Designs on murder:
The murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace (played by Edgar Ramirez, right) by serial killer Andrew Cunanan forms the basis of SoHo’s new American Crime Story: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace. Jane Mulkerrins reports.
A new drama looks at the killing of Gianni Versace.
The 1995 trial of former sports star OJ Simpson and the murder of flamboyant Italian designer Gianni Versace, in 1997, may not, at first glance, appear to have much – bar murder, of course – to link them.
And yet, the latter forms the second instalment of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story anthology, following the wildly successful The People vs OJ Simpson.
“We wanted every season of the show to ultimately be about a crime that America was guilty of and to find a way to explore what is a cultural crime as well as a specific crime,” says Nina Jacobson, executive producer of the series.
With the trial of OJ Simpson, the “cultural crime” was the racism of the LAPD, which led to an acquittal; with Versace’s murder, Murphy and his team believe, it was homophobia.
“And so we wanted to try to explore and re-conjure what it was to be gay in the 90s,” says Jacobson.
The show is based on the book Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, And The Largest Failed Manhunt In US History, by Maureen Orth, and it seeks to understand how and why Versace’s killer, Cunanan, had evaded arrest for four murders already before he shot the designer dead on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion.
“It’s a period piece, in the way that OJ was a period piece,” says Murphy, who directed the first episode. “But, like in OJ, the themes that we are tackling in this show seem so modern to me.
“They don’t seem frozen in amber – they feel very alive and plucked from today’s headlines.” The nine-part series stars Edgar Ramirez as Versace, Ricky Martin as his long-time partner Antonio D’Amico, and Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan – a role Murphy describes as ‘Shakespearean’ – with Penelope Cruz making a spectacular transformation into
“That house just bleeds his soul – his creativity exists in every wall, every doorknob.” – Darren Criss on filming in the Versace mansion.
Donatella Versace, the late designer’s sister.
And the lush, colourful, glamorous production portrays, without judgment or embellishment, the opulent extravagance of Versace’s life and style.
“He was a disruptor – everything he did defied convention,” says Ramirez.
“He came from Calabria, spoke in a Southern dialect which people didn’t even consider Italian, and then created this company that in 10 years took over the world.”
Versace was also one of the first in the industry to break down the barriers between staid, conservative high fashion and popular culture.
“He really created that mixture between celebrity, fame and rock’n’roll music, cinema (and fashion). We (as actors) would not have been able to sit on the front row at fashion shows if Versace did not start that culture,” Ramirez adds. “For better or worse, we live in a society that he created and to think that it was only 20 years ago is awesome to me.”
No less a disruptor in his own way, Murphy has chosen to tell the story not in chronological order, but backwards. “The first and second episodes deal with the assassination and then the manhunt in Miami,” he explains. “Then we go back in time. In episode eight, you meet Andrew Cunanan as a child and the final episode deals with his eventual demise.”
The series also takes authenticity to an impressive new level, having been shot in Versace’s actual home.
“Unlike a lot of other recreations in film and television, we did not shoot on a sound stage. Those are the steps, that was the gate – we shot in the place it all happened – and I was hit extremely hard by that,” admits Criss.
“And that house just bleeds his soul – his creativity exists in every wall, every doorknob. It is a living vestige of his legacy, so I did very much feel his presence.” And while the show is an examination of America’s culpability, with latent homophobia and incompetence, it also serves as a dark comment on the cult of celebrity that Versace himself helped create.
“One of the themes he (Cunanan) presents early on is this absolute infatuation with fame; he was willing to kill for fame,” says Orth. “And I think that there is a trajectory between the way that he got famous, and getting famous through a sex tape – like the Kardashians – to becoming President of the United States because you were a reality TV star.”