Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Murder in Miami
‘American Crime Story’ spins a theory from the thread connecting designer Gianni Versace and his killer
The latest iteration of FX and Ryan Murphy’s anthology drama, “American Crime Story,” differs in a dramatic way from its predecessor, “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
This time, we see the murder.
Murphy calls “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” a “manhunt thriller.”
The iconic fashion designer was gunned down in front of his mansion in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood in 1997 by 27-yearold Andrew Cunanan. Described at the time as a “gigolo” by Martha Orth, whose book the series is based on, Cunanan had already committed a series of killings that landed him on the FBI’s most-wanted list.
Since Cunanan would take his own life before authorities were able to arrest him, “ACS” tries to examine why Versace became a target. Murphy insists the term “assassination” is accurate, although some would label Cunanan a psychopath and serial killer.
“‘Assassination’ has a political overtone, and I think it denotes somebody who is taking the life of somebody else to make a point,” Murphy says. “And I think that’s exactly what Andrew Cunanan did.”
The series begins with the crime. To the strains of the Adagio in G minor, we see Cunanan — played by Darren Criss — as he makes his way up the beach toward the designer’s compound. Almost by happenstance, Cunanan encounters Versace (Edgar Ramirez) returning from a local trip to buy magazines, and he shoots him.
The story then goes back in time, following their lives before their fateful encounter, subsequent manhunt and the fallout for the designer’s empire. Most immediately affected are Antonio D’Amico, Versace’s longtime partner, played by Ricky Martin, and the designer’s sister, Donatella (Penelope Cruz).
As Orth wrote, Versace’s “flamboyant clothes virtually defined ‘hot,’ ” he “tarted up the likes of Princess Diana and Elizabeth Hurley,” and his gowns also made “Madonna and Courtney Love more elegant.”
Ramirez observes that Versace’s influence is still evident.
“He could see the sexiness of the ‘70s and then all the opulence of the ‘80s,” said the actor, adding that the designer combined those elements “and everybody went crazy.”
Seven years before the killing, Cunanan met or imposed himself upon Versace at a party when the Italian-born designer was creating costumes for the San Francisco Opera.
“Versace looms over the series as a symbol of success. He is not just a person. This is the reason for the assassination,” says Tom Rob Smith, who wrote the script for the nine-episode series, “He is, in a weird way, in every moment of Andrew’s life.”
As producer Nina Jacobson points out, the series contrasts the two.
“One character is an authentic, honest creator drawing on his heritage, his background, his family,” she says, “and the other goes on a path of destruction because he wants the fame without the work or the talent.”
No one really knows what went on between Cunanan and Versace or the killer and his other victims. So the series tries to fill in the details.
“You have these tiny points of truth, and you then try to connect the tissue between it,” says Smith, novelist of books including “Child 44” and screenwriter of “London Spy.” “But I would never use the word ‘embellishing’ or ‘making up.’ It’s trying to join those pinpoints.”
Orth says a lot of people knew Cunanan “was an inveterate liar, but they didn’t care because he was very witty about it, or he was able to charm people.”
“We’re not just following what we would assume to be a murderous, horrible person all the time,” adds Criss. “We see him at his best; we see him at his worst; we see him at his most charming; we see him at his most hurt. And it’s all over the place. We really do get to know him as a person.”
Cunanan spent two months in Miami before killing Versace. Before that, he killed both his closest friend and his lover.
“Once he crossed a line and became a killer, he then started to kill to pursue ideas,” says Smith. “Once he realizes he lost everything, either you build something that impresses someone, which takes a lot of work, or if you don’t want anonymity, you can try to rip something down.”
The FBI was already pursuing Cunanan in Miami, but thinking he preyed upon older men, it didn’t look in the youthful South Beach area.
Orth’s 1999 book is called “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in US History,” and Murphy feels that Cunanan was able to make his way across the country and pick off his victims because many of them were gay.
There was “homophobia, particularly within the various police organizations, that refused in Miami to put up wanted posters,” he says.
Not surprisingly, the Versace family is not behind the project and issued a statement this 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,” it said.
Criss says the most difficult part of playing a killer was thinking “about the people who are still alive and are affected. And wanting to do right by them is my hope.”
Brad Simpson, one of the other producers of “Versace,” says that is the basic quandary for anybody who is making a true crime story.
“By re-creating these murders, are you giving the murderer what they want? Are you hurting the victims again?” he asks. “In ‘O.J.,’ we didn’t show O.J. committing the murder. We never come out and say that O.J. killed Nicole and Ron, even though you can really take that inference from the show. In this case, we are showing the real devastation of what Andrew did.”