Tag: january 2018

For ‘Versace’ actor Darren Criss, SF childhood still shines brightly

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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

REVIEW: Gianni Versace gets stylish attention in new miniseries

The opening minutes of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” are about as operatic as television gets.

Jumping right into the meat of the story, they show serial killer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) gunning down the designer on the steps of his Miami mansion.

The limited series then backtracks, detailing what may have prompted the action and what kind of lives the two led.

Versace, for as much as the FX series’ producers can discern, had everything Cunanan wanted – power, fame, money and attention.

In flashbacks, we see the young man pretending to travel in the same circles. He drops plenty of salient information. But, really, everything he knows he gleans from magazines and books. He and Versace weren’t friends.

His is a matter of desire and “Assassination” is a telling portrait of fame, from those who have it and those who want it.

Written by Tom Rob Smith, the episodes take full advantage of the luxe settings created by Judy Becker and Jamie Walker McCall. You can feel the opulence of Versace’s world, sense the desire from Cunanan’s.

When Director Ryan Murphy shows glimpses of Cunanan’s past, you can see why he wanted to be in the designer’s inner circle. But that circle? It’s practically strangling. While Versace (Edgar Ramirez) appears to be a man about town, walking to the newsstand to get his daily dose of reading material, he’s very much a product of his own kingdom. Murphy gives a good tour of the home (parts were actually shot there) and offers a glimpse of the relationships he has with his lover (Ricky Martin) and sister Donatella (Penelope Cruz).

In subsequent episodes, it’s very clear Donatella is powerful. (“Nearly every dress I make is for her,” Versace says of his designs.) She controls everything – down to the way he looks before he’s cremated. Martin’s Antonio D’Amico, though, is often the odd man out.

Through Cunanan, we learn Versace created fabrics and was branching out into costume design. To make his story seem legit, the killer drops plenty of factoids and names. Cunanan is a smart man. But his obsession isn’t channeled and, the miniseries suggests, it turned into jealousy.

There are other victims in later episodes (Cunanan killed in the Midwest before he headed to Florida) and examples of the divide that existed between the young, ambitious man and the people he admired.

Criss doesn’t overdo any of the guises. He’s very good kissing up to the powerful; he’s able to blend in when he’s trying to hide from authorities. And while Murphy and other directors aren’t afraid to show his kinkier side, it is strange that moments seem like they’re from “American Horror Story,” not “American Crime Story.”

Max Greenfield makes an impression as a gay man Cunanan befriends in Florida and Finn Wittrock, Judith Light and Mike Farrell make it worthwhile to hang in to see just how far this story goes.

If there’s a loose thread it’s that “Assassination” doesn’t give us enough of Versace. Ramirez makes him a fascinating character. He just isn’t given the runway Cruz gets. She makes Donatella her own – right down to the deep voice. She’s more attractive than the designer’s sister but she still finds the insecurity that must nip at the heels of related fame.

Because it’s so great at reclaiming an era we almost forgot, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” easily stands as first must-see offering of 2018. It checks all the boxes needed for the perfect winter miniseries and there’s not an inch of it that isn’t stylish.

REVIEW: Gianni Versace gets stylish attention in new miniseries

Gianni Versace ‘American Crime Story’ looks closely at his killer

Gianni Versace and Andrew Cunanan were both smart, talented, engaging and popular. Versace grew up to become the most influential fashion designer of his generation. Cunanan grew up to kill Versace.

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” examines this tragic 1997 confluence when the second season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. on FX.

“We can’t know what went on in Andrew Cunanan’s head,” executive producer Brad Simpson tells the Daily News. “But we try to get under his skin. How does a guy with so much to give end up going to such a dark place?”

This gives “Versace” a considerably different feel from “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” Murphy’s acclaimed first season of “American Crime Story,” which aired in 2016.

“The O.J. series was more focused on the trial, the lawyers and its impact on America,” says Simpson. “This is more of a thriller.”

“Versace,” which stars Darren Criss as Cunanan and Edgar Ramirez as Versace, is based on the 1999 book “Vulgar Favors” by Maureen Orth. She is a consultant on the TV series, which also features Ricky Martin as Versace’s lover Antonio D’Amico and Penelope Cruz as the designer’s sister and inspiration, Donatella Versace.

The real-life Versace family has disowned the show, as it disowned Orth’s book, labeling it “a work of fiction.” The book and the TV series both show Gianni Versace, who was 50 when he was murdered, as sexually promiscuous and Donatella with a snappish edge, particularly toward D’Amico.

Simpson says no disrespect is intended.

“Any crime like this is tough on the families of the victim,” he says. “I can understand why families don’t want it replayed.

“But crime is a genre, in books and on TV, and Maureen Orth is an accomplished and respected reporter,” Simpson adds. “We have tried to be ethical and do right by Versace. We believe he was a genius, and the series makes that clear.”

