At the risk of hyperbole, we are here to tell you what the hottest new show of 2018 will be. Just as The People vs. O.J. Simpson gripped audiences, critics, and awards bodies alike with its smart, vivid take on the O.J. trial, the second season of Ryan Murphy's American Crime Story anthology series is shaping up to be a ravishing, instantly-addictive blend of high fashion and true crime. Based on the book Vulgar Favors by Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth, the show chronicles the events surrounding the murder of designer Gianni Versace, who was shot dead on the steps of his Miami Beach home in 1997.
The series premieres Wednesday, January 17, 2018 at 10 PM EST on FX. Back in July, the show's producers appeared alongside cast members Edgar Ramirez, Ricky Martin, and Darren Criss—who play Versace, his partner, and his killer, respectively—to take reporters' questions at the TCA Press Tour. Here, 11 things you need to know about The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.
1) The show deals heavily with 1990s-era homophobia.
The main thrust of Versace is “more than why he was killed—it’s why it was allowed to happen,” said Murphy, noting that Versace was Cunanan’s last victim and he had already killed at least four other people. “With American Crime Story, we’re always trying to talk about a crime within a social idea. One of the reasons Cunanan was able to make his way across the country and pick off these victims, many of whom were gay, was because of homophobia at the time.“ Police organizations in Miami refused to put up wanted posters, “even though they knew Cunanan had committed many of these murders and was probably headed that way. I thought that was a really interesting thing to examine, to look at again, particularly with the president we have and the world that we live in.” Murphy added that there’s an entire episode dedicated to the debate around ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell," which was instituted three years prior to the events of Versace.
2) The story is told in reverse.
The ravishing, terrifying opening minutes of Episode 1 follows Versace and Cunanan over the course of a couple of hours leading up to the murder, which happens very swiftly. “The first episode deals with the literal murder,” Murphy said, “and then we tell the story in reverse, we get into [Cunanan’s motive], and why he wanted to do this.” The word assassination is chosen very deliberately in the title: “I think the word has a political overtone, and it denotes somebody who is taking the life of somebody else to make a point. That’s exactly what Cunanan was trying to do, and that’s explored in the show.”
3) Much of the show—including the assassination scene—is filmed at Versace’s real house.
Versace’s stunning Miami Beach home has now been turned into a hotel, but its structure and some internal features remain intact. While the interior of the house as Versace lived in it was recreated on a soundstage at Fox in LA, the crew was able to film many key sequences at the actual house, and the actors rehearsed there for several weeks prior to filming. “We really became a family when we were at the Versace mansion,” said Murphy. “For all of us, Darren and Edgar and Penelope [Cruz, who plays Donatella Versace] and Ricky to walk in there for the first time, to be in there for weeks and weeks and weeks… We were really very moved, because since Versace’s assassination, Donatella sold the home, took the furniture and the art, but left everything else.” Being there, it felt like “that house, the structure of it, sort of came alive with the creativity of Versace and what he was interested in doing. We had a full month there, and we really bonded a lot over the tone of the piece, and that was its own emotional rehearsal.”
When it came to the assassination scene, “it was tough to shoot; the crew was crying, and we were all very emotional doing it,” Murphy said. That’s no surprise when you consider that the scene was filmed in the real location where Versace was killed—down to the exact step.
4) Despite denouncing the show, Antonio D’Amico agreed to speak with Ricky Martin.
Versace’s longtime partner D’Amico slammed the show’s depiction of the murder as “ridiculous” last month, but Martin revealed that he had shared a positive conversation with D’Amico on the very day of the panel. “I told him ‘I’m so happy we’re talking, and I just want you to know that this is treated with the utmost respect’,” Martin said. “I told him that ‘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,' and he was extremely happy about it.”
Murphy added that D’Amico had drawn his conclusion from a paparazzi photograph—showing Martin’s D’Amico cradling the dead Versace in his arms, which did not happen in real life—and admitted “there’s always certain things you take liberty with, in wanting to move towards something more emotional.” He recalled running into similar resistance with Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial, who was played by Sarah Paulson to huge acclaim. “[Clark], at the beginning, really did not want that show to be made,” Murphy revealed, but Clark went on to be very involved with Paulson’s portrayal, and even accompanied her to several awards shows. “You have to be respectful, but you have to also make it your own,” Murphy concluded. “Donatella had some requests about how the children were depicted in the show. As a father, I understood that, and I wasn't interested in going there, out of respect for her.”
5) The show will draw some unexpected parallels between Versace and Cunanan.
Though everyone at the panel hastened to emphasize their clear differences—one, a celebrated genius who left behind a beautiful artistic legacy, the other a serial killer—the show will tease out similarities between Versace and his murderer. “Cunanan was from relative poverty, but Versace was, too,” said Murphy. “They had lots of similarities, and one went on to become this amazing life force, and one became the opposite, this destructive force. How these two lives collided is essentially the story we're telling.”
