thewrap: Cody Fern makes a stunning debut in the Ryan Murphy series ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,‘ portraying slain architect David Madsen. Find out what Cody had to say about how internalized homophobia is “very different from all other kinds of shame,” only at TheWrap.com. 📷 @Msayles, Creative Director @Guerin_ad #ACSVersace
Emmys 2018: Fern discusses how internalized homophobia is “very different from all other kinds of shame”
For his stunning breakout role on “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” Cody Fern went to dark places playing a cautious out gay man entangled with spree killer Andrew Cunanan.
Australian-born Fern plays David Madsen, a sweet and eligible architect who can’t seem to shake his former lover Cunanan — who is a compulsive liar and increasingly desperate following a split with a generous older boyfriend.
After witnessing the gruesome murder of their mutual friend Jeff Trail at Cunanan’s hands, Madsen is taken hostage and eventually meets the same end. The Ryan Murphy FX series serves as a sort of redemption for Madsen, who was initially thought to be Cunanan’s accomplice.
“He was a very charming, very generous, very compassionate person. When [police] entered his apartment they found presents for his nephews and nieces that were wrapped six months in advance of Christmas,” Fern told TheWrap of the real Madsen, who was killed by two gunshot wounds and left for dead by a lake in Minnesota in 1997.
While Madsen was not an accomplice, the show suggests his own internalized shame over his sexuality bound him to his killer.
“Shame is something that’s really gripping the country right now,” Fern said.
The actor and series director Dan Minahan set out to “capture the essence of what gay shame does to a person. It’s very different from all other kinds of shame in that it’s something that’s forced onto a person from the society and then internalized.”
kmannmakeup: Darren Criss & The Drama Actor Roundtable @hollywoodreporter #photo by @kouryangelo #grooming by me #darrencriss #americancrimestoryversace #bts
There are few things that can make a sextet of generally loquacious actors freeze up faster than an open-ended question about gender pay parity. Unlike their female counterparts, many of whom have not only forced the dialogue but also demanded action via the Time’s Up movement, the men gathered for The Hollywood Reporter’s annual television Drama Actor Roundtable find themselves looking awkwardly around the table, waiting to see who will bite.
On this afternoon in late April, it’s Ozark’s Jason Bateman, 49, who jumps in first; but it doesn’t take long before The Americans’ Matthew Rhys, 43, interjects, diffusing any tension with a joke — which, to everyone’s delight, changes both the tenor and the direction of the discussion. Fortunately, the group — which also includes J.K. Simmons, 63 (Starz’s Counterpart); Jeff Daniels, 63 (Hulu’s The Looming Tower, Netflix’s Godless); Michael B. Jordan, 31 (HBO’s Fahrenheit 451); and Darren Criss, 31 (FX’s American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace) — is considerably better suited for an eclectic and often hilarious conversation about the easy yesses (and easier nos), the roles still on their bucket lists and, yes, the on-set politics of prosthetic penises.
Darren, you signed on to play Andrew Cunanan, who is not only a real person but also a serial killer. What were your concerns going in?
CRISS I’ve been lucky, I kind of fell ass backwards into the Ryan Murphy camp, which has been the gift that keeps on giving. The only thing that gave me pause was playing a real person, and this particular person had very lasting effects on people who are still alive and the echoes of the tragedy and the destruction that he wrought. I couldn’t help but think about the sons and daughters and husbands and wives who were affected by this guy, and now they’re like, “Oh God, we have to revisit this and make it pop culture fodder.” That weighs on me.
JORDAN Did you ever think about reaching out to them at all?
CRISS I thought about it. Out of almost respect to them, I didn’t want to bug them about it. Again, this is a horrible thing to have to think about, so I let it go.
The actor and singer, best known for his role as openly gay drama student Blaine on the TV series Glee, stars in the new instalment of Ryan Murphy’s true crime anthology series American Crime Story.
Following on from the successful first season The People vs OJ Simpson, this new nine-part stand-alone season explores the killing spree of Andrew Cunanan which included the shooting of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace on the steps of his Miami mansion.
“We get caught up in the really scary things, but we have more in common with the worst people we can think of than we care to admit,” Criss says.
“We all have access to the same emotions and actions. There’s a cocktail of variables for why we don’t go down certain paths.
“I by no means in finding all my similarities forgive or exonerate anything Andrew did. But I know what it’s like to have pain and hurt and longing. Most of that stuff doesn’t stem from these scary moments but from very simple, relate-able things.
“He was a bit of a showman. As an actor I can understand that – the desire to stand out, be ambitious, to leave a good impression. I’m also attracted to big ideas; I love flourish and embellishments.
“It becomes very easy to see how they get twisted and turned around. The point of attack (as an actor) is finding the best parts of somebody.”
Cunanan killed four other men, including Chicago business tycoon Lee Miglin, before he shot Versace. The series, which is based on Maureen Orth’s book Vulgar Favours, delves into those events which lead to his most infamous murder and subsequent suicide.
“The huge difference between the OJ story and this story is that most people don’t know most of the story,” Criss says. “I knew Gianni was tragically murdered on the steps of his home and I vaguely remember it was by a half-Filipino guy, but that happens in the first eight minutes of the series. There’s a whole lot more to talk about.”
Unlike his other dramatic roles, there was an added layer of responsibility for Criss in bringing a real-life tragedy to the screen.
“He was a real person who took very real people’s lives and wrought havoc on peoples lives who are still alive today,” he says.
“It’s fun to play baddies when they’re James Bond villains and you can play with the fantastical element, but when you’re inhabiting someone real it’s a different kind of invigoration.
“There’s a great deal of responsibility of making sure to tell the story right and hit the emotional beats right to not only honour those taken away but somehow allow an audience to wrap their brains around how something like this can happen.”
The drama also stars Edgar Ramirez as Gianni Versace, Ricky Martin as his partner Antonio D‘Amico and Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace. Murphy directs five of the episodes and is an executive producer.
“He was my boss on Glee but we had never worked tog in the typical actor director relationship,” he says.
“We talked about doing the Versace story before they made the OJ series. By the time it came out, if I wasn’t already extremely excited about shooting this series then I was more excited after I saw how well he was working with true crime stories.”
The charts below reflect how THR’s awards columnist Scott Feinberg believes the Emmy standings would look if voting for the 2018 race ended today. (Work released between June 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018 is eligible.) These projections are formulated using a combination of personal impressions (from sampling many programs), historical considerations (how shows with similar pedigrees have resonated), precursor awards (some groups have historically correlated with the TV Academy more than others) and consultations with industry insiders (including voters, content creators, awards strategists and fellow members of the press).
ACS news 