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Darren Criss Army wrote:

ACS Versace premieres by country

Much of this is what we have already posted, but some is new and some is correcting what we had. We’ll post a final version tonight.

The Mercury News wrote:
Darren Criss makes radical transformation in ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’

January 16, 2018

Brace yourself, “Glee” fans: You’re about to see a radically different side of Darren Criss.

In “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” the actor who gained fame as the cute, preppy singer Blaine Anderson, transforms himself into a cold-blooded serial leader.

[. . . ]

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” (10 p.m. Wednesday, FX) is producer Ryan Murphy’s nine-episode follow-up to “The People v. O.J. Simpson” and Criss’ unnerving performance is at the center of it. If “Versace” manages to draw anything close to the amount of attention “O.J.” generated, expect to hear the actor’s name being bandied about during awards season.

Playing Cunanan might seem like a bold, image-busting kind of move, but Criss doesn’t see it that way.

“I think people have a fascination with the dichotomy between something like ‘Glee’ and this (series), but people sometimes forget that actors are actors. We are acting,” he says. “I’m always looking for interesting material. I’m looking for things with clay that I can get my hands on and really do something different and big.”

Murphy, who also produced “Glee,” says he always knew Criss had the ability to go dark. That — along with the actor’s physical resemblance to Cunanan — made Criss his “first and only choice” to play the pivotal role in “Versace,” . . . 

[. . . ]

While doing his research for the role, Criss said he was surprised to learn that Cunanan was not “your typical spree killer.”

“This is not somebody who had a history of killing small animals and burying them in his backyard,” he says. “He defied all those textbook analogies. He was a charming, affable person, despite everything we know about him now. For the most part, people loved Andrew. He was always the life of the party. There were so many positive things about him.

“I’m less disturbed and creeped out than I am just utterly heartbroken by the loss of such potential and the wrong avenues he took in life.”

Darren Criss Army wrote:
This article is a nice little summary of Darren’s background & career, could be good to share with your uninitiated friends & family. It even includes Elsie Fest!

IB Times wrote:Darren Criss Fun Facts: Meet The Actor Playing Versace’s Killer

1/16/18

Darren Criss wrote:My grandfather was actually a Cadillac salesman, which sounds skeezy, but think of the charming side of that. And he used to say, everyone’s a customer. Everyone’s a customer. And while that sounds like a cheesy car salesman’s line, you can apply much bigger ethos to that. Which is, you know, at any time, anybody is somebody that has value. Everybody has value, you know?

Variety wrote:
Ryan Murphy on ‘Versace,’ Darren Criss’ Star Turn and the #MeToo Movement

January 16, 2018


How did you come up with the idea of having the story unfold in a backward-chronological fashion?

The idea of telling the story backwards was [FX CEO John] Landgraf’s. We had written the first two (episodes) and then you go in and talk to John and say, “OK, here’s the story.” We just started talking about the “onion peel” of shame — because really it’s all about shame — and we just started talking narratively about that. The more we talked about it in the room, the more we liked it. We knew that we were following ‘The People V. O.J. Simpson” which is a really difficult thing to do so we have to do everything we can to make it special.

What did that require of you on the production end?

It’s a very hard thing to construct because you have to be uber-prepared. The actors have to be very informed. I liked to work by giving (actors) concentrated information but not giving them much more than that. It was hardest on (writer) Tom Rob Smith and the actors. But it was the question of how do we keep being ambitious, how do we keep challenging ourselves? When you go backward in someone’s trajectory it’s more surprising for the audience and I think the experience is deeper. We tried to make it so that if you watched the show backwards it would be an interesting and oddly symbiotic thing. It’s a narrative device that takes a lot of extra planning, but when it works it’s great.

Darren Criss has drawn mostly rave reviews for his performance, which is very against type for the former “Glee” trouper. What was it that gave you confidence he could handle this role?

It was important to me that we were true to Cunanan’s ethnicity (Filipino and Italian). I had only directed him once (on “Glee”) but we stayed friends. I remember thinking he was a really good dramatic actor. He did something weird once in a “Glee” scene. I told him please don’t lose that excitement, and he never did. He always checked in and checked in with me. I called him when we were ready to greenlight (“Versace”). I wanted Cunanan like Darren to be a discovery for the audience. The interesting thing about Cunanan is you don’t know what he’s capable of and to have the actor in it be on the same powerful journey and I think it is.

Did he have any pause about taking on the role of a spree murderer?

(Darren) really went for it. He studied it, he pushed himself hard. His performance got quieter and more concentrated and studious and I like that. It was powerful to watch. I was not interested in just doing a serial killer story but to track the idea of how does someone become a monster?

How do you think the audience will react?

Darren is reminding me a lot of Sarah Paulson’s trajectory. It was powerful to watch somebody step into adulthood in a way. It’s very rewarding.

With “Versace” you are continuing your commitment to hiring women for at least half of the directing assignments on your show. Your Half Foundation has also been proactive in opening doors for female directors. These initiatives could not be more timely as the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements take root.

Everybody’s talking about it. it’s important. I changed the dynamic of my company. The most important thing is that the culture has changed to be more about ideas and the exchange of ideas than ego. It’s interesting when women direct. The work is better. They ask more people to participate. I’ve been doing this a year and a half. It’s been a really good change in my life. That foundation may be the most important thing I’ve ever done in my career. I’m delighted to just keep going.

Miami Herald wrote:
'Glee' was a departure for 'Assassination' star Darren Criss

January 16, 2018

Criss explains part of his job is to have empathy even for the worst of people and for the worst things you’ve done. The trick for Criss finding empathy with Cunanan was despite the role being based on a real person, the actor didn’t look at playing the part any differently than taking on a fictional character. There never was going to be a way he could relate to someone who murdered multiple people, but by reducing Cunanan down to what he calls “primary colors,” Criss could find some relatable aspects. Those elements include both he and Cunanan going to Catholic school, knowing what it feels like to want something that you don’t have and the desire to stand out. Criss fully understands Cunanan’s desire to not be ordinary.

Criss could also relate to Cunanan on an acting level.

“We are both performers,” Criss says. “I do it professionally and he did it personally. I was always curious why I never saw him involved in drama at school. My two-penny analysis is that he wasn’t a hard worker.

“Part of his sociopathic pathology was that he wanted greater things than he had but didn’t want to work for that. He wanted fame and fortune and recognition but wasn’t willing to put in the actual labor. He was a successful actor in his everyday life convincing everyone he was different people.”

Playing the serial killer would seem to be a big change for Criss, especially to those who watched him on “Glee” or for his work in the comic book TV series “Supergirl” and “The Flash.” He’s also part of the indie pop band Computer Games with his brother Chuck Criss.

[ . .  . ]

He’s [Ryan Murphy is] now also responsible for giving Criss the opportunity to show his wide range of acting skills, as Murphy is an executive producer on “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”

[Darren Criss says,] “And this certainly is a once in a lifetime opportunity that happened to be within the hands of the person that I had been creating other things with and who had been such a champion for me on ‘Glee.’

“So I really hit the jackpot. I wish I could say it was calculated. This was something that I was clamoring for, but I definitely lucked out. I think a lot of actors have to wait a lifetime for something like this, and it came a lot quicker than I had

Darren Criss Army wrote:

UPDATED: ACS Versace premiere schedule

NOTE: The schedule for Latinoamerica has been posted separately and has not changed.

