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[LQ] Maureen Orth, Tom Rob Smith, Edgar Ramirez, Brad Simpson, Darren Criss, Nina Jacobson and Ricky Martin from FX’s ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ pose for a portrait during the 2018 Winter TCA Tour at Langham Hotel at Langham Hotel on January 5, 2018 in Pasadena, California

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[LQ] Actors Darren Criss and Edgar Ramirez of the television show The Assassination of Gianni Versace speak onstage during the FOX/FX Networks portion of the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 5, 2018 in Pasadena, California.

Why Ryan Murphy & The ‘American Crime Story’ Team Tackled ‘The Assassination Of Gianni Versace’ – TCA

American Crime Story Brad Simpson revealed during the FX session of American Crime Story:The Assassination of Gianni Versace that actor Edgar Ramirez “didn’t give us an immediate ‘Yes’” when it came to playing the title role of the late Italian designer.

“I loved being in a room that’s interesting with an actor and he says come back to me with another script,” said EP Ryan Murphy, “I said ‘What?‘”

Then Murphy stopped twisting Ramirez’s elbow, who was also present at this afternoon’s session.

“I love Edgar’s process, it’s a questioning one. It formed me to go deeper as a director. I remember when I got Edgar to say ‘Yes’, he asked me ‘Why do you want to tell this story?’ I told him that I really understand these characters like Versace, I understand what it is to be hunted. That unlocked something in Edgar. He understood the pain he had to go through (as an actor).”

However, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is not all about Versace as it follows serial killer Andrew Cunanan and the victims he disgraced.

“It was the largest FBI fail of all-time,” asserted EP Tom Rob Smith.

“We wanted to explore between Versace and Cunanan the story of a creator, who is an authentic, honest person drawing on his history, heritage and family and creating from the inside out and another person who goes on a path of destruction because he’s on the outside without the work or the talent, and can’t tell the truth about who he is,” said EP Nina Jacobson.

“It was a political murder. This was a person who specifically went out of his way to shame and out people,” said Murphy about Cunanan, “He was having a form of payback for a life he could not live.” In addition to Versace, some of Cunanan’s victims include Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin and architect David Madison, who actually was the murderer’s lover.

“When you plot to kill and expose people, that’s an assassination. And that’s why it was so important for us to include that in the title,” said Murphy. At one point the EPs considered putting Cunanan’s name in the title, but opted against it as they wanted to avoid glamorizing him.

After watching Darren Criss on Glee, viewers will be gobsmacked at the 180 he takes in portraying the slithery Cunanan. What’s affecting the actor is the fact that after 20 years, the real victims both on and off screen in American Crime Story have to relieve it. “That weighs heavily on me,” says the actor. Added series consultant Maureen Orth, whose book Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History is the source material for the second season, “I don’t think his (Versace’s) family is excited about the story being told.”

Commenting on the thrulines between the seasons of American Crime Story, Murphy mentioned again how the series will deconstruct major crimes that went beyond its victims and impacted society. Sexism and racism were the themes in The People v. O.J. Simpson which still were pertinent to today. In Versace “the homophobia of the day is topical” mentioned Murphy were as his next iteration of American Crime Story, Katrina tackles the medical conditions and global warming in our country and when they collide “who has the right to decide who lives and dies,” said Murphy.

Said Murphy, “Every season of this show will have a different tonality.”

Why Ryan Murphy & The ‘American Crime Story’ Team Tackled ‘The Assassination Of Gianni Versace’ – TCA

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Team on Exploring ‘What Went Wrong’ That Made Andrew Cunanan Kill

The latest installment of FX and Ryan Murphy’s anthology drama “American Crime Story,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” starts with the murder of the fashion icon (played here by Edgar Ramirez), but that is just the jumping off point for a deep dive into a handful of horrific crimes committed by Andrew Cunanan (played by Darren Criss) in the 1990s.

