[…] Just before the final season started airing, Greenfield had a featured role in “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” That got his creative juices moving and his interest piqued in what kind of dramatic parts he might be able to accept.
Despite the limited series’ dark subject matter, Ryan Murphy, the executive producer, was open to casting someone who had made a name for himself in comedy.
“I had done ‘Horror Story’ with Ryan and we talked about (the miniseries),” Greenfield says. “I was like, ‘Let me put myself on tape for you.’ I sent it over and a week later, I was in Miami.”
Cast as a gay man who encounters Andrew Cunanan, the serial killer who murdered Versace, Greenfield wanted to show how he was able to stretch. “There was a description in the script that was far away from who I was. So, I did some research about that period and talked about the hair and the look he had.”
Murphy, he says, “lets you explore in all the different departments” of a production. Greenfield decided the character would have an earring and a buzz cut, “a homeless haircut and a mustache, but a crooked one. Nothing really was put together on this guy, but he was trying.”
The result: The kind of raves Greenfield hadn’t seen since the premiere of “New Girl.” Then, his quirky Schmidt was hailed as one of the breakout characters of the television season. He nabbed a Best Supporting Actor Emmy nomination and became the go-to guy for offbeat humor.
On Wednesday night (March 21), the Season 2 finale of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story placed the final puzzle piece in the jigsaw of Andrew Cunanan’s story.
The twisted narrative that spanned his 27 years and pushed further back in time with each new episode ultimately led us right back to where we started in the premiere: to the days after Gianni Versace’s murder. But the feelings toward Cunanan (Darren Criss) that we were left with as he took the life of his final victim — himself — are markedly different than those we felt as we watched him approach the gates of Versace’s (Édgar Ramírez) mansion and murder the celebrated fashion designer in cold blood.
But contrary to our usual feelings toward a central character, it’s not sympathy that we’re feeling. It’s empathy.
“When people say, ‘How can you humanize somebody like this?’ I say because he’s a human being. Everyone is human. Although, unfortunately, he’s famous for horrible things that I am not exonerating him for – they are deplorable and a tragedy and unforgivable,” Darren Criss told MTV News. “I’m not playing a killer; I’m playing a person.”
Starting with the one point of familiarity in Cunanan’s story — Versace’s murder — it felt like the only way forward was to go backwards, building a visual of the spree killer’s history with each episode and introducing us to him as a gay man in the throes of unrequited love, and before that as an escort for older men, and before that as the prized son of an immigrant who tangos with federal law and ultimately flees the country, leaving his family behind.
All the while, we have a constant reminder of who he ultimately becomes as we watch him pick off his five known victims: Jeff Trail, David Madson, Lee Miglin, William Reese, and Gianni Versace.
“We start with him as this absolute monster who is doing the worst crimes, and so up front we’re saying, ‘This is who he is.’ And then we’re saying, ‘How’d he become like that?’” writer and executive producer Tom Rob Smith said. “One of the advantages of the backwards narrative is you’re very clearly telling the audience, ‘This is someone who’s done these absolutely terrible things,’ so when you get into that stuff, you’re not trying to say that forgives him. That’s just to say where he comes from.”
Executive producer Brad Simpson agreed, “It doesn’t excuse what Andrew has done, but it explains it.”
This ability to understand a person, regardless of whether they were right or wrong, is empathy in its most pure, unaffected form, and being able to empathize with someone who confidently and consistently makes bad decisions helps us identify those turning points in which they begin to lose their sense of morality. In watching Cunanan’s early missteps, one can’t help but feel that this spiral was “preventable,” said Simpson.
“When you go back to his childhood, you see that this is a kid who wasn’t born to be a murderer. He’s somebody who might’ve been a little unstable, but he was talented. He was somebody you and I might’ve been friends with in high school because he was extroverted and interesting, and something went wrong,” Simpson added. “Here’s a kid who was the product of some sort of bad childhood situation and at some point, somebody could’ve helped him and they didn’t.”
Interwoven in that dialogue is an exploration of LGBTQ culture in the ’90s, a time when Don’t Ask Don’t Tell seemed more like a blanket rule than a military creed and the AIDS epidemic incited fear and prejudice toward the gay community. Versace navigated that feeling of shame that often comes with rampant homophobia and the lingering effects of it, as told through the dual narratives of Versace and Cunanan, two charismatic men who took drastically different paths.
“It was such a lonely period of time,” described Max Greenfield, who played Ronnie, a struggling HIV positive gay man in Miami and the closest Cunanan had to a friend in the two months before he murdered Versace.
In the finale, Ronnie poignantly stands up for his marginalized sect of society while being questioned by the FBI, asserting that the authorities failed to locate Cunanan because they “were disgusted by him long before he became disgusting.” He evokes the empathy that was built upon throughout the season, adding that Cunanan was never hiding; “he was trying to be seen.”
