The Assassination of Gianni Versace Producer Uses 2019 Golden Globe Win to Urge Empathy and Acceptance

Brad Simpson took his time on stage to encourage artists to fight back

By Chris Harnick Jan 07, 2019 3:53 AMTags
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Darren Criss, Max GreenfieldFX

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story's awards streak continued at the 2019 Golden Globes.

The FX miniseries, which previously won three Emmys, beat out HBO's Sharp Objects, TNT's The Alienist, Showtime's Escape at Dannemora and Amazon's A Very English Scandal.

Based on Maureen Orth's book Vulgar Favors, the series told the story of Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) and the murder of designer Gianni Versace (Édgar Ramírez). The series, which also had Ryan Murphy on board and was written by Tom Rob Smith, also starred Ricky Martin and Penélope Cruz. Executive producer Brad Simpson used his speech to make a political statement.

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"Gianni Versace was murdered 20 years ago. He was one of the very few public figures who was out during a time of intense hate and fear, this was the era of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Defensive of Marriage Act era. Those forces of hate are still with us. They tell us we should be scared of people different from us. They tell us we should put walls around ourselves. As artists we must fight back by representing those not represented, and by providing a space for people, for new voices to tell stories that haven't been told. As human beings, we should resist in the streets, resist at the ballot box. And practice love and empathy in our every day lives," Simpson said.

 

"Our show is a period piece, but those forces are not historical. They are here, they are with us and we must resist. Thank you very much," he added.

Criss also took home an award for this work in the miniseries.