“This case is famous because of the murder of Versace,” executive producer Tom Rob Smith said at FX’s Television Critics Assn. press tour Friday in Pasadena, Calif. “That’s all I knew, but it was the tip of the iceberg.”

Smith, alongside executive producers Murphy, Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson used Maureen Orth’s 1999 book “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in US History” as research and the basis for the nine-episode series.

Since Cunanan’s victims were no longer alive to confirm exactly how events took place, Smith, who also wrote the episodes, pieced together the facts from Orth’s book and imagined what might have happened in between the gaps. “We have these tiny points of truth, and you try to connect the tissue between them, but I would never use the term ’embellish,‘” Smith said.

While Simpson pointed out that Versace is a “thread that goes all the way through” all nine episodes, the show is designed to be an ensemble, and they wanted to pay respect to all of Cunanan’s victims, including Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell), David Madson (Cody Fern) and Jeffrey Trail (Finn Wittrock). “Each victims were tragic in their own way,” he said.

Although the show follows Cunanan as he dips in and out of these other men’s lives (and ultimately takes their lives), Simpson noted they didn’t want to put his name in the title because it felt like it would have been “elevating him to a place we didn’t want to put him.”

Jacobson points out the title of the series really points to the contrast between Cunanan and the high-profile victim who made him famous. “Some of the themes [in the series are] the contrasts between Cunanan and Versace in the destroyer and the curator. One character is an authentic, honest creator drawing on his heritage, his background his family… and the other goes on a path of destruction because he wants the fame without the work or the talent,” she said.

Jacobson also felt strongly that Versace did not have to die but the homophobia at the time allowed the prior victims’ cases to be mishandled or under-investigated. “Cunanan was going out clubbing right across the street from the police department. The neglect and the isolation and the ‘otherness’ in the way the police handled the deaths of gay men, with the exception of one of the victims, [made Versace’s death] a death that didn’t have to happen,” Jacobson said.

The distinction between victims is an important element not only for the way their cases were handled but also for the way the murders occurred and the motivations behind them, per Smith. “When Andrew’s life fell apart, he murdered his closest friend and his lover, but those murders are different from Lee Miglin and Gianni Versace,” he said. “Once he crossed the line and became a killer, he began to kill to pursue ideas.”

Those ideas, according to Murphy, included targeting people “specifically to shame them and out them and have a form of payback for a life that he felt he could not live.” And Smith was adamant about calling Cunanan a “spree killer” whose pathology more closely mirrored terrorism than that of a “serial killer.”

“This is someone who had a [great] education and was brilliant and was witty and had the world at his feet. Why does this person end up killing five people? You have to explore the intellect. You have to explore what went wrong,” Smith said, noting that Cunanan was a man who felt invisible who was desperate to find a way to be seen.

“Once he realizes he lost everything, either you build something that impresses someone which takes a lot of work, or if you don’t want anonymity, you can try to rip something down,” Smith continued. “Andrew ripped down the success of Lee Miglin and Versace.”

Orth, as well, felt Cunanan’s desperation was what drove him — and ultimately what doomed him. “He was willing to kill to become famous. Now you can be an Instagram star or a YouTube star. If he had been born later, maybe that’s what he would have gone for, but he wanted to be famous that he was willing to kill for it,” Orth said.

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” premieres Jan. 17 at 10pm on FX.

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Team on Exploring ‘What Went Wrong’ That Made Andrew Cunanan Kill

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[LQ] Executive producer/director Ryan Murphy, executive producer Nina Jacobson, executive producer Brad Simpson, executive producer/writer Tom Rob Smith, consultant Maureen Orth, actors Darren Criss, Edgar Ramirez and Ricky Martin of the television show The Assassination of Gianni Versace speak onstage during the FOX/FX Networks portion of the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 5, 2018 in Pasadena, California

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Darren Criss, Edgar Ramirez, Maureen Orth and Ricky Martin of the television show The Assassination of Gianni Versace speak onstage during the FOX/FX Networks portion of the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 5, 2018 in Pasadena, California.