THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY
Nominations: 18, including Limited Series
Total Episodes: 9 (1 season)
Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology took a lavish, colorful turn with the story of Versace killer Andrew Cunanan; it’s worth watching for Darren Criss’ mesmerizing performance alone.
Where to Watch: Amazon (for purchase), iTunes
Emmys 2018: The Ultimate Binge Guide — How to Catch Up on 30 Nominees
The latest Emmy punditry suggests The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story‘s titular co-star Édgar Ramírez is a lock to nab a nomination for Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. There’s also a decent amount of heat surrounding Ramirez’ onscreen squeeze Ricky Martin.
But as TVLine’s Dream Emmy panel sees it, there’s a third, far more under-the-radar member of Versace‘s ensemble that is most deserving of one of the category’s six slots. Who is it?! You know the drill (see gallery widget, promptly click it and all will be revealed).
CODY FERN, THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY
WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: We didn’t expect a show with Versace’s name in the title to stray so far from its apparent focus — but if it hadn’t, we never would have experienced the rollercoaster relationship between Andrew Cunanan and his friend-turned-victim David Madson, embodied with haunting realism by Fern. From his horrified spiral upon discovering Andrew’s dark impulses, to the imagined closure he got with his late father in death, Fern delivered a touching performance that embodied the series’ overall themes of rejection and despair.
Emmys 2018: Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie — Our 6 Dream Nominees!
JUDITH LIGHT, THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY
WHY SHE DESERVES A NOD: A welcome addition to any project, Light delivered yet another stellar performance as perfume tycoon Marilyn Miglin, whose husband was among those seduced and murdered by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Light brought a tremendous depth to an already complicated character, a grieving widow who was forced to accept that not even her most potent fragrance could mask the stench of her husband’s betrayal. Frankly, this season’s biggest crime was that we only got to spend two episodes with Light’s fascinating creation.
Emmys 2018: Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie — Our 6 Dream Nominees!
DARREN CRISS, THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY
WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: Gianni Versace may have gotten his name featured in the title of FX’s second American Crime Story, but it was Andrew Cunanan — played to haunting perfection by a not-so-Gleeful Darren Criss — who captivated audiences until the season’s unforgettable conclusion. With each gut-wrenching breakdown and unnerving look, Criss embodied a character capable of skyrocketing him from teen-TV heartthrob to Emmy-nominated powerhouse. And need we remind you about that infamous underwear dance? Playing this role took some serious, well, you know.
Emmys 2018: Lead Actor in a Limited Series — Our 6 Dream Nominees!
Last year, Emmy’s Outstanding Limited Series contest was about as suspenseful as any kudos race featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Basically, HBO’s soapy phenom Big Little Lies had the win in the bag. But this year? The statue is completely up for grabs.
Our Dream Emmy lineup, meanwhile, boasts a mix of high-profile minis and a few under-the-radar gems. All five contenders have one thing in common: They polarized audiences — Team TVLine included.
For the record, 2018 Emmy nominations will be voted on from June 11-25, and unveiled on July 12. The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, hosted by Colin Jost and Michael Che, is scheduled to air Monday, Sept. 17, on NBC.
THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY
WHY IT DESERVES A NOD: Anchored by Darren Criss in a star-making turn as serial killer Andrew Cunanan, the nine-part second installment in FX’s American Crime Story franchise spun a captivating tale of desperation and despair against stunning, sumptuous backdrops — making it as difficult to watch as it was impossible to look away from. Throw in unforgettable performances from the likes of Judith Light, Penelope Cruz and Max Greenfield, and you’ve got yourself a miniseries to die for.
Emmys 2018: Outstanding Limited Series — Our 5 Dream Nominees!
Wednesday’s finale of American Crime Story: Versace brought to an end the horrific escapades of Andrew Cunanan and checked back in with the people whose lives were forever changed by his twisted actions.
The episode picked up exactly where the season premiere began, with a sunkissed Andrew strolling down the streets of Miami Beach, gun in hand, waiting for the perfect shot at Gianni Versace. And we all know how that went.
Judith Light’s Marilyn Miglin was the first familiar face to reappear; the FBI showed up at her Miami hotel room to inform her that it was no longer safe for her to be in Florida, offering to help transport her to safety. She declined, demanding that they escort her to her scheduled home-shopping broadcast, but not before dressing down the bumbling agents who failed to capture Andrew:
How many more are going to die? How much more pain do you think I can suffer? Two months. You had two months. You had his name, his photo. What did he have, the money he stole from Lee? What has he been doing for two months? What have YOU been doing? And where is he now, that man? I won’t say his name. Where is he now? … You want me to run? You want me to hide from him? You provide whatever security you think necessary. I have never missed a broadcast in my life.
But Marilyn wasn’t the only shadow from Andrew’s past to take aim at the authorities. Max Greenfield’s Ronnie was also interrogated, providing him the platform to question how seriously they’d been taking this case.
