LOS ANGELES — Has fashion’s big moment on television finally arrived with the docudrama “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” the long-awaited installment of “American Crime Story” that begins airing on Wednesday on FX?
Not exactly.
This show centers not on Mr. Versace, the storied Italian designer fatally shot on his doorstep in Miami at age 50 on July 15, 1997, but on his killer, Andrew Cunanan, whose three-month murder spree culminated in his suicide at 27 a week later, leaving any motive a mystery. Mr. Versace doesn’t even appear in some episodes. Much of the season is told backward, beginning with the murder, and then working through Mr. Cunanan’s origin story, going back to his childhood.
It’s grittier and bloodier than its predecessor, “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” which skipped the two gruesome murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and focused instead on the madcap trial that followed, setting ratings records for FX and winning Emmys and Golden Globes aplenty.
“We knew we didn’t want to do ‘O.J.’-lite,” said Brad Simpson, an executive producer of the series. “We didn’t want to have the exact same tone or vibe because we felt like that’s something we couldn’t match. This is much more about crime.”
“‘O.J.’ was very frenetic,” said Ryan Murphy, another executive producer. “‘Versace’ is lot slower and grander in its compositions. That’s one of the turn-ons of the show for me. Every season, we’re going to take on a crime, we’re going to look at broader social issues, and every season will have a different tone.”
This one is two-toned. There is the color of Mr. Versace (Edgar Ramirez), whose over-the-top sensibility brought celebrities to the front row, and who helped nurture his younger sister, Donatella (Penélope Cruz), into a star in her own right. In the series, life is getting better for Mr. Versace before his death: His fashion house is about to go public; he is out and proud, rare for high-profile gay men at the time; and though he is H.I.V. positive, new medication is making him stronger.
Then there is the darkness of Mr. Cunanan (Darren Criss), who had a taste for the high life but appears to have made few earnest efforts to get there. The series focuses on his hideous unraveling from social climber to killer. In all, he murdered five people, including two friends, and at least three, and possibly four, gay men.
Much of the series is based on “Vulgar Favors,” Maureen Orth’s 1999 book about Mr. Cunanan, from which the Versace family has distanced itself. “The Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about Mr. Gianni Versace,” the fashion label said in a statement last week. “Since Versace did not authorize the book on which it is partly based nor has it taken part in the writing of the screenplay, this TV series should only be considered as a work of fiction.”
Regardless of its genre, ratings estimates indicate that roughly half the audience that tuned into “The People vs. O.J. Simpson” will not return for this season, said John Landgraf, the chief executive of FX, and he’s just fine with that.
“We’ve made a show that by definition that a gay man that’s lived through this experience is going to have a richer, deeper connection to this material than a straight guy who lived through that period of time,” Mr. Landgraf said. “That’s probably not the most commercial choice you could make in America, but the way you get to great television is to ask people to go into experiences that are compelling but that are challenging.”
Such experimentation makes FX an appealing line item on the slate of properties that the Walt Disney Company is looking to buy from 21st Century Fox, in a deal that will depend on regulatory approval. Mr. Murphy, a hitmaker whose contract expires later this year, has said he is not sure if he will stay with Fox after the Disney sale.
He said he was inspired to do the show because he was living in Los Angeles at the time and gay men in all major national metropolises were transfixed by the story, and terrified Mr. Cunanan would be arriving in their city next. But when Mr. Murphy proposed a season about Mr. Cunanan three years ago — well before the Simpson series debuted — it gave his colleagues pause.
Nina Jacobson, a producer of the series, politely nodded along before she went home to Google the killer. “I was pretty much in the dark,” she said. Brad Simpson, another producer, had a dim memory, too, and wondered if there was “enough meat on the bone.”
Compared with the abundance of coverage around the O.J. Simpson case (tons of books, boundless archives of material), the public’s fascination with Mr. Cunanan’s murder spree was faded like a pair of acid-washed jeans.
But the producers saw bigger themes in Ms. Orth’s book. If Mr. Simpson’s trial touched on racism and sexism, the Cunanan tale connected to something else: the shame of the closet, the remarkable difficulty of being openly gay in the 1990s.
“‘American Crime Story’ at its core only works if you’re telling a bigger story about a societal ill,” Mr. Murphy said. “So I thought, ‘Can we do something on homophobia in the ’90s and the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policies at the time that I think and ruined so many lives?’ And it’s more topical than ever now with this president who is all about discrimination and exclusion.”
