RICKY MARTIN IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST-PROFILE GAY MEN IN THE WORLD. AND NOW HE’S HELPING TELL THE TRAGIC STORY OF ANOTHER HIGH-PROFILE GAY MAN IN AMERICAN CRIME STORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE

WORDS: MATT CAIN

Ricky wears polo, jeans and trainers, all by DSquared2

PHOTOGRAPHY: TONY DURAN // FASHION: JOSEPH KOCHARIAN

RICKY MARTIN

Ricky Martin throws back his head and bursts out laughing. “What’s wrong with gay, gay, gay?” he jokes. It’s the start of our interview and I’m explaining that, as Attitude is a magazine for gay men, my line of questioning is going to reflect this. When I inform him that it’s going to be “gay, gay, gay,” he sits forward and gives me an encouraging smile.

“If anyone has issues with that, they’re out!” We’re sitting in the private lounge of a photographic studio near Ricky’s home in Los Angeles to discuss his role in the latest incarnation of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story franchise, The Assassination of Gianni Versace. It’s a gripping and thought-provoking adaptation of the story of Andrew Cunanan, a gay hustler who embarked on a series of killings across America in 1997 — one that ended with the gunning down of the Italian fashion designer on the steps of his mansion in Miami Beach.

Cunanan is played by Glee star Darren Criss, Edgar Ramirez stars as Versace and Penélope Cruz appears as his sister Donatella, but it’s Ricky Martin who steals the show as Antonio D’Amico, a model and the designer’s long term boyfriend. I begin by asking how he feels about the finished series.

“I was very pleased with it,” he says, “and to be able to work with Penélope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez and Darren Criss, was obviously amazing. But also Ryan Murphy has a mission. So we have what we know about Gianni Versace’s death but then there’s what was going on behind it.

“We’re talking about a criminal who went off on a killing spree. He was on the FBI’s list of most wanted men. He was in Miami Beach, a very small town. He was not hiding and he got to Gianni. So there’s a lot of homophobia in this because we have the authorities just turning the other way.

They thought, ‘OK, he’s a gay man killing other gay men — just don’t look at it’. When that hit me, I thought: ‘I need to use my voice for this, to bring justice to it’.”

In preparation for the role, Ricky met with the real-life Antonio, who is now 59 years old. “I know how hard it was for him to be talking to me,” Ricky continues. “And I said, ‘All I want is to do justice to your love for Gianni’. “I asked him some deep questions about his emotions. What did he feel when he found the body? What did he feel after the funeral? He felt empty, he felt that he wanted to die. And we touched on this: his sadness, his depression and everything that he went through.”

Ricky wears top and cap, both by Dsquared2, joggers by Moschino

“ I WAS A CLOSETED GAY MAN WHO WAS MAKING MY PARTNERS HIDE. I HAD RELATION SHIPS WITH MEN WHO WENT BACK IN THE CLOSET BEC A USE OF ME”

Ricky wears top by Prada at Matches Fashion, jeans by Dior Homme

HIGH LIFE: Ricky plays Gianni Versace’s boyfriend Antonio

“ I REMEMBER BEING ATTRACTED TO MEN WHEN I WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD. I DIDN’TUN DERSTAND WHAT IT MEANT BUT THERE WAS AN EMPTINESS AND A SADNESS”

Part of those experiences forms the basis of one of the most powerful scenes at the start of the series. It shows Antonio being interrogated by an FBI officer about the nature of his relationship with Gianni, a relationship we discover was open and involved threesomes and group sex. The inference drawn is that homophobia is lying behind the officer’s ignorance. I ask Ricky how he felt about bringing this to the screen.