We do not have the details for Bulgaria & Portugal yet.

Vanity Fair wrote:
Darren Criss on Playing Andrew Cunanan In The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

January 15, 2018

In 1997, I read a newspaper article about a 27-year-old gay man from a posh private school in La Jolla, California, who was on the lam, wanted for four murders in three states. Vanity Fairassigned me to profile him, and the issue with my story in it was almost at the printer when news broke that Andrew Cunanan, the man I’d been tracking, had gunned down the fashion designer Gianni Versace on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion. Suddenly, Cunanan—and the spectacularly failed manhunt for him, which ended with his suicide eight days after Versace’s murder—was a national obsession, and I re-wrote my article, then expanded it into a book, Vulgar Favors: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Both are now, in turn, the basis of Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, set to premiere on FX on January 17.

Cunanan, who was driven to his murderous deeds by the desire for fame and revenge, would have relished being portrayed by Darren Criss, who shares his striking good looks, his outgoing charm, and his half-Filipino heritage. But the similarities end there, obviously, and Criss is empathetic enough to understand that, for all its juicy details, the Versace saga is an epic story of real-life suffering. “My heart is really sensitive to the people who experienced something so horrible that I’m trying to breathe life into,” says Criss, 30, who grew up in the Bay Area and previously worked with Murphy on Glee and American Horror Story series will be told in reverse, tracing Cunanan’s path backward from the Versace murder, through his previous killings, all the way to his childhood growing up as the gifted and spoiled son of an accused-embezzler father and a victimized, mentally ill mother. Versace’s lush life contrasts with Cunanan’s descent into drugs, and his double life in the gay demimonde and in the closeted upper class.

Cunanan, Criss says, was “someone who had the potential to do so much more. How does that person become synonymous with something so sad, violent, or scary?” He adds, “It’s a story about the have and have-not—the ultimate creator and the ultimate destroyer.”

San Francisco Chronicle wrote:
For ‘Versace’ actor Darren Criss, SF childhood still shines brightly

January 13, 2018

Darren Criss is pleasant and dutiful during an interview on a recent Thursday afternoon, answering questions about his role as serial killer Andrew Cunanan in the new FX miniseries “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”

But when the subject shifts to his childhood in San Francisco, the actor is downright joyous.

Criss happily remembers stories that have been buried for a while, including the time he called San Francisco actor Peter Coyote, whose son was a classmate of Criss’ brother, for advice about getting into acting. Criss was 7 years old.

“The synapses in my brain are suddenly awakening,” Criss says, talking faster. “I remember really, really nervously looking at the school roster, getting the number and going into the closet and shaking nervously, and saying, ‘Hi, is Mr. Coyote there?’ For a child to be talking to an adult on a level other than, ‘Can so-and-so come over to play video games?’ it was a nerve-racking experience.”

Criss says Coyote gave him a vote of confidence, and talked to him about enrolling in the Young Conservatory program at the American Conservatory Theater. Criss flourished there, and appeared in the musicals “Fanny” and “Do I Hear a Waltz” with 42nd Street Moon when he was 10.

The St. Ignatius College Prep graduate went on to University of Michigan, where he co-created “A Very Potter Musical” in 2009. It became a YouTube hit, and he has since glided effortlessly between film and stage, performing as openly gay singer Blaine on television’s “Glee” between 2010 and 2015, and in a “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” revival that started at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre in 2016.

But his most challenging performance — maybe anyone’s most challenging TV performance this year — is as Cunanan, the designer-obsessed serial killer in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”

[. . .]


Speaking by phone from his Los Angeles home last week, Criss is reserved about his performance. While most reviewers have already seen all eight episodes, Criss had only seen four — and binged those the night before.

“It’s hard to watch anything you do objectively,” Criss says, when asked for his first impressions. “That sounds so unenthusiastic, but I promise you it’s not. I’m thrilled with how a lot of things turned out.”

One thing Criss insists is that he didn’t follow the dark character — there are scenes of physical and emotional torture by Cunanan, followed by an alarming lack of empathy — into the abyss.

On the worst days, Criss says, he would execute a pratfall down a stairway on set or provide other blooper reel material to lighten the mood. And he insists that while the victims of Cunanan both living and dead weighed on his mind, the most violent scenes were not as harrowing to perform as they look on screen.

“You have to remember that, (A) of course, it’s fake, (B) there’s not this creepy music looming in the background,” Criss says. “And there are 30 or 40 people around you who you can crack jokes with and grab a tea with, and give you the sort of necessary levity.”

Levity seems to be Criss’ default position, especially after the questions about Cunanan end and the San Francisco conversation begins again.

[. .  .]


And that San Francisco childhood will always be with Criss, as long as the synapses are still firing. Asked if he remembers co-starring in “Fanny” when he was 10 years old, he provides a couple of warm stories, then sings a few bars from his 20-year-old performance. (“Be kind to your parents/ Though they don’t deserve it …”)

“ACT is such a huge part of my life, and I’m so forever grateful for them existing,” Criss says. “If I grew up in any other city in any other circumstance, I don’t know if I really would have had the support system in place to make this dream a reality.”

Darren Criss Army wrote:

UPDATED: ACS Versace main cast TV appearances

This will probably be our last update for this week’s appearances, any others we will just announce separately.

The New York Times wrote:
Darren Criss Plays the Happy-Go-Lucky Killer in the Versace TV Drama

by Michael Schulman

Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times (Photo)


Jan. 12, 2018

MIAMI BEACH — At 6:30 in the morning, Darren Criss was bright-eyed and perky as he bounded out of his South Beach hotel and into a black car. It was the last day of shooting for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” Ryan Murphy’s nine-episode follow-up to “The People v. O. J. Simpson.”

Mr. Criss plays the assassin and, the night before, he had been up late shooting a manhunt scene that blocked off a stretch of Collins Avenue, to the chagrin of nightclubbers and Uber drivers.

“That was a very cool rock-star moment,” Mr. Criss said in the car, wearing a ball cap and jeans. He flashed an easygoing grin, the kind that endeared him to legions of young fans of “Glee,” on which he played Blaine Anderson, the preppy, harmonizing love interest of Chris Colfer’s Kurt Hummel.

His new role on “American Crime Story” (which has its premiere on FX on Jan. 17) couldn’t be less gleeful: Andrew Cunanan, the gay gigolo turned serial killer who shot Mr. Versace in 1997, after killing four other men.
 
Mr. Criss, 30, leaned over and pointed out the window. “See that?” he said. “That’s the houseboat, perfectly recreated.” In Indian Creek, the crew had built a replica of Mr. Cunanan’s final hide-out, where he met his demise after a frenzied eight-day manhunt. The series makes use of several real locations in Miami Beach, most notably the Versace Mansion, the site of the murder, now a boutique hotel.
 
[size=13]As the car turned into a parking lot full of trailers, Mr. Criss was all smiles, doling out greetings of “Hey, man!” and “Happy last day!” Even pre-caffeine, he was relentlessly chipper, which seems antithetical to playing a murderer. Or maybe not. Charm was Mr. Cunanan’s calling card, masking a desperate need for acceptance that curdled into pathology. And Mr. Criss’s exuberance on set, he said later, was a way of putting the crew at ease.  