Ricky Martin, who plays Mr. Versace’s longtime lover Antonio D’Amico, was himself in the closet in 1997. During multiple time jumps in the series, Antonio is presented as both devoted lover when Mr. Versace was in the closet, and then devoted and even happier lover after he came out.
Mr. Martin said that his performance was informed by two things: just how much better it is to be proudly out now, and the embarrassment that he felt considering how he treated his former partners while he kept his sexuality secret.
“I went back to my life and what my life was in the ’90s: big closet,” he said. “I made my lovers be like Antonio where he was kept in the shadows and kept in the dark back in the ’90s. It took me back to a place, where, see, it was not necessary. I go back to Harvey Milk where he said everyone has to come out and we have to normalize this. So for me, I was playing both roles. I was playing the man coming out and the relief of it, and the lover, the victim.”
It wasn’t hard for Mr. Murphy to secure Mr. Martin’s participation.
“I used to live in Miami when the actual crime happened,” Mr. Martin said. “Although I never met Gianni personally, I was invited to that house many, many times. And for some reason I never went. I had a Giorgio Armani campaign back in the day, so I’m sure that didn’t help!”
Never one to miss a red-carpet opportunity, the house of Armani last week blasted out a news release announcing that it had dressed Mr. Martin, Mr. Criss and Finn Wittrock, the actor who plays one of the Cunanan victims, for the Los Angeles premiere of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”
Ms. Cruz chose a Stella McCartney dress for the premiere. A 2009 Academy Award winner for her performance in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” she called Donatella Versace, with whom she had come into contact “here and there” over the years, after being cast.
“She said to me, ‘If somebody is doing this and play me, I’m happy that it’s you,’” Ms. Cruz said. “We spoke for one hour. It was a very good conversation.” (Ms. Versace did make one request of the producers, which was granted: that neither of her two children be portrayed in the series.)
Ms. Cruz said she watched hundreds of hours of tape of Ms. Versace to master her Italian accent and mannerisms, and that her portrayal was intended to be one of “respect and love.”
And she said that early last week, Ms. Versace sent her flowers and that the two have been texting like middle-schoolers.
As for Mr. Ramirez, he found access to his character through compassion for the intense scrutiny Mr. Versace faced post-mortem. Mr. Versace “was killed twice,” he said. “He was killed physically, and he was killed so to speak morally and socially.”
The show’s main accomplishment, according to Mr. Ramirez? “I think it’s the redemption of Gianni Versace.”
Tag: ryan murphy
Darren Criss makes radical transformation in ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’
Brace yourself, “Glee” fans: You’re about to see a radically different side of Darren Criss.
In “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” the actor who gained fame as the cute, preppy singer Blaine Anderson, transforms himself into a cold-blooded serial leader.
Criss, a Bay Area native, plays Andrew Cunanan, the man who murdered five people over a three-month span in 1997. One of his victims was Versace, the iconic fashion designer who was gunned down on the steps outside his mansion in Miami Beach.
“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is producer Ryan Murphy’s nine-episode follow-up to “The People v. O.J. Simpson” and Criss’ mesmerizing performance is at the center of it. If “Versace” manages to draw anything close to the amount of attention “O.J.” generated, expect to hear the actor’s name being bandied about during awards season.
Playing Cunanan might seem like a bold, image-busting kind of move, but Criss doesn’t see it that way.
“I think people have a fascination with the dichotomy between something like ‘Glee’ and this (series), but people sometimes forget that actors are actors. We are acting,” he says. “I’m always looking for interesting material. I’m looking for things with clay that I can get my hands on and really do something different and big.”
Murphy, who also produced “Glee,” says he always knew Criss had the ability to go dark. That — along with the actor’s physical resemblance to Cunanan — made Criss his “first and only choice” to play the pivotal role in “Versace,” which is based on Maureen Orth’s book, “Vulgar Favors.” The cast also includes Edgar Ramirez as the title character, as well as Penelope Cruz as Versace’s sister, Donatella, and Ricky Martin as his longtime (partner) Antonio D’Amico.
Cunanan was a closeted gay man, who after dropping out of college, settled in the Castro District of San Francisco. Over his final years, he often befriended wealthy older men. He had a tendency to lie his way into high society, telling fantastic tales about his personal life and false accomplishments. Eight days after shooting Versace, and with the FBI hunting for him, he killed himself with a gunshot to the head in a Miami houseboat. He was 27 years old.
