LOS ANGELES _ Produced by Ryan Murphy, FX's "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" is far more than a narrative about the 1997 murder of the Italian fashion designer by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. It's also a dramatic window into what it was like to be gay in America in the '90s.
Which may be why the show, which starred Edgar Ramirez as Versace and Darren Criss as Cunanan, won the Emmy for limited series on Monday night and Murphy received directing honors in the category.
Backstage, the cast and its director crowded onto the press room stage for what might have been the evening's fastest group interview. Murphy was to-the-point but poignant.
"It was a story I was passionate about very early on," he said. "I wanted to tell the story. I was in L.A. five years when Andrew Cunanan started his spree. I felt it was a story that needed to be told. The [themes] are as modern as ever."
Later, he echoed what he'd spoken about when accepting his award at the podium earlier that evening.
"I was happy to make a political statement. One in four LGBT Americans will be the victim of a hate crime, which is heinous," he said, adding later that "the idea that I get to tell this story is important to me."