“This is the first time I’ve been No. 1 on the call sheet, so you’re kind of the quarterback,” he said. “You set a tone. I take my work very seriously, but I don’t take myself seriously at all.”[/size]

He plopped down in front of a mirror, where a hair-and-makeup artist fitted him with a wig. Like any decent actor playing a villain, he had looked for Mr. Cunanan’s redeeming traits: his talent, his likability. “The bleeding idealist in me always likes to think that there are more things in common between all of us than there aren’t,” he said. Presumably, he meant “bleeding-heart idealist,” but the phrase seemed apt.

It was that chiaroscuro quality that caught the attention of Mr. Murphy, who as a co-creator of “Glee” gave Mr. Criss his breakout role. “Darren was seen by people as being a comedic actor, a Broadway musical star and a sensation: Mr. Charisma,” Mr. Murphy said. “I just knew he had the ability to go dark.”

Mr. Murphy has a knack for matching actors with career-changing roles, notably Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark in “The People v. O. J. Simpson.” The new series features Edgar Ramirez as Mr. Versace, Ricky Martin as his lover Antonio D’Amico and Penélope Cruz as his sister Donatella. (Last week, the Versace family released two statements calling the series an unauthorized “work of fiction.”)

But Mr. Criss was the linchpin. “He was my first and only choice,” Mr. Murphy said. “I truly wouldn’t have made it without him. I don’t know any other actor who would have been correct.”

Given Mr. Criss’s squeaky-clean image, the casting seems wildly against type. But Mr. Criss and Mr. Cunanan had some unlikely similarities, beginning with an uncanny physical resemblance. Both are half-Filipino California natives, and “we both revel in being different,” Mr. Criss said. As a teenager, he wore vintage bell-bottoms to high school, while the young Mr. Cunanan put dimes in his penny loafers for “that extra bit of flair.”

But while Mr. Criss channeled his charisma into singing and dancing, Mr. Cunanan faked his way into high society, lashing out when he didn’t get his way. Growing up in San Diego, Mr. Cunanan was a social butterfly in the Hillcrest neighborhood, where the gay and military communities overlapped, subsisting on sugar daddies and outrageous lies.

“The evidence is strong that he was a drug dealer and involved in crystal meth, so he would get a lot of money in cash and treat people to elaborate dinners,” said the writer Maureen Orth, whose Vanity Fair article about Mr. Cunanan grew into the book “Vulgar Favors,” the basis of the FX series. “At the same time, he was extremely aspirational. Even when he was hiding out in South Beach, he had the biography of William Paley. He had Architectural Digest. And then he’d go out at night and hustle.”

Shooting Mr. Versace was a crime “very much of anger,” Ms. Orth said. “Andrew had been rejected, and things hadn’t turned out for him the way he wanted. And he also was desperate to be famous, and he was willing to kill.”
 
From Theater Geek to ‘Glee’

By contrast, fame came easily to Mr. Criss. Even before “Glee,” he had garnered a following from his role in a satirical “Harry Potter” musical, which he put on with his post-collegiate theater company in Michigan. A YouTube version, with Mr. Criss as the boy wizard, went viral.

By then he was already a seasoned performer. Raised in San Francisco, the son of a prominent banker, he began studying classical violin when he was 5. Not long after, he saw “Aladdin” and decided he wanted to be the genie, or, barring that, an actor. The year of the Versace murder, he made his professional theater debut at age 10, in a local production of the 1954 musical “Fanny.” His big number was “Be Kind to Your Parents.”

He spent the next eight years studying at the American Conservatory Theater’s young conservatory program, while acting with 42nd Street Moon, a San Francisco troupe known for musical revivals. “After school, I was raised by gay 20-somethings,” he said of his adolescent years. “These are the people that I loved and looked up to and wanted to be around.”

His early introduction to gay culture helped prepare him for a career in which his best-known roles and a good chunk of his fan base are gay, though Mr. Criss himself is straight. (His longtime girlfriend is Mia Swier, a TV director and producer.) He’s a rare breed: theater geek filtered through California bro, which made an ideal combination for the pop dorkiness of “Glee.”

In the show’s early days, he auditioned unsuccessfully for a few bit parts, including a football player, until Mr. Murphy finally took notice of him and cast him as Blaine in Season 2. “I knew he could sing, I knew he could act, and I knew before we shot a frame of it, this kid’s going to blow up,” Mr. Murphy said.
 
He was right: Mr. Criss debuted on “Glee” in 2010, not long after getting a theater degree at the University of Michigan, and his cover of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” from his first episode shot up the Billboard charts. A vocal fan base kept the Kurt and Blaine romance steaming along, breaking television barriers as it went.

Mr. Criss burnished his overnight fame with stints on Broadway in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” and recorded music as a solo artist and with Computer Games, an alt-pop band he started with his brother, Chuck Criss. In 2015, he helped found Elsie Fest, an outdoor music festival in New York that has been called “Coachella for Show Tunes.”

Mr. Murphy first floated the idea of the Versace project three years ago, when Mr. Criss was in New Orleans while Mr. Murphy was there shooting the pilot for “Scream Queens.” Hearing the name Andrew Cunanan, Mr. Criss responded, “Oh, that’s right! The half-Filipino guy!” Later that summer, he was backstage at “Hedwig” in full makeup and heels when Mr. Murphy called: “‘Do you still want to do the Cunanan thing?’”

Channeling a Killer

In the makeup trailer in Miami, a stylist painted a meth scab on Mr. Criss’s leg and everyone got in a van. The morning’s agenda: a fictionalized scene in which the increasingly desperate Mr. Cunanan tries to swim his way to safety, but quickly turns back. The van stopped near a jetty at the northern tip of Bal Harbour, with the Ritz-Carlton looming in the background.

“This is going to be rad!” Mr. Criss said, barely containing his enthusiasm. The first assistant director went over the shot: stare at the water; take off shirt, shoes and sunglasses; zip up backpack; jump in.

“Shirt, shoes, sunglasses,” the actor repeated. “I like the alliteration of that.” Mr. Criss gazed at the beach. “Look at these colors, guys. It looks fake!”

The waves were crashing hard against the concrete. As the crew shot the scene at the end of the jetty, it was decided that the water was too choppy for Mr. Criss to actually get in, lest they lose their star to sea. Still, by the end of the take he was drenched from ocean sprays, stripped down to soaking white boxer shorts.

“That was insane,” he shouted while he walked back, as someone swathed him in a white robe. He smiled into the sun and took stock of his luck: “Just a day at the office. Who gets to do this?”

On a break, I mentioned that he seemed to be having fun, and he bridled. “I’m really careful with that word,” he said, his smile dissipating. “This is pretty gruesome material.”

During the eight-month shoot, he had been approached by several people who knew Mr. Cunanan. At an event in Los Angeles, he recalled, a Hollywood producer came up to him and said, “Oh, yeah, Andrew Cunanan, I used to hook up with him,” and added that the F.B.I. had warned him to be careful while Mr. Cunanan was still on the loose.
 