While doing his research for the role, Criss said he was surprised to learn that Cunanan was not “your typical spree killer.”
“This is not somebody who had a history of killing small animals and burying them in his backyard,” he says. “He defied all those textbook analogies. He was a charming, affable person, despite everything we know about him now. For the most part, people loved Andrew. He was always the life of the party. There were so many positive things about him.
“I’m less disturbed and creeped out than I am just utterly heartbroken by the loss of such potential and the wrong avenues he took in life.”
Criss, who grew up in San Francisco and spent much of his youth performing in American Conservatory Theater plays, says he avoided simplistically thinking of Cunanan as just a violent psychopath. Instead, he tried to detect “common denominators.”
“You find the primary colors — basic things that aren’t so complicated,” he says. “For example, everyone knows what it feels like to want something that you’re not allowed to have, the desire to rise higher than your station. Then you add in the other layers — what’s happening in his home life, his socio-economic situation and what’s happening with his own sexuality and that kind of added the other colors. You find things that you can relate to and then you let the script and the world around you — with Ryan’s curating — do the rest of the work. It’s not as hard as what it would seem.”
“Versace” differs from “O.J.” in tone and approach. As Murphy says, the first was a “courtroom pot boiler” and the followup in a “manhunt thriller.”
“I really loved how we laid into everybody who was affected,” he says. “Not just the people who were killed, but also the relatives, the siblings.”
Even though Criss was forced to dwell in the dark side during much of the production on “Versace,” he insists he didn’t bring the role home with him at the end of the day.
“I know a lot of people who jump into these kinds of things, and it really consumes their whole lives,” he says. “… I think what saved me is that Andrew compartmentalized so many things in his life: emotions, people, experiences. He could disassociate. And likewise, I could sort of disassociate.”
Darren Criss makes radical transformation in ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’
Ryan Murphy on ‘Versace,’ Darren Criss’ Star Turn and the #MeToo Movement
Ryan Murphy is poised to give audiences another jolt of innovative storytelling starting Wednesday with the premiere of FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”
The producer took time out from “Versace’s” Jan. 8 premiere party at the Hollywood Palladium to speak with Variety about the development of the series and the revelatory performance by series star Darren Criss as killer Andrew Cunanan.
How did you come up with the idea of having the story unfold in a backward-chronological fashion?
The idea of telling the story backwards was [FX CEO John] Landgraf’s. We had written the first two (episodes) and then you go in and talk to John and say, “OK, here’s the story.” We just started talking about the “onion peel” of shame — because really it’s all about shame — and we just started talking narratively about that. The more we talked about it in the room, the more we liked it. We knew that we were following ‘The People V. O.J. Simpson” which is a really difficult thing to do so we have to do everything we can to make it special.
What did that require of you on the production end?
It’s a very hard thing to construct because you have to be uber-prepared. The actors have to be very informed. I liked to work by giving (actors) concentrated information but not giving them much more than that. It was hardest on (writer) Tom Rob Smith and the actors. But it was the question of how do we keep being ambitious, how do we keep challenging ourselves? When you go backward in someone’s trajectory it’s more surprising for the audience and I think the experience is deeper. We tried to make it so that if you watched the show backwards it would be an interesting and oddly symbiotic thing. It’s a narrative device that takes a lot of extra planning, but when it works it’s great.
Darren Criss has drawn mostly rave reviews for his performance, which is very against type for the former “Glee” trouper. What was it that gave you confidence he could handle this role?
It was important to me that we were true to Cunanan’s ethnicity (Filipino and Italian). I had only directed him once (on “Glee”) but we stayed friends. I remember thinking he was a really good dramatic actor. He did something weird once in a “Glee” scene. I told him please don’t lose that excitement, and he never did. He always checked in and checked in with me. I called him when we were ready to greenlight (“Versace”). I wanted Cunanan like Darren to be a discovery for the audience. The interesting thing about Cunanan is you don’t know what he’s capable of and to have the actor in it be on the same powerful journey and I think it is.
Did he have any pause about taking on the role of a spree murderer?
(Darren) really went for it. He studied it, he pushed himself hard. His performance got quieter and more concentrated and studious and I like that. It was powerful to watch. I was not interested in just doing a serial killer story but to track the idea of how does someone become a monster?
How do you think the audience will react?
Darren is reminding me a lot of Sarah Paulson’s trajectory. It was powerful to watch somebody step into adulthood in a way. It’s very rewarding.
