Here’s how a kiss got Darren Criss got his job on “American Crime Story”
Given how loveable he was as Blaine Anderson on Glee, when we heard that Darren Criss had been cast in American Crime Story as serial killer Andrew Cunanan we had to do a double take.
The actor, of course, has been cast in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming series, American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which also stars the likes of Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace and New Girl star Max Greenfield (who is rocking one fancy mustache). The show, which will focus on the infamous assassination of Versace founder Gianni, was initially slated to air in 2018, but has since been bumped up to this year and will now air at some point this fall. Oh, and it looks like it could be the campiest thing since Christmas.
Well, Darren Criss has been chatting all about how he bagged his role on the show, and it all has to do with a kiss.
The actor sat down with Entertainment Weekly to talk about the show, and revealed that initially he “casting-couched the s— outta” of his audition. Thankfully, executive producer Ryan Murphy convinced fellow executive producer Brad Simpson to head down to see Criss in the Broadway adaptation of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
“Once every night [Criss] jumps into somebody’s lap and makes out with them,” Simpson recalled to EW. “In the middle of the show, he jumps in the audience and rips my glasses off and makes out with me. It was very charming and a very Cunanan thing to do, to be a little devilish. Cunanan charmed people and then turned them off. We’re talking about a serial killer people liked.”
Thankfully, Criss wasn’t aware that the audience member that he picked was actually Simpson, so he gave the performance his all, without any preconceived ideas. “I’m glad I didn’t know,” he admitted.
Darren Criss also shared that he wasn’t feeling any anxiety about taking on the role, describing taking on the character of Cunanan as “one of those ship-coming-in moments.” He also explained how the character differs from Blaine:
“I don’t like quantifying one [role is] harder or easier or funner or more significant than other characters,” he explained. “Blaine, by comparison, could be put into a cartoonish box. The very patter of Glee exists in a different world than the one we’re dealing with. But all the same, I treat that silly hairdo and the clothes he wore and the way that he spoke and the things he believed in with the same currency that I treat someone like Andrew, who was a real person and had real friends and family.”
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While we totally loved Blaine and Glee, we’re super looking forward to seeing a different side of Darren Criss as an actor. In fact, the more we see from American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the more we’re sure it’ll be one of the best shows to come out this year.