“Oh, you were looking for him, weren’t you, the only lez on the force,” he said. “But the other cops, they weren’t searching so hard, where they? Why is that, because he killed a bunch of nobody gays?”
Meanwhile, Andrew was holed up in some stranger’s houseboat literally eating dog food, practically daring the feds to bust him. (Apparently Ronnie was right when he said, “Andrew is not hiding. He’s trying to be seen.”) He spent most of his time watching reports about himself on the news, including uplifting messages from his friends (Lizzie!) and exploitative interviews with his father — the latter of which made Andrew so angry that he shot his television screen. (Well, the television screen of the man who owned he house in which he was squatting.)
Speaking of the homeowner, it was his return that triggered the beginning of the end for Andrew. Shortly after he reported a burglary, police helicopters were circling overhead and a hostage negotiator was attempting to talk Andrew out of the house. But Andrew wasn’t about to give in — not on someone else’s terms, at least. He placed a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger before he could be apprehended.
Wednesday’s finale also took us inside Gianni’s funeral, during which Antonio discovered that he might as well have died along with his lover. Not only did the priest shun his greeting, but Donatella informed him that he wouldn’t be able to live on the property Gianni had promised him. As a member of the board that controlled the property, Donatella could have insisted that he live there — that is, if she had cared enough to do so.
American Crime Story: Versace Finale: Did the FX Drama Go Out With a Bang?
Wednesday’s episode of American Crime Story: Versace marks the directorial debut of actor Matt Bomer, who — at the risk of sounding “so 2018” — says he was “truly blessed” to get to work on the FX drama.
“When Ryan Murphy called and asked me to do this — after I passed out, regained consciousness and said yes — I knew that it was a serious responsibility,” the actor tells TVLine. “I’d been offered directing jobs before, but they were jobs I was also acting in, and I wanted my first directing experience to be the full-meal deal. I wanted to really do it, to be on the location scouts and design meetings and castings and really have the full experience.”
Before stepping behind the camera for his episode’s three-week shoot, Bomer says he read “more than 3,000 pages of material on directing,” met with film and TV directors for guidance, did an intensive at the Director’s Guild of America and shadowed two different directors on three episodes of Versace. To say that he did his homework would be an understatement.
“I wanted the producers to know I was taking this seriously, that they weren’t just putting the camera in the hands of somebody who was just hoping to cruise by,” he says. “I called my representatives who were talking about acting jobs, and I told them, ‘Put everything on hold. This is what I’m doing, this is it.‘”
Bomer’s episode — which airs tonight at 10/9c — chronicles Gianni Versace and Andrew Cunanan’s radically different upbringings, showing how “success brought out the worst in Andrew and the best in Gianni.”
“We want to see [Andrew] as a three-dimensional human being,” Bomer says, “but the real challenge of this episode is: Can we sympathize with a monster and see that he was also a victim? We’re all ultimately responsible for the decisions we make and the actions we take, but this is someone who was near to violence at a very young age, who was treated like a spouse by both his mother and his father. The central question of this episode is: What makes one person a creator and one person a killer?”
Location proved to be another challenge, as the characters’ parallel stories take place in “three different countries and five different cities,” all of which had to be recreated in the Los Angeles area. “And I had two child protagonists for the first half of the episode,” Bomer notes. “I was thrown a lot of the challenges you could have as a director, which I’m actually grateful for, because now I can check those off. When someone says I have to work with a kid, I can say, ‘Been there, done that.’”
Bomer adds, “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to be present for everything. It was very clear in the room when I was casting that Edouard Holdener was the right person to play young Andrew.”
He also praises the work of Jon Jon Briones, the actor playing Andrew’s father, who was first brought to his attention by star Darren Criss and EP/writer Tom Rob Smith. “They’d seen him on Broadway in Miss Saigon,” he recalls. This was a guy who had been doing that show for over 20 years, but he was ready for this experience, and his audition was phenomenal. It’s a testament to Ryan Murphy that he’s willing to take a chance on new people who are ready for the experience and ready to serve the story in the best way possible.”
Speaking of exceptional performances, Bomer says he feels “spoiled” that he had a front-row seat to Criss’ take on Andrew almost from the very beginning. “I knew Darren was a brilliant actor and a great artist, but there were times where I would watch him on camera and it was like he just suddenly was this person,” Bomer recalls. “It was bone-chilling to watch.”
Still, it takes a village to put even a single episode of television together, and Bomer has a laundry list of people to thank: “The director of photography, Simon Dennis, was incredible; Jamie Walker McCall designed that incredible plantation set; Alexis Martin Woodall, what she does in the post department is phenomenal; and Shelly Westerman, who edited the episode, is one of my all-time editing heroes.”