With “Versace” you are continuing your commitment to hiring women for at least half of the directing assignments on your show. Your Half Foundation has also been proactive in opening doors for female directors. These initiatives could not be more timely as the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements take root.
Everybody’s talking about it. it’s important. I changed the dynamic of my company. The most important thing is that the culture has changed to be more about ideas and the exchange of ideas than ego. It’s interesting when women direct. The work is better. They ask more people to participate. I’ve been doing this a year and a half. It’s been a really good change in my life. That foundation may be the most important thing I’ve ever done in my career. I’m delighted to just keep going.
Ryan Murphy on ‘Versace,’ Darren Criss’ Star Turn and the #MeToo Movement
Andrew Cunanan’s Minnesota victims aren’t forgotten in ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’
LOS ANGELES – “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” references one of the most notorious murders of the past 25 years, but even crime buffs may be thrown by the miniseries’ twist.
It’s not really about Versace.
The focus is squarely on the famed designer’s killer, Andrew Cunanan. Which means executive producer Ryan Murphy and writer Tom Rob Smith spend more time on the jealous rages that led to the deaths of Minnesotans Jeffrey Trail and David Madson than they do on the fifth and final target of Cunanan’s 1997 killing spree.
“There’s a distinction between the victims,” Smith said. “When Andrew’s life was falling apart, he murdered his closest friend and lover. Once he crossed that line, he then started to kill to pursue ideas. Versace is the culmination of that.”
Two episodes are set in the Twin Cities — the fourth and fifth of the nine-part drama that begins Wednesday — but were filmed in and around Los Angeles.
They include visits to a rural Minnesota dive bar (where singer Aimee Mann tackles an acoustic version of the Cars’ “Drive”) and the late lamented Nye’s Polonaise Room, where friends dragged Cunanan one night. Fans of Nye’s will be disappointed to see the Minneapolis restaurant and bar portrayed as a second-story nightclub with a dance floor the size of an airport hangar.
The decision to explore the mind of a murderer gave the storytellers a chance to make a statement about homophobia in the 1990s. Because Cunanan’s first victims were gay, the show suggests that law enforcement responded initially with a shrug rather than shock until the killer gunned down a big name.
One episode is dedicated to Trail’s decision to leave the Navy after a suicide attempt, spurred by the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gay troops. The Minneapolis Police Department comes across as particularly flat-footed and disinterested in diving deep. The series essentially argues that Versace’s murder outside his Miami Beach mansion could have been averted if investigators had pursued the Cunanan case more aggressively.
“Versace’s death is political,” said producer Nina Jacobson. “It was the neglect, the isolation, the sort of otherness in how the police handled the murder of gay men. This was ultimately a death that didn’t have to happen. Some of our anger informed us.”
The reverse-chronological approach of the series is bound to throw viewers, especially after a nearly wordless, expertly choreographed opening, directed by Murphy, that features Versace’s final moments following a morning stroll to retrieve fashion magazines from a Miami Beach newsstand.
There’s also a red herring in the casting of Penélope Cruz as Donatella Versace. Other than showing off a gruff Italian accent, the Oscar winner isn’t given much to do. The production team clearly spent megabucks re-creating Versace’s studios in Italy, but so little time is spent on the lavish set that it’s like stopping at a fancy restaurant for an appetizer.
“The obsession with Gianni Versace and the dance between the creator and the destroyer is the spine, the fabric, of what held this together,” said producer Brad Simpson, who also worked on the previous “Crime” installment, “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” which won the Emmy for best miniseries. “But we felt it was really important along this journey to not only tell this story of Versace and what he meant, but use that to tell the story of David Madson and Jeff Trail and the other victims.”
They considered putting Cunanan’s name in the title of the series, as Maureen Orth did in her book “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History,” the primary source for the screenplay. “We decided that, ultimately, it was elevating him to a place we didn’t want to put him in,” Simpson said.
The emphasis on Cunanan over Versace (played by Edgar Ramírez, best known for portraying a terrorist leader in 2010’s “Carlos”) and his longtime lover Antonio D’Amico (pop star Ricky Martin) puts the pressure on actor Darren Criss, who made his name as a happy-go-lucky teen singer on the 2009-15 Murphy series “Glee.” His Broadway credentials are utilized in “Versace” only when Cunanan dances shirtless while torturing sexual partners during S&M sessions or sings along to “Pump Up the Jam” on the car radio while a deathly nervous Madson sweats in the passenger seat.