After a few takes, the crew moved to the beach to shoot Andrew’s dejected return to the shore: “my anti-James Bond moment,” Mr. Criss joked. He flung himself into the waves and trudged back onto the sand, kneeling and agonizing for the camera.

“Show us your face,” the episode’s director, Dan Minahan, instructed, and Mr. Criss revealed an anguished expression out of “Guernica.” After “Cut!,” he instantly reverted to his sunny self, saying, “I haven’t been in the water since we got back to Miami, so: check!”

Sitting down for lunch after the shoot, Mr. Criss described the series as a parable about “the ultimate creator and the ultimate destroyer,” in which resentment turned Mr. Cunanan from aspirant to assassin. “I approached Andrew from a pretty big place of hurt and pain and sorrow and sadness,” he said. “The story doesn’t horrify me as much as it breaks my heart.”

“And that’s why acting is such a fun art form to me, again as a bleeding idealist, a bleeding happy-go-lucky dude,” he said, grinning again at his sheer dumb luck. “People casually ask me, ‘How’s the show going?’ And I will say with no ounce of irony or hyperbole, ‘I’ve worked and waited my entire life for this moment, and I couldn’t be happier.’”

Moments later, something close to an irony did cross his mind: “It’s the life Andrew Cunanan would have dreamed of, frankly.”
 

Entertainment Weekly wrote:
This Week's Must List: 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace,' 'Paddington 2,' and 'Red Clocks'

January 12, 2018


ILLUSTRATION by LAURA LANNES for EW

1 of 10

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

The second installment of Ryan Murphy’s true-crime anthology series is a visceral, compelling, and disturbing look at the murder of the titular designer — and the man who killed him, Andrew Cunanan, played by a gripping Darren Criss. (FX, Wednesdays, 10 p.m.)

Darren Criss wrote:
People casually ask me, ‘How’s the show going?’ And I will say with no ounce of irony or hyperbole, ‘I’ve worked and waited my entire life for this moment, and I couldn’t be happier.’”

Moments later, something close to an irony did cross his mind: “It’s the life Andrew Cunanan would have dreamed of, frankly.

Darren Criss wrote:This is the first time I’ve been No. 1 on the call sheet, so you’re kind of the quarterback,” he said. “You set a tone. I take my work very seriously, but I don’t take myself seriously at all.

Darren Criss wrote:
After school, I was raised by gay 20-somethings,” he said of his adolescent years. “These are the people that I loved and looked up to and wanted to be around.”

His early introduction to gay culture helped prepare him for a career in which his best-known roles and a good chunk of his fan base are gay, though Mr. Criss himself is straight. (His longtime girlfriend is Mia Swier, a TV director and producer.) He’s a rare breed: theater geek filtered through California bro, which made an ideal combination for the pop dorkiness of “Glee.

Ryan Murphy wrote:
It was that chiaroscuro quality that caught the attention of Mr. Murphy, who as a co-creator of “Glee” gave Mr. Criss his breakout role. “Darren was seen by people as being a comedic actor, a Broadway musical star and a sensation: Mr. Charisma,” Mr. Murphy said. “I just knew he had the ability to go dark.”
 
[. . . ]

But Mr. Criss was the linchpin. “He was my first and only choice,” Mr. Murphy said. “I truly wouldn’t have made it without him. I don’t know any other actor who would have been correct.”

[. . . ]

In the show’s early days, he auditioned unsuccessfully for a few bit parts, including a football player, until Mr. Murphy finally took notice of him and cast him as Blaine in Season 2. “I knew he could sing, I knew he could act, and I knew before we shot a frame of it, this kid’s going to blow up,” Mr. Murphy said.

Buffalo News wrote:
Orth brings Versace murder to TV, recalls night Tim Russert might have talked to his killer

January 12, 2018

She dismissed some criticism here that the series makes Cunanan likable because she feels being erudite, well-read and having good taste made him that way.

"I found that specious," she said. "He was an incredibly charming personality. He wasn’t just simply a calculating evil personality, and that’s why he was able to gain the confidence of really lovely, sort of salt-of-the-earth, Midwestern guys and the people that he hung out with… So he had quite an interesting personality that was apart from the deep evil that lurked underneath."

She praised Criss' performance.

I think Darren did a beautiful job of being both creepy and charismatic at the same time," said Orth.

Express wrote:
American Crime Story season 2 UK date: When does The Assassination of Gianni Versace air?

Jan. 12, 2018

When will The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story be released?

The Assassination of Gianni Versace is the second instalment of Ryan Murphy’s examination of infamous murder cases that rocked the world. 

The second season of the anthology series is officially released on FX in the US on Wednesday, January 17. 

It will then air shortly after on BBC Two for UK viewers. An exact date has not yet been set for the BBC Two release but it has been confirmed that it will be early 2018. The show will then stream on Netflix after its initial premiere. 


The first season, The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, was released on BBC Two on February 15, 2016 after the initial US release of February 2.

So it’s likely UK fans won’t have to wait too long to enjoy what is set to be one of the biggest shows of 2018.

ADDED: 

UNCONFIRMED:

Ricky Martin, Darren Criss & Edgar Ramirez to appear on Live With Kelly & Ryan next week

Edgar Ramirez will appear on Good Morning America on Tuesday, January 16 | Tickets

Ricky Martin will appear on Good Morning America on Wednesday, January 17 | Tickets

Vanity Fair wrote:
Andrew Cunanan and the Assassination of Gianni Versace, Revisited

January 11, 2018

The author of the book upon which the upcoming season of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story is based discusses what has changed in the 20 years since the case gripped the nation, and what has not.

[. . . ]

“Darren Criss, who plays Cunanan, startled me because he looked so much like him. Criss is also half Filipino, just as Cunanan was.”

“Cunanan would have relished being played by Criss, who brings remarkable charisma and creepiness to the role. Still, the actor is cognizant of the pain and terror his victims will relive when the show airs. As he told me this fall: ‘My heart is really sensitive to the people who experienced something so horrible that I’m trying to breathe life into.’”

Darren Criss on Kimmel - January 2018 from L&M on Vimeo.

Backstage wrote:
Darren Criss is the Season’s New Song and Dance Serial Killer

Jan 10, 2018

While a desire for fame or recognition hardly seems of high value for Criss (“I take my work very seriously, but I don’t take myself seriously at all”), it’s a push-pull relationship between the public and private that certainly informed his take on Cunanan. Versace’s killer was obsessed with the rich and famous and had dreams of making his own way into society’s upper echelons. All of his lies were intended to make him appear better than he was. Within that, there was an underlying desperation to every move he made. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is in part meant to explore how that desperation came to be.

[. . . ]

The No. 1 question people ask Criss about playing Cunanan also comes back to its natural, psychopathic emotional heft: “Is it crazy to be in a dark place?” While the role does require a certain level of brutality and psychiatric unease, the actor has two things to say to that. First is that it’s “no crazier than being a cisgender, heterosexual 20-something playing a gay singing teenager,” as he did on Fox’s “Glee,” also from Murphy. In other words, he’s embodying a character. “I’m not playing myself,” he says, “but you have access to emotions that those people go through, and you find as many common denominators as possible.” And second is that we all may be surprised by Cunanan’s less obvious, more human characteristics.