“One of the things that we’ve talked about is how dangerous it is … when you tell people that their voices don’t matter,” Greenfield said.
“When you do it from such an early age, when you’re sending that message to a young person who then thinks without even being told that their voice doesn’t matter or that they should be ashamed of who they are and ashamed of what they think and what they believe and their voice – it’s heartbreaking, and, really, the result of it can go in any different kind of way. That’s what the story is. It can result in beauty in Gianni Versace’s case, and it can result in real chaos and terror in Cunanan’s case.”
FX threw a “finale” celebration for the “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” at the DGA on Sunset Blvd. on Monday night to bookend a season that launched with a Mer-man and models strolling a glittering runway in Hollywood. Why don’t more hit TV shows celebrate the end like this? A few hundred guests (and Emmy voters) got a sneak preview of the last episode and some face time with the stars, writers and directors (including director Matt Bomer, far right) but unfortunately no Ryan Murphy.
Multiple media outlets tried to pry a St. Patrick’s Day-hued Judith Light for commentary on her other series, Amazon’s “Transparent.” The accusations against Jeffrey Tambor and his subsequent exit scrambled the show’s future, but Light is a pro and shut down all inquiries. “We’re here to talk about ‘Versace,’” she said repeatedly. Also Read: ‘American Crime Story’: Yes, Marilyn Miglin Still Sells Perfume
The “Versace” line snaked down Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood and extended to the corner of Fairfax. There were still about 75 people waiting helplessly in a standby line 20 minutes after the show had already started … that’s a good sign, showing that industry fans couldn’t wait two more days for their “Versace” fix.
“I’m not playing a killer. I’m playing a person,” lead actor Darren Criss, who plays serial killer Andrew Cunanan, said. “Once you enter it from that portal, it’s a little easier to understand.” We have a hunch we’ll be seeing a lot Criss over this Emmy season. It’s indisputably his show, even if he claimed a subordinate position in the group photo at the top of this gallery.
Could the series net FX a costume design Emmy nomination? Sure. Some of the memorable threads from this season graced the DGA lobby. There is also a new costume category this year: “Outstanding Period Costumes.” Ryan Murphy’s prior series, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” got a nomination and “America Horror Story: Freak Show” won a prior iteration of this category.
“I just came back from France and people were crazy about [the show],” Edgar Ramirez (left, who played Versace) told The Party Report. When not on stage, Ricky Martin introduced himself to other actors who he didn’t share scenes with. The season finale airs Wednesday night on FX.
Max Greenfield is preparing for life after New Girl.
“I’m gonna be a dad for a while,” he shares of his post-show plans. “That’s my favorite job.”
The actor has two kids, daughter Lilly and son Ozzie, with his wife of 10 years, Tess Sanchez. He tells ET that his parenting skills came in handy while working on the final season of New Girl, premiering Tuesday, April 10, on Fox.
“We do a flash forward,” he teases. “It’s like a three-year flash forward, so it’s fun. You get to see the characters that you’ve sort of known for the past six seasons in a little bit of a different light. Specifically, you know, Schmidt and Cece, who are now parents.”
It was revealed in the season six finale that Greenfield’s character, Schmidt, and his wife, Cece (Hannah Simone), were expecting their first child.
“It wasn’t like much of a stretch,” he says of playing Schmidt as a dad. “I was like, ‘Ugh! I was trying to get away from this. Now I have to come do it at work, too?’ It made me realize, ‘cause you know, you like, relate to being a parent and you want to play out those scenarios on set, or in some sort of acting role, and then you get there and you do it and you’re like, ‘No! No! This is not what I want to be doing.’”
Still, Greenfield notes the parenting storyline was something fresh for the series.
“It was sort of bittersweet, you know?” he says of wrapping production on the show. “I mean, it’s been seven years. I don’t think there were many more stories to tell. But, to say goodbye to a show and the people that you worked with for a really long time is difficult and then you’re, like, tasked with finding something new and going, oh man!”
Greenfield definitely found something new on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, playing Ronnie, an acquaintance of spree killer Andrew Cunanan. ET caught up with the 37-year-old at a For Your Consideration event for the series ahead of its finale, airing Wednesday on FX.
“It was very meaningful to be a part of this show,” he shares. “I think it’s a really strong message, I always love working with Ryan [Murphy]. He has such a specific point of view and, and you know, I had sort of only known what the first two episodes were going to look like and didn’t know anything beyond that. As I’ve watched the show, you’re like, this is just… this is a really stunning piece.”
LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 19: Maureen Orth, Cody Fern, Judith Light, Max Greenfield, Ricky Martin, and Jon Jon Briones speak onstage during the For Your Consideration Event for FX’s ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ at DGA Theater on March 19, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
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