The opening of the first episode also makes it clear, Simpson notes, “that Versace loved life.”

In a long scene that cuts back and forth between Versace and Cunanan on the morning of the murder, we see the Italian designer rising in his luxurious, sun-drenched Miami Beach mansion, then dressing and strolling out to a local news dealer to buy fashion magazines.

Multiple scenes also show the designer talking about how the most important part of his clothing is the expressions on the faces of the models.

If they seem joyful, he says, the clothes themselves will exude the same pleasure.

Conversely, Cunanan increasingly exudes darkness, right up until he takes his own life at age 27, eight days after gunning down Versace. “He’s not a murderer born,” says Simpson. “He’s a murderer made. He was born, like Versace, with a ton of potential. He just went another way.”

Fans who know Criss from Murphy’s “Glee” and musical roles will see him morph into pure menace here.

“They may be shocked,” says Simpson. “But he’s an incredibly versatile performer.”

“Versace” also inevitably dives into the gay culture of the 1990s, which Simpson notes was much further underground than the LGBT world today.

“Versace was one of the few public figures who dared to be out,” Simpson says, and the attitudes of police and others in the show feel much more distant than just 20 years ago.

“Back then, you couldn’t imagine gay people getting married,” says Simpson. “We’ve come a long way in 20 years, though not all the old attitudes are gone.”

In the end, “Versace” leaves several questions unanswered or unknowable: why Cunanan took the turn he did, and why he wasn’t caught after killing four other people.

Whatever happened, two smart men with great potential wound up dead. That’s a crime.

Gianni Versace ‘American Crime Story’ looks closely at his killer

Ryan Murphy digs into another crime story with ‘Versace’

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (10 p.m. Wednesday, FX) is inherently more interesting than its acclaimed predecessor, “The People vs. O.J. Simpson.”

Sure, the title’s a bit of a spoiler. But there isn’t a white Bronco chase. There’s no, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Aside from the principals — the Italian fashion designer and his obsessed murderer, Andrew Cunanan — few details of the 20-year-old crime remain rooted in the American consciousness.

Best of all, there isn’t a Kardashian in sight.

As Versace, Edgar Ramirez makes one of the grandest entrances you’ll ever see on TV. He rises from bed in a room that resembles the Sistine Chapel, slides into slippers worth more than my car and dons a fabulous pink robe before stepping onto his balcony to survey his Mediterranean-style villa that’s decorated in what could charitably described as “drug lord chic.” Eight uniformed servants, as still as statues, await him in the courtyard, where he glides by, grabbing a glass of orange juice from a silver tray before venturing out for breakfast by the pool in what looks like Bellagio’s most exclusive corner. The scene is as operatic as it is opulent.

Versace’s name is in the title, and viewers will learn quite a bit about the designer, his sister Donatella (Penelope Cruz) and his partner of 15 years, Antonio D’Amico (Park Theater headliner Ricky Martin). The real star, though, is “Glee’s” Darren Criss, who threatens to turn the spree-killing Cunanan into a camp icon.

Driving through South Carolina on his way to Miami Beach, Cunanan changes the radio station from a report of his being wanted for murder to one playing Laura Branigan’s “Gloria,” which launches him into a jubilant singalong. Later, he dances about to Phil Collins and Philip Bailey’s “Easy Lover” in a tiny pink swimsuit inside a pink hotel suite while some poor mark he hustled on the beach struggles mightily for breath on the bed.

Keep in mind, the series may be written by Tom Rob Smith (the miniseries “London Spy”), based on the controversial book “Vulgar Favors” by Maureen Orth, but it’s overseen by Ryan Murphy of “American Horror Story,” “Glee” and “Nip/Tuck” fame. Ball gags and bondage gear are the only types of restraint he’s ever shown.

As charming liars go, Criss’ Cunanan falls somewhere between those of “Catch Me If You Can” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”

A flirtatious young man approaches Cunanan at a nightclub and asks what he does for a living. “I’m a serial killer,” he responds. “What?” the man asks, unable to make out his answer over the roar of the music. “I said, ‘I’m a banker.’ I’m a stockbroker. I’m a shareholder. I’m a paperback writer. I’m a cop. I’m a naval officer. Sometimes, I’m a spy. I build movie sets in Mexico and skyscrapers in Chicago. I sell propane in Minneapolis. Import pineapples from the Philippines. I’m the person least likely to be forgotten.”

I’m waiting for Benj Pasek and Justin Paul to set that to a foot-stomping beat for “Cunanan: The Musical.”

The Versace family has slammed the series, saying it “should only be considered as a work of fiction.” Among the limited series’ more controversial aspects are allegations that the designer had contracted HIV and that he had met, interacted with and even become captivated by his killer nearly seven years before in San Francisco.

But, as Cunanan says when he’s confronted about his series of lies and told that what he says matters: “Only if they know it isn’t true.”

Ryan Murphy digs into another crime story with ‘Versace’