Penelope Cruz as we have never seen her before…black leather suits you, honey!
I don’t know the fashionista Donatella Versace personally. But I would guess, regardless of the fact or fiction of the salacious story line, that she’s proud to have Penelope Cruz bringing life to a tragic aspect of her life in the American Crime Story miniseries, The Assassination of Gianni Versace.
A coolness surrounds Penelope Cruz in this role that we have never shivered from in other, more demure roles the actress has portrayed. Maybe it’s the black leather ensembles. Maybe it’s the eyewear coupled with the black leather ensembles. Maybe it’s the footwear. Maybe it’s her walk, in the footwear, elevating her to rise to the persona of a Donatella Versace. Maybe it’s the thick accent, spoken as quietly as a whisper with a chill and an understated bit of a bite. Maybe it’s the thick accent emerging from the thicker prosthetic teeth so that when Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace says, “A nobody will not kill my brother twice,” we believe her.
Or maybe it’s the fact that Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace sets a tone. A stone-cold monotone. An I’m going to look you dead in the eye . . . without forming a smile . . . because I’m a no non-sense woman who means business . . . when it comes to a nobody–anybody–messing with my brother’s business . . . sort of tone.
Whatever the hell it is, it’s awake. And pretty damn scary.
And, although you might get a little dirty watching these sublime performances, the lush scenes (whether from the Garden of Eden or Sodom and Gomorrah), and the crazy coo-Cunanan of it all, like an accident on the highway, one can’t help but look . . . and possibly love it!
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What do you think?
