reason to connect, give strangers a reason to think about themselves in the context of other people’s lives and try and experience new feelings, new thoughts that they haven’t before. I really enjoy that, and the fact that I’ve been able to make a living out of it is really fun. So hell yeah, I overachieve to try and accomplish that as much as humanly possible!
You turned 30 last year, which can be a benchmark for a lot of women and men. Was that the case for you?
DC: The most clichéd inspirational posts like, “Live every day the fullest way,” I think I’ve always tried to do that. Time has a knack for going pretty quickly when you apply yourself like that. I didn’t have any bucket lists. I don’t have any pangs like I can’t believe my 20s are over or I can’t believe Glee is over because while they were happening, I’d like to think I was living it up and kicking ass. By the time I got to 30, I was like, “Alright, cool. Let’s keep going.”
Darren Criss: ‘All Great Stories Are Great Stories Regardless of Color, Age, Gender, Sexuality’
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