“Actors are really only as good as the parts they’re given and the moments they are granted. There was only so much I could do on my own,” he tells PEOPLE exclusively.
“Wiser hands are playing a big part in what you get to do. This was such an outrageously giving opportunity to me and I’m so indebted to everybody who had faith in me to do this. It means a great deal to me,” Criss says.
Earlier this year, the dark role got the 31-year-old actor hisfirst Emmy win.
Ray Mickshaw/FX
After getting cast in the true crime anthology, which was a far cry from his past role as preppy singer Blaine Anderson onGlee,he previously told PEOPLE, “I had a friend tell me when I got the part, ‘You’re playing the gay boogeyman.’ ”
When it came to playing Cunanan, Criss wanted to make sure he was portraying all of the complex aspects of his character, which included everything from killing in cold blood to singing Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” at the top of his lungs in his car.
And becoming the grim character allowed him to shine.
“This was the first time I was in a position of any type of leadership on a show,” Criss tells PEOPLE. “For this particular project, it was a relief to be able to set the tone. When you have so much great material and you have a crew that’s working long days and everybody is away from their families and you’re repeating very gruesome things over and over again, it’s nice to know that I’m in the position to crack a few jokes and keep people light-hearted and help them disassociate from all the darkness that we were in.”
“The project highlights youth leaders that have created positive change in their community through the power of cleaning, from a young person that has started a free laundry day for homeless folks in his community to a young woman that cleans a lot of the animal shelters,” he says of the partnership.
source: people.com
