LogFAQs > #929319467

48. Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace (17 points)
Nominated by: Johnbobb (3/5 remaining)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46cdjzEMV1Q" data-time="

Importance: 4.5
Fear: 4
Snake: 8.5

Holy shit this performance. I've really been sleeping on American Crime Story, the companion anthology series to American Horror Story, and missing fantastic performances such as Darren Criss' Andrew Cunanan, the infamous spree killer who assassinated world-famous fashion designer Gianni Versace. In just the first episode alone, Criss goes through a whole array of masks that make up Cunanan's character, an apex chameleon that can blend into any social situation with very little effort. He's ruled by sexuality and his impulses, but he's able to reign this in when he needs to, to say, pretend to be an author or a careless party boy looking for a fun night on the town. He's the type of person no one would ever truly get to know, since it seems like he has a different personality for everyone he meets. If there's a lie to be told, he'll tell it. The best thing about Criss' performance is how much you feel sucked in and almost hypnotized by it too. Criss sells Cunanan in flashbacks and makes him extremely likable, a defiant rogue cheating his way to high-class, almost like a little "fuck you" to the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Yet, in sort of a Patrick Bateman fashion, the true reality of these scenes remain debatable, Cunanan's grand yarns portraying a higher version of himself that perhaps isn't really the case. It ultimately doesn't matter, since Cunanan, and by proxy Criss, has you hook, line, and sinker, and that's where the true depth and horror of this performance lies.
---

I try in vain to slumber, my reveries gripped by violent terror. My only salvation, the shock of awakening. Something is very, very wrong here.