Tag: the wrap

How the Cast of ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Followed a Killer’s Spiral Into Madness

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Most scientists estimate that the giant molten ball in our sky has another 5 billion years left to power life on earth. But for a coterie of fashion fans and one spree killer, it was vanquished on a July morning in 1997, when Gianni Versace was found dead, splayed on a South Beach sidewalk.

“He was the sun in an entire universe. When he disappeared, a void was created and everything collapsed,” Édgar Ramírez said of the celebrated fashion designer. Ramírez plays the loud visionary in FX’s limited series “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” a meditation on homophobia and shame, and producer Ryan Murphy’s second installment in a franchise kicked off by the Emmy-winning “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”

Based on Maureen Orth’s true-crime tale “Vulgar Favors,” the series seemed like typical Murphy fare at first glance: an Oscar winner in a campy role (Penélope Cruz as Donatella Versace), the flashy backdrop of high fashion and plenty of male flesh parading on screen as the series looked at the tense politics of sexuality in America.

But by the end of its nine episodes, viewers got an unexpected education in killer Andrew Cunanan and the factors that led him to slay five people while evading a three-month manhunt. Instead of runway shows and Naomi Campbell cameos, writer Tom Rob Smith (BBC’s “London Spy”) introduced us to the unfortunate men drawn to Cunanan. And he did so in reverse, opening with his most famous victim and backing us through the previous crimes.

We meet sugar daddies, repressed soldiers, closeted gay men shut out by immediate family — all of them entwined with a pathological liar who morphed into a new version of Andrew (or any of his numerous aliases) by the minute.

“Maureen does an excellent job talking about this in her book, how everything that happened was a perfect storm of so many unfortunate things,” said Darren Criss, who plays Cunanan.

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How the Cast of ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Followed a Killer’s Spiral Into Madness

dcriss-archive:

thewrap: Take a sneak peek at our Miniseries/Movies Emmy issue, coming out tomorrow! This issue is #AllTheRage, as it features Judith Light, Édgar Ramírez and Darren Criss of ‘American Crime Story: Versace,’ as well as many other sensational men and women of television and film. Stay tuned for plenty more to come!! #Emmys #ACSVersace
📷 @ecarenphoto, Creative Director @guerin_ad

edgarramirez25: So happy to unWrap this one for you! Thanks to everyone involved, what a great shoot, what a great time we had! Love you Judith! Love you Darren!

dcriss-archive:

thewrap: Take a sneak peek at our Miniseries/Movies Emmy issue, coming out tomorrow! This issue is #AllTheRage, as it features Judith Light, Édgar Ramírez and Darren Criss of ‘American Crime Story: Versace,’ as well as many other sensational men and women of television and film. Stay tuned for plenty more to come!! #Emmys #ACSVersace
📷 @ecarenphoto, Creative Director @guerin_ad

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

‘ACS: Versace’ Breakout Cody Fern Explains How Gay Shame Leads to Tragedy (Video)

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.”

Watch more of TheWrap’s interview with Fern above, and check out our report of his breakout episode,  “House by the Lake.”