“We know Andrew was made famous by horrible things, but we don’t really know a lot about his life and who he was,” Criss says. “He was a really joyous, likable, affable, energetic young man…. You really question at what point could this have been you or any of us or anybody we know and love? Are we as awful as the worst thing we’ve ever done?”

Upon a bit of self-reflection, Criss says it’s that ever-present dichotomy of right and wrong, friend and foe, that keeps him acting in the first place. 

“That’s probably why I like acting so much: It bends people’s sense of empathy for the human experience,” he says. “I’m excited for people to experience something [with this show]. I don’t think people really know what’s coming, and that excites me endlessly.”

Something New

Darren Criss insists that despite his credits, he “kind of fell into musical theater by bizarre providence” and that he still views himself as “the actor who sings, not the singer who acts.” That made the opportunity to tap into the psyche of a murderer for nine hours of prestige TV all the more appealing. Ryan Murphy, for one, knew Criss had it in him all along. “The only person in the world who could play Andrew Cunanan is Darren Criss,” the creator says. “For several reasons: One is the obvious correct ethnicity. I thought that was very important to get that right. It would be a disservice to cast an Italian-American as a Filipino-American. But the other thing that was important to me is that I knew that it was going to be a very big, Shakespearean role. I don’t think that there’s going to be a bigger role on television next year in terms of difficulty. It’s him going through the deepest sociopathic impulses and emotional problems. I just thought that Darren is prime. He’s just turning 30 [and] I think that he’s ready to graduate to more difficult material and really try something hard…. I think people will be surprised and startled by his performance and excited because it’s the announcement of something new in his life.”

Los Angeles Daily News wrote:
Why ‘American Crime Story’ took on murder and manhunt in ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’

January 9, 2018

“’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.”

[. . . ]

Ramirez observes that Versace’s influence is still evident today. “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.”

[. . . ]


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 that 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 true crime story.

“By recreating 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.”

ETOnline wrote:
'American Crime Story' Cast Reacts to Versace Family Calling Mini-Series a 'Work of Fiction (Exclusive)

January 9, 2018

Edgar Ramirez and Penelope Cruz are standing behind their work on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story following the Versace family telling ET that the mini-series should be “considered a work of fiction.”

ET’s Keltie Knight spoke with the ACS stars and the show’s creator, Ryan Murphy, at the FX premiere on Monday night in Los Angeles, California, and they were all adamant about holding Gianni’s relatives in high regard.

“We all feel the utmost respect for the Versace family,” Ramirez, who portrays the slain fashion designer, said. “We all tried to be as respectful and compassionate as possible walking into the show.”

“I really feel a lot of love for them,” added Cruz, who takes on the role of Gianni’s sister, Donatella Versace.

The mini-series is based on Maureen Orth’s book, Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U. S. History, which details the late designer’s murder in 1997. Murphy stands behind the story.

“Vulgar Favors was acclaimed and embedded for almost 20 years now so we stand behind Marren and we stand behind the book,” he insisted.

Murphy added, “Penelope never would have taken on this role if in any way if Donatella or anyone in the family was sort of portrayed in a negative light.”

“The Versace family has neither authorized nor had any involvement whatsoever in the forthcoming TV series about the death of Mr. Gianni Versace,” the family said in a statement on Monday. “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.”

At Sunday’s 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards, Cruz shared with ET’s Nancy O'Dell that she spoke with Donatella before accepting the part.

“When [ACS creator] Ryan [Murphy] told me, I said to him, ‘This sounds really interesting, but I have to make this call and I have to talk to Donatella,’” she recalled. “I called her and we spoke, like, for an hour. I needed that conversation to say yes.”

The 43-year-old actress further noted that she and Donatella have no bad blood between them. “It was a conversation where, I cannot share everything we talked about, but we have a good relationship,” she disclosed. “She just sent me flowers before I came here.”

Doting on the 62-year-old fashion icon, Cruz continued, “She’s such a loving person, so I wanted to put out there the love and respect I have for her. It’s in my performance for sure, and I hope that when she sees, she will be happy about it.”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story premieres Jan. 17 on FX.

WWD wrote:
‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Premiere Draws Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz

January 9, 2018

Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez and Darren Criss, stepped out at the premiere of their new series, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” the second installment of Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story” franchise. While the Versace family recently released a statement denouncing the project as “a work of fiction,” Murphy was quick to mention that Cruz had received a kind gesture from her onscreen alter ego. “Donatella Versace sent Penelope Cruz a huge arrangement of flowers yesterday,” he shared.

“It was very nice,” said Cruz, who stars as Donatella in the nine-episode series, which debuts Jan. 17 on FX. “I don’t know if she has seen [any episodes yet], but it’s a personal thing. For me, it really made me smile. It made me happy.” The actress said she admires Donatella’s passion and success in running an empire. “She had to do that in a moment when she was devastated and she proved to be strong. That was a very generous thing to do because I’m sure she did it also for him.”

“Look, maybe it will be too painful for her to [watch], but I think we treat her with a lot of respect and dignity,” added Murphy. “I really admire Donatella — like I really admire Marcia Clark. I think Donatella Versace was a woman who, out of the blue, was asked to carry on a billion-dollar company and keep her family business going and intact and was up against a board of directors and lawyers who were all men and were trying to tell her something contrary to what she wanted to do. I really admire what she was able to do and continues to do.”

Cruz said she spoke with Donatella in advance of filming. “We had a long conversation when Ryan offered me the part,” said Cruz. “I needed to talk to her about it before I moved forward.” Once she accepted the role, Cruz prepared by combing through interviews with Donatella on YouTube in order “to capture the essence of this wonderful woman.”

Ramirez plays the role of Gianni Versace. “It’s such a great opportunity and such a great privilege to step into the shoes of one of the most creative minds of the 20th century,” said Ramirez, who wore prosthetics as part of his physical transformation. “He’s a genius that affected culture and changed it. Gianni was a disruptor. Gianni did things that no one else had done before….He was the designer of his time and for me that’s incredible to play.”

[. . . ]

Criss was tasked with tackling the role of serial killer Cunanan. “I feel like I made varsity,” Criss said of being cast on the show. “I get to be on an FX show, another Ryan Murphy show. The fact that it’s a second season for a show whose stripes are already proven in quality and content. Then I get to be in a project that has a character that is extremely compelling and is an actor’s dream to work on — not because of it’s darkness or the violence that it involves but because of the colors of emotional arcs that he carries with him. And on top of that let’s not forget the bonus that I get to hang out with a bunch of movie stars which is certainly a thrill. My head explodes a little bit [when I talk about it] and it did every day going to work. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Murphy said that the project features his dream cast. “They were all my first choices,” he shared, adding that, despite rumors, Lady Gaga was never in the running for the role. “She was never available. She was doing ‘A Star Is Born’ when we were casting it.” Murphy added, “I always wanted to work with Penelope. I liked that she was friendly with and knew Donatella very well. I’ve been friends with Penelope for almost 10 years and I’ve always wanted to work with her, but we could never find the right piece or the right timing. Finally this worked.”