“I was really so lucky to work with Ryan’s people,” Bomer adds. “I’d worked with him for so long [on projects like Glee, American Horror Story and The Normal Heart] that I knew most of the camera crew from other jobs. But the level of professionals you work with in his world are top notch.”
Finn Wittrock’s appearance on Wednesday’s American Crime Story: Versace was over as quickly as it began. (Don’t worry, we’ll see him again next week.)
This week’s installment — the second in a row to be completely devoid of all things, you know, Versace — turned back the clock yet again, this time to a week before Andrew Cunanan drove to Chicago and killed Lee Miglin.
At this point, he was living with a handsome young architect named David Madson — played by Cody Fern, the latest in a series of phenomenal guest stars — but we quickly learned there was trouble in paradise. In fact, David had recently turned down Andrew’s marriage proposal, leading him to suspect that David was in love with a guy named Jeff, played by Wittrock. To be fair, David and Jeff did have feelings for one another, but I hardly think Jeff deserved to be bludgeoned to death with a hammer and rolled up in a carpet.
Yet that’s exactly what Andrew did, planning out the whole evening so that David would appear to be the one who let Jeff into his apartment. “They’re not going to see two victims,” Andrew argued when David tried to call the police. “They’re going to see two suspects.” And when that didn’t work, Andrew resorted to Plan B, letting his gun do the talking.
Andrew had essentially taken David captive at this point, forcing him into the life of a fugitive on the run. But they never made it to Mexico, no sir. After David attempted to steer their truck off the road, Andrew pulled over, giving David a head start before pumping his chest full of lead. Tragic as it was, though, there was something beautiful about the portrayal of David’s death; in his final moments, he imagined entering a cabin and seeing his father, finally connecting to a man with whom he’d had a complicated relationship in life. (Andrew cradling David’s corpse, on the other hand, was notably less beautiful.)
Prior to his murder, David gave Andrew the full dressing down audiences have been waiting for, telling him that his entire life is a lie, an act, which is why no one would ever truly get close to him. The two also had an honest — as honest Andrew could be, anyway — conversation about shame, which David thought he might fear even more than death.
HONORABLE MENTION | FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace has been highlighting the horrible toll that Andrew Cunanan’s killing spree took on his victims’ families, and that allowed Judith Light to deliver a powerhouse performance this week as Marilyn Miglin, the widow of Cunanan victim Lee Miglin. Light was stoic, almost cold, when Marilyn first learned of Lee’s murder, as she fiercely fought to protect her late husband’s legacy. But Light later revealed the sharp pain hidden beneath that tough façade, as Marilyn sobbed and professed her undying love for Lee before snarling: “There, is that better? Am I a real wife now?” It was stunning, complicated portrait of grief that puts a human face on Cunanan’s crimes.
Ladies, when you ask your men what their plans are while you’re away and they say “working,” know this: There’s at least a chance they’re planning a rendezvous with a murderous gay escort.
At least that’s what happened to poor Marilyn Miglin (played to perfection by the most special of guest stars, Judith Light) on Wednesday’s third chapter of American Crime Story: Versace, which blew us back to Chicago in May 1997.
The moment Marilyn returned home from filming a Home Shopping Network segment in Canada, she sensed something was wrong. And there was something wrong: Her husband Lee had left an open carton of ice cream on the kitchen counter. Also, he’d been murdered.
A flashback to a week earlier revealed that Andrew and Lee had a semi-regular thing going on, though Andrew’s latest visit — which would turn out to be his last — came as a welcome surprise to Lee, who didn’t even know that Andrew was in town. And he definitely didn’t know that Andrew was going to wrap his head in masking tape and drop a cement brick on his head.
“I want you to know that when they find your body, you will be wearing ladies’ panties, surrounded by gay porn,” Andrew told him, making sure to yell loudly enough that Lee could hear him without his hearing aid. “Soon, the whole world will know that the great Lee Miglin, who built Chicago, built it with a limp wrist. Your wife will know … your children will know. Tell me something, Lee: What terrifies you more, death or being disgraced?” Splat.
Of course, there are a few details about Lee and Andrew’s night together that weren’t made public — like the entire “Andrew” part. “He won’t steal my name,” Marilyn told investigators. “Our good name. We worked too hard.” (That speech and the one about why she wasn’t showing her grief were exquisite.)
With his third kill under his belt, Andrew took off in Lee’s Lexus. But when it became apparent that the authorities were tracking him via Lee’s car phone (remember car phones?!), he ditched it in favor of the now-iconic red pickup truck. And all he had to do was kill one more person.
Also worth discussing…
* How did you feel about the episode’s noticeable lack of… Versace?
* Also, I looked into Marilyn’s son on IMDb. He was indeed a pilot in Air Force One, but he only snagged two more roles before quitting the business. (His latest credit is for appearing as himself in a Dateline NBC special about Gianni Versace’s murder.)
American Crime Story: Versace Recap: ‘I’m Not Like Most Escorts’
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