Series writer Tom Rob Smith (London Spy) added that Cunanan is an atypical serial killer. “Technically he went on a spree, but if you go back a year from the first crime of most serial killers, they're committing crimes of one description or another: assaults, arson, there are these signals. With Andrew Cunanan, you go back a year and he's in a million‑dollar condo in La Jolla talking about politics or art, and charming people. How do you get that person in that condo to someone who can attack someone with a hammer and brutally kill them?” Cunanan’s story is “closer to one of radicalization than it is a typical serial killer."
6) Versace had narrowly avoided death shortly before he was killed.
“He was very, very ill, and he had a miraculous comeback very shortly before he was killed,” Murphy said. “I really admired the way that he pulled himself back from the brink of death and kept fighting. I think so many young people don't remember that time, and how difficult, and how hard it was to be yourself, and authentic in the world, particularly if you were gay and a disrupter and a pathfinder. I just hope that people pay attention to his legacy, which I think is tremendous, and re‑examine him all over again.”
7) The relationship between Versace and D’Amico will be a heartbreaker.
Purely by virtue of the fact that we’ll be watching their powerful connection with a sense of dread, knowing what’s coming. The pair were together for fifteen years, and per Martin, their relationship “was very strong. The respect that Gianni had for Antonio [came out of] the fact that Antonio was bluntly honest. Gianni was surrounded by yes people, and Antonio would say, ‘I’m sorry, but you’re wrong.’ Antonio, I think, would push him to live to the fullest… Nothing would separate them, and Gianni would not allow anyone to talk bad about Antonio. It was very special, and I'm very happy to be able to live this. It affected me in a very personal way.”
8) Criss worked to bring some humanity to Cunanan.
And that’s clear from the opening ten minutes alone, which depict Cunanan in some severe psychological distress shortly before killing Versace. “Andrew was so many different personalities to so many different people,” Criss told BAZAAR.com, referring to multiple conversation he’s had with people who knew Cunanan. “For me, that makes things a bit easier—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. It's been one of the most exhilarating characters that I've spent time with because he is so all over the place, and he's capable of truly great things. My goal is to have people exercise their sense of empathy, because from the get-go we all know that he's capable of something truly horrendous… it’s been a wonderful challenge to find as much humanity as possible.” Murphy added that the show explores whether Cunanan was “a mad man, or a victim of the times. I think the answer is, sort of, both.”
9) Versace’s alleged HIV status will be addressed in the show.
In her book Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in US History, from which the show is adapted, Maureen Orth contends that Versace was HIV positive, a claim which has been refuted by some members of his family. “We've spoken to other people who have definite ideas about what was going on with him at the time,” Murphy said, implying that the show will take Versace’s HIV-positive status as fact.
“In that period of time with HIV, you have to remember you could literally lose your business, lose everything that you had. You could be fired. This company that Versace had was about to go public, and he was terrified of anything negative coming out about his personal life. We delve into that in the show.” It was huge enough for Versace to publicly come out as gay, Murphy pointed out. “I think that the Versaces will like some of what we do, and I think that some of it they will be uncomfortable about. We’re going off a book, and other reporting that we’ve done. I think it's moving, I think it's powerful, and I don't think there should be any stigma or shame attached to HIV.”
10) The aesthetic of this season could not be more different from The People vs O.J. Simpson.
“It was a real relief for me not to have to shoot boxy wool suits,” Murphy joked. ‘I was like ‘A pink robe, yes!’” Though the shows take place only a few years apart, and Versace and Simpson both lived in opulent American wealth, the visual palette here is much more varied. “O. J. was a much more interior show. Here, we really go across the country. It's a manhunt season, it's not a one-location season.” Then, of course, there’s the fashion element of Versace’s world; production designer Judy Becker and her team “recreated fashion shows with hundreds and hundreds of extras. It's been a real opportunity not just to pay tribute to [Versace], but hopefully young people will discover him in a new way. “
11) The show pays tribute to Versace’s importance as a disrupter and a trendsetter.
Ramirez was drawn to Versace as “a character that basically came into the States to change everything, forever. The world that we live in is a world aesthetically that Gianni Versace created. He combined sexiness and glamour and opulence; he could see the sexiness of the ‘70s and all the opulence of the ‘80s, and he combined it, and everybody went crazy. I was very attracted to that.”
“I was always very moved by him,” Murphy added. “He lived outrageously and daringly, and he was a disrupter, as Edgar said. His life was opera, and he lived that way. The scene where he comes down the stairs with the staff and the pool that he built and the handmade mosaic tiles that he spent years picking out. You know, that takes a certain level of detail and outrageousness, to have that sort of passion, and I admire that, and I always did. Even when I was younger, I really loved him and looked up to him. And I remember being so proud and excited when he did that interview in The Advocate, because at the time, there wasn't really a lot of people who were brave enough to live their life in the open."
Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History, $12, amazon.com. SHOP