[. . . ]

Beyond the headlines, Murphy said the project is, at its core, “about something I lived through which was homophobia in the Nineties and the trickle-down effect of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ in our country. I also think it’s about great beauty and great destruction and it answers the question, ‘How does one person become a murderer?’ And how does another person become a creative genius? Both things don’t just happen, so we examine that.”

kristindossantos: So good reuniting with this sweet soul last night and seeing how incredible he is in #AmericanCrimeStory #Versace. Chills on chilllllsss – this is NOT the Darren Criss you know and I think you will be blown away! (P.S. @leamichele also was there and it was a sweet #Glee reunion.) #NeverStopBelievin
###

@americancrimestoryfx starts Jan 17!
KristinDSantos: BLAINE NO MORE! Was completely blown away by this guy in @ACSFX #Versace. Creepy and compelling af. Penelope Cruz is also [100] as Donatella. Get ready. 1/17. #latertweet #VersacePremiere

The AV Club wrote:
The A.V. Club tells you what to watch in 2018

1/8/2018

Criss’ chilly, chameleonic work as Cunanan is the best of his career

Darren Criss Army wrote:The article summarizes the second day of the Television Critics Association’s press tour, which included the FX Executive Producers panel as well as the panel featuring the cast and producers of ACS Versace.

TVWorthWatching wrote:
TCA's Winter Press Tour – Day 2: FX Network

January 6, 2018

The FX creator with the most shows is undoubtedly Ryan Murphy, who presided on back-to-back panels Friday — one for a project about the 80s New York trans ballroom culture, Pose, but also his lavish second installment in the “American Crime Story” franchise, this one titled The Assassination of Gianni Versace that begins Jan. 17.

While many may recall the shocking shooting death of the acclaimed designer in front of his Miami Beach mansion, less well-known is the story of his murderer, who had been wanted by the FBI for a series of brutal killings.

Like Murphy’s initial installment of American Crime Story, The People vs. O.J. Simpson, this one has a dream cast that includes Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez of Carlos as the designer; Penelope Cruz as his sister Donatella, Ricky Martin as his lover, and Darren Criss of Glee as the murderer Andrew Cunanan.

“This certainly is a once in a lifetime opportunity that happened to be within the hands of the person that I had been creating other things with and who had been such a champion for me on Glee,” Criss said. “I definitely lucked out. I think a lot of actors have to wait a lifetime for something like this.”

While the O.J. saga never showed the murder, this one begins with it. But that’s the plan for American Crime Story, Murphy said.

“One of the joys about this show for me is that every season of this show will have a different tonality. The first season was very much a courtroom potboiler. The second season is a manhunt thriller,” he said.

Its third season, covering Hurricane Katrina, will be set in New Orleans’ Memorial Hospital, looking at issues of health care and global warming.

“So every different season of the show, unlike other things that we’ve done, is so different.”

EOnLine wrote:
Why the True Focus of The Assassination of Gianni Versace Just May Surprise You

Jan. 6, 2018

And for star Darren Criss, who turns in a career-making performance as Cunanan, it was the opportunity to explore the tragic undercurrent of the murderer’s actions that drove him to the role.

“That’s what made this such a joy for me, trying to find this common denominators between Andrew and the person watching, so much so that when he does something horrible, you’re really almost heartbroken that they’re doing this,” he told E! News. “That it is not only sad because of the actions, but sad because of the things that made those things happen.”

EOnLine wrote:
Why the True Focus of The Assassination of Gianni Versace Just May Surprise You

Jan. 6, 2018

His name may be in the one in the title, but when The Assassination of Gianni Versace premieres on FX next week, the famed fashion designer, gunned down in his prime, will share the spotlight.

In fact, much like The People v O.J. Simpson before it, the second installment of American Crime Story will use the crime involving the bold-named individual in the title to explore greater themes, as well as tell the stories of the lesser-known victims of serial killer Andrew Cunanan. And as executive producer Brad Simpson told E! News ahead of the show's panel at the 2018 TCA Winter Press Tour, that's exactly how the creative team wanted it.

"Andrew Cunanan was a spree killer and he murdered five people, the most famous being Gianni Versace. Versace was his obsession. He was everything he wanted and couldn't have. The series tracks through those victims," Simpson explained. "We thought it was important to spend the same amount of time with the less-known victims as it was with the most famous victims. Versace weaves his way in and out of this story, I think, in a great way, but the journey itself is the journey of this killer across the country as he murders people."

In other words, just because Edgar Ramirez and Penélope Cruz dominate the show's key art as Gianni and his legendary sister Donatella Versace, don't expect this to be a Versace family biography. While Gianni's name may be in the title, it's the word "Assassination" that's the real focus here.

New York Post wrote:
‘Versace’ miniseries is the first great show of 2018

January 4, 2008

[TV Review:]  AMERICAN CRIME STORY:  THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE Wednesday, Jan. 17, 10 p.m., FX

The second installment of Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story” franchise is the tragic tale of a globally famous gay talent and an obscure gay parasite.

Based on Maureen Orth’s “Vulgar Favors,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is also a glamorous and frightening portrait of a certain kind of modern monster — the entitled kept boy who snaps when he loses the keys to what he imagined was his kingdom.

In her book, Orth describes Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) — who shot Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez) at point-blank range on the steps of his Miami villa in July 1997 — as a “narcissistic nightmare of vainglorious self-absorption, a practiced and pathological liar who … was clever enough to pull off his deceptions.”

The nine episodes of Murphy’s series, all carefully crafted by British screenwriter Tom Robb Smith (“London Spy”), track the disintegration of a spoiled child who demanded the maximum payoff for the most minimal effort — and, unable to develop any real relationships with his peers, cruelly targeted older, wealthy gay men who were willing to satisfy his endless needs.

Smith tells his story in reverse, heightening the central mystery of how a scruffy drifter with a baseball cap, backpack and gun approached Versace as he was returning from a stroll to a neighborhood cafe. Was this a random shooting, or did the younger Cunanan know the celebrated Italian fashion designer, recovering from illnesses brought on by a suppressed diagnosis of HIV? Cunanan, already infamous after landing on the FBI’s Most Wanted list following a spree that left four men, including two of his friends, dead, was bumming around Miami for two months to the apparent indifference of the local police. He then killed one last time.

As the mystery unfolds, Murphy, who directs the pilot, and Smith invite us to witness the extremes of gay culture in the 1980s and 1990s. We meet Versace’s boyfriend Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin), and Cunanan’s companions (and ultimate victims), former naval officer Jeff Trail (an excellent Finn Wittrock) and rising young architect David Madson (Cody Fern). We get glimpses of the Versace fashion empire with his unimaginative, controlling sister Donatella (Penelope Cruz) watching enviously as her brother silences his detractors with one ravishing creation after another. And we get a ringside seat at the twisted Cunanan home in San Diego, where Andrew’s con-man father, Pete (future Emmy winner Jon Jon Briones), sold the family home from under his wife and four children before fleeing the country on an embezzlement charge. All the tools Andrew needed to embark on his trajectory of murder and menace he learned at his father’s feet.

The performances of the leads are outstanding, but special mention must be made of Criss, who beautifully captures Cunanan’s ability to tell the biggest lies anyone has ever heard and literally charm the pants off anyone he sets his sights on. He’s a lot like Patricia Highsmith’s Mr. Ripley, but Ripley was a fictional creation. Cunanan, who committed suicide after murdering Versace, was sadly all-too-real.

