Ryan Murphy’s FX series American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace took Emmys for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series for Ryan, Lead Actor in a Limited Series for Darren Criss and Outstanding Limited Series. It’s too bad Ricky Martin couldn’t have won an award for Outstanding Performance in a Speedo, but we can’t always recognize everyone. In his acceptance speech, Ryan said,
“The Assassination of Gianni Versace is about a lot of things, it’s about homophobia, internalized and externalized. One of out of every four LGBTQ people in this country will be the victim of a hate crime. We dedicate this award to them, to awareness, to stricter hate crime laws, and mostly, this is for the memory of Jeff and David and Gianni and for all of those taken too soon.”
Backstage, Ryan credited the show’s success to the series writers and the incredible cast. He said “you can feel the love and the passion all of the actors had for characters, even in their darkest of moments.” He went on to say that recounting the tragic murder of the fashion designer was “a story I was passionate about very early on”. He said he had been in Los Angeles for five years when Andrew Cunanan commenced his killing spree and felt that this “was a story that needed to be told.”
He told reporters that the story is still relevant in today’s world because, “The themes and issues that we talk about in the show are modern as ever, if not more so.” The outspoken show runner added “I’m always happy to make a political statement.” He reiterated what he said onstage in his acceptance speech, saying the fact that so many LGBTQ Americans are victims of hate crime is “true and heinous.”
Ryan went on to recall that “As a gay man who was told that, when I started off in the business, I couldn’t write a gay character. The idea now that 20 years later I get to tell the story and proselytize for my community is important.”
The fashions may have indicated that the story of the show was a tale of the past, but the themes still resonate loudly in this day and age. Let’s hope the statistics involving hate crimes against the LBGTQ community are no longer considered heinous and I can only hope Ryan will be collecting more statues and continuing to speak out next year for Pose.
Photos: Getty, WENN, Instagram
Powerful speech.
I’m Chilean Canadian, queer, disabled poc and am holding off entering the States till drump is out, specifically because of this.
Well said Ryan Murphy. 👏🏼
I hope and pray that statistic is incorrect.