Criss didn’t take the role home with him. “I know a lot of people who jump into these things, and it really consumes their whole lives,” he said. “I think what saved me is that Andrew compartmentalized so many things in his life: emotions, people, experiences. He was able to dissociate and, likewise, I was able to dissociate. As an actor, it’s your job to find as many common denominators between you and the person you are playing, however good or bad. The differences are few in number, but high in content. Those differences made it OK for me to step away from it because I was doing things on set so far away from myself at home.”
While this “American Crime Story” decidedly emphasizes the criminal side, Murphy cautions viewers about reading too much into how future franchise installments might play out. The next show in the anthology will look at the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. The fourth season will deal with the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal.
“One of the joys for me about this show is that every season will have a different tonality,” Murphy said. “The first season was very much a courtroom potboiler. The second season is a manhunt thriller. The third season really looks at the medical conditions in our country, and global warming, and who decides who gets to live and die. So every season will be different from anything we’ve done before.”
Andrew Cunanan’s Minnesota victims aren’t forgotten in ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’
FX’s Versace murder drama visceral and terrifying
FX’s widely celebrated O.J. Simpson “American Crime Story” focused on the theatrics and hijinks of the celebrity athlete’s televised murder trial and the colorful characters involved.
Don’t expect any such amusement from “Crime Story’s” second season, which details the murder of fashion icon Gianni Versace in the summer of 1997 and the events leading up to him being gunned down.
While viewing the first four episodes, I didn’t smile once. What I did feel was stunned, sad, chilled, mortified and thoroughly sickened, as if someone had delivered a hard punch to my gut.
The drama is breathtakingly beautiful at times, inviting us into the opulent, glamorous and often decadent world of Versace (Emmy-nominated Edgar Ramirez, “Carlos”), his handsome longtime partner Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin) and his fiercely devoted sister Donatella (Oscar-winner Penelope Cruz), a realm made even more dreamy by pastel-washed Miami.
But that’s only the backdrop. This new nine-part “American Crime Story” is primarily a no-holds-barred depiction of the horrific crimes of sociopath Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss, “Glee”), his calculated killing of Versace, the gruesome slayings that preceded it and the effect on the various victims’ friends and families.
“Every season of this show will have a different tonality,” co-executive producer Ryan Murphy told TV critics at a recent FX press session in Pasadena, California. “The first season was very much a courtroom pot boiler. The second season that you’ve seen is a manhunt thriller.
“I loved that this was not glamorizing the Cunanan story, and we never want to do that on this show,” Murphy added. “I really loved how we laid into everybody who was affected, not just the people who were killed, but also the relatives, the siblings. I think what (Cunanan) did was very, very destructive, and the reasons why he did it — the homophobia of the day, which still persists — is something really topical.”
What both series have in common is they’re topical and reflective of the day.
“With ‘O.J.’ we looked at sexism and racism, and we are doing the same with this season,” Murphy said.
As for the drama’s honesty, the Versace family recently decried it as “fiction.” However, journalist and author Maureen Orth, whose book “Vulgar Favors” served as the basis for the drama, stands by its authenticity.
“I would say my sourcing in the book is 95 percent or more on the record, and I talked to over 400 people, and so, so many things that you might think were made up aren’t made up,” Orth said.
As indicated before, it’s not an easily digested story: Each of the murders is terrifying, as is Cunanan’s manipulation and shaming of his victims.
However, it’s portrayed with such realism and emotional commitment by its magnetic and meticulous cast that you are hooked instantly and will want to see it through to its conclusion.
The stars met with us to share their feelings about the characters they play and how being part of such a sad, brutal and disturbing series affected their lives.
Murphy said Ramirez was the only central cast member who didn’t instantly say yes when approached.
The actor eventually was convinced, however, and said he came away surprised by what he learned about Versace the man: “How family oriented he was and how strong those family ties were and how important they were in his life. And how rather subtle and intimate and private he was in comparison to the public perception of the House of Versace.”
“He was rather a quiet person that would go kind of shy, you know, extroverted, but shy at the same time,” Ramirez said. “And he would go to bed rather early and wake up rather early and had more the demeanor and the life of a craftsman than like a larger-than-life celebrity. So that’s something that even to me was very surprising.”
Martin, known best as the Latin pop star who gave us hits such as “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” said he had a conversation with his character, D’Amico, to assure him that his relationship with Versace would be “treated with utmost respect.”