Murphy’s ability to showcase well-known performers in surprising cameos continues apace with gems from Mike Farrell, Max Greenfield and even Cathy Moriarty as a wily pawnshop owner.

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is more personal and heartfelt than Murphy’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” and proves that when it comes to seductive allure laced with menace, no one in TV is Murphy’s match.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement are currently looking for Andrew Cunanan. He’s expected to be extremely dangerous and armed at this time.

Jeremy wrote:Well, you could get a MP from me on Thursday before noon (California time).

Lin wrote:I don't trust Ryan on any sort of detail, but yes, judging by the the episode titles and short descriptions, the murders should be over after episode 4 or maybe 5, until the last episode where Cunanan commits suicide and I assume they'll probably also show Versace's murder again.

Decider wrote:
Darren Criss Is The Next Sarah Paulson

January 3, 2018

This time two years ago, you probably only vaguely knew who actress Sarah Paulson was, if you knew her at all. So now, let’s go ahead and take a temperature check when it comes to your current familiarity with Darren Criss. Lemme guess…Glee, maybe? Well, we’re just days away from that changing significantly.

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story was a career and life-changing role for Paulson. Portraying Marcia Clark put her on the map, on more screens, and on the minds of average television consumers. Before that, her consistent career included appearing in executive producer Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story and picking up critical kudos for her roles in Martha Marcy May Marlene, 12 Years Slave, and Carol (and not nearly enough attention for her excellence in Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, if we’re being honest). But after she transformed into the sympathetic, cigarette-smoking, permed prosecutor, the world finally understood the talent that this woman was sharing with the world. This resulted in Critics’ Choice, Golden Globe, Emmy and SAG statues and roles in this year’s likely Oscar-nominated The Post as well as the highly anticipated Ocean’s 8. She’s straight up unstoppable.

And yet, that Ryan Murphy magic is at it again for the 2018 installment of American Crime Story, and this time it’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace. While Edgar Ramirez is great as Versace and Penelope Cruz as Donatella will spur gifs wide across the internet, it’s Darren Criss who will send shivers up and down and back up your spine throughout the entire series. He’s creepy, he’s precise, and he’s absolutely impossible to take your eyes off of. As spree-killer Andrew Cunanan, he is giving a provocative performance that will have people talking and showering him with awards. Go ahead, just carve the Emmy for him now. It’s going to be hard for any other male actor to come close to what Criss is bringing this year.

Oh, and that’s not just because it’s fantastic. It’s also startling because we’ve never seen anything like this from him. What happened to that kid from Glee who sang his heart out on “Teenage Dream”? Criss brought his charm to the Kristen Wiig rom-com Girl Most Likely in 2012 but has never quite achieved the recognition he’s deserved for the acting, singing, and general musical theater skills he’s bringing to the game. All of that changes with The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

It’s unlikely you thought to yourself, “2018 is the year I want to be supremely creeped the eff out by Darren Criss,” but that wish is about to come true for you anyway. His performance in the FX drama will give you a delightful and exciting whiplash in the way it switches from frantic to controlled, emotional to subtle, and straight up scary to intriguing. Criss will be catapulted to a household name, and one that we’re kind of freaked out by, but mostly in a good way, right?

Criss has wisely braced himself for this moment. With a new EP released just a few weeks ago, and a schedule clear of any upcoming productions, he’ll be fielding offers left and right — for theater, tours, massive movies, more series TV. He’s already got a fanbase built in, not that they’re ready for what they’re about to see, but it will only expand from here. The key to it all is that he’s just gotta stay on that Paulson path: remain as affable as it gets in real life and on talk shows, remember to thank Ryan Murphy & co. in your awards acceptance speeches, and keep it about the work — and interesting work, at that. But now that we know what he’s capable of, it would be cool if he could just lean closer to the teenage dream than the nightmares he’s able to create.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story premieres Wednesday, January 17, 2018 on FX, and FX+ subscribers can watch the first episode beginning Friday, January 12, 2018.
 

Yahoo Entertainment wrote:
Winter TV Preview: The scoop on 13 new shows

January 2, 2018

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ (FX, Jan. 17 at 10 p.m.)

The one-sentence pitch: “Like it’s titled, it’s about the murder of Gianni Versace, but what the show is really about is what leads up to that murder,” says ACS executive producer Brad Simpson. “And most people who know about Versace know he was murdered by Andrew Cunanan, but they probably don’t know that he was the final victim in a killing spree.”

What to expect: “This season is a very different flavor. It’s a different mood, it’s a different type of crime, and a different type of storytelling,” Simpson says of the new season, which unfolds Cunanan’s crime in a nonlinear fashion, beginning with Versace’s murder and revealing Cunanan’s other victims in reverse chronological order. “We felt like it was important to not have the audience spend eight episodes waiting for that murder to happen, so we get right to the most famous murder. Then … we’ve all seen stories of the evolution of a killer, where you follow someone as they commit their first murder, climaxing with something bigger. We thought it was more interesting to do it in reverse, tell you the whole story in reverse, go victim by victim into the past and really try to understand not just who these other victims were but also why [Cunanan] ended up on this path.”

Glee-ful cast: Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace, Edgar Ramirez as Gianni, Ricky Martin as Versace’s boyfriend Antonio, as well as memorable performances from Judith Light, Finn Wittrock, Dascha Polanco, Mike Farrell, Max Greenfield, and newcomer Cody Fern pepper the season, but it’s singer and Glee alum Darren Criss, as Cunanan, who is most mesmerizing as the undeniably charming, and disturbed, serial killer. “Versace and Andrew Cunanan were both born into circumstances in which they were gay men with ambition, with taste, and who people genuinely liked,” Simpson says. “Andrew was very well-liked until a certain age. … We wanted to explore what sets one off on the path to becoming this great creator, and what sets the other on the path to being this destroyer.” — KP

Winter TV Preview: The scoop on 13 new shows

Vanity Fair - France wrote:
Darren Criss, l'espoir du petit écran américain à surveiller de près

03-01-2018



Teenage Dream

Darren Criss, the hope of the small screen to watch closely

Although Darren Criss may have left the Glee choir, he is not finished with Ryan Murphy. The 30-year-old actor is featured in season 2 of “American Crime Story”, titled “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”. Based on Maureen Orth’s book, “Vulgar Flavors,” the series will focus on the story of serial killer Andrew Cunanan, played by Darren Criss.

In France, he is still little known - if not a fan of Glee. Almost all Glee fan fell under the spell of the Californian when he played the young Blaine Anderson. Playing, singing, dancing, and even writing - since he’s also a songwriter - everything seems to be within Darren Criss’s reach. As he prepares to demonstrate the extent of his talents in what could be the role of his life, Vanity Fair has conducted an investigation into Ryan Murphy’s protégé .

“MOST LIKELY TO WIN A GRAMMY”

Darren Criss was born in 1987 in San Francisco, California, but spent his early childhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. From an early age, he was immersed in music: at the age of five, he began his violin lessons, which he continued for fifteen years. On top of that, he taught himself guitar, piano, mandolin, harmonica and drums. No wonder, then, that his classmates chose him as a Grammy contender, even  though he was only in high school. He still hasn’t won that grammy, but the nomination took place in 2012 with Glee. At only 15 years old, Darren Criss was already a musician, singer, and composer: He wrote his first song, Human, in 2009, which is on his first EP of the same name. However, music isn't  enough for this lover of the arts: in addition to his songs and the half-dozen instruments he’s mastered perfectly, Darren Criss wants to act. In parallel with music, he has been acting since the age of 10, when he joined the youth program of the famous American Conservatory Theater - which has among its alumni, Nicolas Cage , Winona Ryder, Elizabeth Banks and Brie Larson .