“I told him, ‘I will make sure that people fall in love with your relationship with Gianni. That is what I’m here for. I really want them to see the beauty and the connection that you guys had.’”
He also got the biggest laugh during the FX press session. “I peed a little bit,” he said when he learned Donatella would be played by Penelope Cruz.
As for Criss, people who’ve seen him in lighter roles, such as the singing-dancing Blaine in “Glee,” no doubt will be astonished by the intensity of the actor’s performance here, particularly when the sadistic side of Cunanan comes out.
However, Criss made sure he also found something likable about Cunanan, such as his charm, to turn in a fleshed-out portrayal.
To preserve his sanity through filming, he said, the role “didn’t come home with me. I know a lot of people who jump into these kinds of things, and it really consumes their whole lives. And maybe that’s just the kind of person I am, but my alibi of how that, sort of, works is I think what saved me is that Andrew compartmentalized so many things in his life: emotions, people, experiences. He could disassociate, and likewise, I could sort of disassociate.”
The Stars of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” Speak out (January 8th, 2018) | Source
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Premiere Draws Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz
Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez and Darren Criss, stepped out at the premiere of their new series, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” the second installment of Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story” franchise. While the Versace family recently released a statement denouncing the project as “a work of fiction,” Murphy was quick to mention that Cruz had received a kind gesture from her onscreen alter ego. “Donatella Versace sent Penelope Cruz a huge arrangement of flowers yesterday,” he shared.
“It was very nice,” said Cruz, who stars as Donatella in the nine-episode series, which debuts Jan. 17 on FX. “I don’t know if she has seen [any episodes yet], but it’s a personal thing. For me, it really made me smile. It made me happy.” The actress said she admires Donatella’s passion and success in running an empire. “She had to do that in a moment when she was devastated and she proved to be strong. That was a very generous thing to do because I’m sure she did it also for him.”
“Look, maybe it will be too painful for her to [watch], but I think we treat her with a lot of respect and dignity,” added Murphy. “I really admire Donatella — like I really admire Marcia Clark. I think Donatella Versace was a woman who, out of the blue, was asked to carry on a billion-dollar company and keep her family business going and intact and was up against a board of directors and lawyers who were all men and were trying to tell her something contrary to what she wanted to do. I really admire what she was able to do and continues to do.”
Cruz said she spoke with Donatella in advance of filming. “We had a long conversation when Ryan offered me the part,” said Cruz. “I needed to talk to her about it before I moved forward.” Once she accepted the role, Cruz prepared by combing through interviews with Donatella on YouTube in order “to capture the essence of this wonderful woman.”
Ramirez plays the role of Gianni Versace. “It’s such a great opportunity and such a great privilege to step into the shoes of one of the most creative minds of the 20th century,” said Ramirez, who wore prosthetics as part of his physical transformation. “He’s a genius that affected culture and changed it. Gianni was a disruptor. Gianni did things that no one else had done before….He was the designer of his time and for me that’s incredible to play.”
While Ramirez spoke with a few of the late designer’s friends to prepare, he didn’t read Maureen Orth’s “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History,” the book upon which the show is based. “Andrew Cunanan has nothing to do with his life,” he explained. “He has to do with his death, so I wasn’t interested in Andrew Cunanan. I didn’t want to put those ideas in my head.”
Criss was tasked with tackling the role of serial killer Cunanan. “I feel like I made varsity,” Criss said of being cast on the show. “I get to be on an FX show, another Ryan Murphy show. The fact that it’s a second season for a show whose stripes are already proven in quality and content. Then I get to be in a project that has a character that is extremely compelling and is an actor’s dream to work on — not because of it’s darkness or the violence that it involves but because of the colors of emotional arcs that he carries with him. And on top of that let’s not forget the bonus that I get to hang out with a bunch of movie stars which is certainly a thrill. My head explodes a little bit [when I talk about it] and it did every day going to work. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Murphy said that the project features his dream cast. “They were all my first choices,” he shared, adding that, despite rumors, Lady Gaga was never in the running for the role. “She was never available. She was doing ‘A Star Is Born’ when we were casting it.” Murphy added, “I always wanted to work with Penelope. I liked that she was friendly with and knew Donatella very well. I’ve been friends with Penelope for almost 10 years and I’ve always wanted to work with her, but we could never find the right piece or the right timing. Finally this worked.”