His adolescence is punctuated by the plays in which he plays: The Music Man, The Diary of Anne Frank, Fiddler on the Roof, Pride and Prejudice … He even left the US, in 2008, to study at the Accademia dell'Arte, in Arezzo in Tuscany. “No one is supposed to know what to do as a kid” , he said in 2013 at the LA Times . “I’m one of the lucky ones. I always worked towards my goal, it did not happen by chance. It takes a lifetime of work to become a phenomenon overnight .”

Success comes a year later. In 2009, when Darren Criss graduated from the Beaux Arts, he decided to go with a few friends to a production company specializing in musicals: StarKid Productions . By performing, with his troupe, the role of Harry Potter in a musical adaptation of JK Rowling’s work, Darren Criss made a sensational entrance into the world of American entertainment. “It was overwhelming, it happened by accident: it was right when the viral videos appeared”, He testifies years later. The first clip of the show, posted in 2009, almost ten years later, reached 14 million views on YouTube.

“ SINGING… ”

With the triumph of A Very Potter Musical, Darren Criss began to get noticed. Moving from boards to television, he appeared in 2009 in five episodes of Eastwick , a fantastic series then broadcast on ABC. The following year marks the beginning of glory for the young artist: after a flash passage in an episode of Cold Case , the young man won a role in the second season of Glee , the musical series of Ryan Murphy , then in full swing . He makes a sensational debut in the series as Blaine Anderson , an openly gay young man who will become Kurt’s future love interest (Chris Colfer). In his first episode, he sings Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream. - the single is immediately at the top of sales.

Hair cut and full of gel, tailored suit: he abandons, for the needs of the series, the arts student look for a preppy, neat look. “I was a clumsy actor with long hair, a little nerd . When I had an audition for Glee , I said to myself: “It’s important, I’ll cut my hair” “ , then says Darren Criss at the LA Times . ” Glee has really been a turning point in my career . “ In five seasons, the young man goes from a secondary character to fan favorite in a flash: in season three, Ryan Murphy modifies his character’s journey to become part of McKinley High School, where most of the plot unfolds. Thus, Darren Criss attained the status of regular actor.

Despite persistent rumors, including seeing him play a gay character on the screen, Darren Criss has repeatedly said that he is heterosexual. He confided in 2010 to Vanity Fair that it is still a subject close to his heart: “I grew up in a very open community, including through the theater in San Francisco - it’s difficult , if we stick to the clichés, to be more gay. I was raised in the “gay community” . My parents were straight, but I spent a lot of time very young with gay folks in the theater world.

Quasi-omnipresent in the series, the prodigy still finds time for multiple projects, as usual. After playing a Harry Potter singer in his musical, he loops the loop by replacing Daniel Radcliffe on stage in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying . He lends a helping hand for three weeks, which then became the most lucrative of the production. He also plays in a movie comedy unnoticed on this side of the Atlantic: Imogene , where Darren Criss starred with Kristen Wiig , and even made a brief appearance in the video for Katy Perry , Last Friday Night- that he will resume, too, in Glee .

THE VERSACE KILLER

If there is one thing that can not be removed from Ryan Murphy , it is his loyalty. In his multiple projects from year to year (Nip / Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story , Scream Queens, American Crime Story , Feud and soon 911 and Pose ), the director never drops his favorite actors. When Glee comes to an end, Lea Michele (Rachel in the series) finds her place in the first two seasons of Scream Queens. Same thing for Jessica Lange , who goes from American Horror Story to Feud , or Sarah Paulson, which seems to assert itself as the essential muse of the director in any of his projects. For Darren Criss , the situation is more or less similar: once you set foot in work with Ryan Murphy , you do not leave. After Glee , the young man makes a quick appearance in the fifth season of American Horror Story , Hotel , where he plays Justin, an arrogant hipster who will end up stabbed. This flash passage is actually nothing compared to what Murphy is preparing for him: a leading role in the second installment of American Crime Story , whose first season on the OJ Simpson affair, has already conquered audience and criticism. This time, the production is interested in the murder of Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramírez) by the serial killer Andrew Cunanan , played by Darren Criss - who is finally offered a role complex enough to show the extent of his talent.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, starts January 17 in the United States, and soon on Canal +.

Lin wrote:How thoughtful of them. Feel better soon!

Lin wrote:My impression was that he's just there to watch people's reactions and is acting shocked to blend in. Although it may also be starting to dawn on him that he won't be able to just walk around and tell people he's a serial killer anymore...

Lin wrote:It's so nice reading all this praise about the show and Darren. Just three weeks now!!!
I'm glad about the heads-up in this article:

Spoiler:

Lin wrote:It's also fun seeing journalists "fight" over which roles Darren should be offered after ACS. I'm good with TV (prefer it even), but if someone absolutely wanted to give him a part in Fantastic Beasts, I suppose I could live with that, too... I was just thinking that I would love to see him in a fantasy or period type role with fun costumes.

EOnline wrote:
Golden Globes 2018 Presenters List Includes Penelope Cruz, Seth Rogen and Gal Gadot

Dec. 28, 2017

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which chooses the winners, this week began to announce names of celebs set to present awards.

The list includes Penélope Cruz, Kelly Clarkson, Seth Rogen, Halle Berry, Carol Burnett, Darren Criss, Greta Gerwig, Hugh Grant, Neil Patrick Harris, Chris Hemsworth, Christina Hendricks, Isabelle Huppert, Shirley MacLaine, Ricky Martin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Amy Poehler, Edgar Ramírez, J.K. Simmons, Sharon Stone, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alicia Vikander and Emma Watson.

The group joins Kerry Washington and Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, who the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had announced as presenters earlier this week. Check @goldenglobeson Twitter for the latest updates!

~~ The Golden Globes will air on Jan. 7 at 8 pm EST on NBC. ~~

Deadline wrote:
Golden Globes Presenters: Greta Gerwig, Amy Poehler, Hugh Grant, Neil Patrick Harris, More

December 28, 2017

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the first group of presenters for the 75th Golden Globe Awards. They are Halle Berry, Carol Burnett, Kelly Clarkson, Darren Criss, Penélope Cruz, Gal Gadot, Greta Gerwig, Hugh Grant, Neil Patrick Harris, Chris Hemsworth, Christina Hendricks, Isabelle Huppert, Shirley MacLaine, Ricky Martin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Amy Poehler, Edgar Ramírez, Seth Rogen, J.K. Simmons, Sharon Stone, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alicia Vikander, Kerry Washington and Emma Watson.

Seth Meyers will host the ceremony airing live Sunday, January 7 on NBC from 5-8 PM PT / 8-11 PM ET from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Previously announced, Golden Globe-nominee Oprah Winfrey will be the recipient of the 2018 Cecil B. DeMille Award.

The show is produced by dick clark productions in association with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.