Famous guest stars include Max Greenfield, Finn Wittrock, Michael Nouri and Judith Light, the latter of whom wore Christian Siriano to the premiere. “I remember hearing the news,” said Light, who appears on the third episode as Marilyn Miglin, a powerful businesswoman whose husband is murdered. “My parents were living in Florida at the time and they lived in Pompano Beach, which is near Miami. He was iconic and it was shocking — how this could have happened when there were so many things that fell by the wayside.”
Beyond the headlines, Murphy said the project is, at its core, “about something I lived through which was homophobia in the Nineties and the trickle-down effect of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ in our country. I also think it’s about great beauty and great destruction and it answers the question, ‘How does one person become a murderer?’ And how does another person become a creative genius? Both things don’t just happen, so we examine that.”
‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Premiere Draws Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz
ricky_martin: Last night at the #ACSVersace Premier in #hollywood #americancrimestory
Ryan Murphy Responds to Versace Family Calling ‘American Crime Story’ Fiction
Ryan Murphy has responded to the Versace family calling his anthology drama “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” a work of fiction, by saying he doesn’t believe that to be true.
“We issued a statement saying that this story is based on Maureen Orth’s book, which is a very celebrated, lauded work of non-fiction that was vetted now for close to 20 years,” Murphy told Variety at the premiere event for the FX anthology drama in Los Angeles, Calif. “That’s really all I have to say about it, other than of course I feel if you’re family is ever portrayed in something, it’s natural to sort of have a ‘Well, let’s wait and see what happens’ [stance].”
Murphy also pointed out that on Sunday Donatella Versace, the fashion icon’s sister and vice president and chief designer of the Versace Group, made a complimentary gesture towards series star Penelope Cruz, who portrays her in the show and has long been acquainted with her.
“Donatella Versace sent Penelope Cruz a very large arrangement of flowers yesterday when she was representing the show at the Golden Globes,” Murphy said. “I don’t know if she is going to watch the show, but if she did I think that she would see that we treat her and her family with respect and kindness. She really is a feminist role model in my book, because she had to step into an impossible situation, which she did with grace and understanding. I think that she really loved Penelope and knows that Penelope would never do anything to represent her in a negative light. Hopefully she’ll read what I’m saying to you.”
Executive producer Brad Simpson said he feels that the Versaces are certainly allowed to have their own opinion of the series and fully expected a reaction from the “real victims and real families.”
“This isn’t authorized, and we don’t make any pretense at it being authorized,” Simpson said. “This is based on Maureen Orth’s book. She’s an incredibly respected journalist. It’s a non-fiction bestseller. And also, we’re not just telling the story of Versace. We’re telling the story of all the lives that were affected by the murders of Andrew Cunanan. They’re entitled to feel how they want to feel, but we stand by the veracity of the show.”
Orth, who also attended the premiere, had been working on the Cunanan case in advance of Versace’s shocking murder in July 1997. The spree killer had already left behind a string of at least four other victims.
“I had done two months of investigation for Vanity Fair because I just thought he was a very interesting, killer suspect – because here’s a guy who went to Bishop in La Jolla. He had a 147 IQ and he had tons of friends, he was extremely witty and well-read. What the heck is he doing being a suspect? Then, when he killed Versace, I was the only one who really knew that they had met before, and so then the whole media circus took off,” Orth said.
Executive producer Nina Simpson feels the way the show portrays all of the victims – including but not limited to Versace – will emphasize “the value and meaning of the lives lost.”
“There’s nothing casual about our portrayal of these folks, and I think that people will feel their loss even more,” Jacobson said.
And screenwriter Tom Rob Smith said that while the Versace family’s statement referenced their objections to Orth’s book, he wasn’t sure “if they were referencing the show directly.”
“I think there’s always this question of when you’re making and writing this kind of material – you feel like you want to support the fundamental truths,” said Smith. “And you are going to get some of the details wrong, or you’re going to have to fill in a gap at some point, where you don’t have access to the reality. I think the only way you are allowed to do that is if you’re supporting the bigger truth.”
For Smith, and therefore the show he set out to make, that bigger truth is that Versace was an amazing man. “The show is full of love for him,” Smith said. “I’m sure there are points where they could correct some of the smaller details, but I think the bigger picture is that this is a figure that we’re celebrating and a figure that we all fell in love with.”
Ryan Murphy Responds to Versace Family Calling ‘American Crime Story’ Fiction
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