Watching American Horror Story is scary enough… but how does the cast feel as they bring these
stories to life?
AHS seems to make a permanent impact on its stars - sometimes for the better, and sometimes
for the worse.
Here's how the show has changed these actors' lives.
In the early years, Evan Peters was basically the face of American Horror Story.
He started out playing Tate Langdon in the first season, and went on to star in seven
more seasons of the creeped-out anthology show.
It seemed like Peters would always be in the cast - but that didn't turn out to be the
case.
In 2019, Peters shocked fans with the announcement that he wouldn't be returning for 1984, the
ninth season of AHS.
"I'm making hard choices…
every day."
Honestly, he probably didn't miss out on much.
"I just needed to get each of you alone with me."
"Why?"
"So I can kill you!"
Prior to Peters' announcement, the actor revealed that AHS was taking a toll on his mental health,
telling GQ in 2018:
"I don't like to yell and scream.
I actually hate it.
I think it's disgusting and really awful [...] Horror Story sort of demanded that of me."
He went on to explain:
"It's just exhausting.
It's really mentally draining, and you don't want to go to those places ever in your life.
And so you have to go there for the scenes, and it ends up integrating it somehow into
your life."
Jessica Lange began her stint on American Horror Story in season one, portraying Constance
Langdon, Tate's malignant mother.
The role ushered in a whole new phase of Lange's career, winning her a second Primetime Emmy.
She stuck with AHS for three more seasons, eventually returning for Apocalypse to reprise
her role as Constance.
Honestly, no one plays an intimidating matriarch quite like her.
"Bundy, Dahmer… they started with small animals too… until they graduated."
Before getting that career-changing phone call from Ryan Murphy, Lange was going through
a difficult breakup.
She had just ended a 30-year relationship with actor and playwright Sam Shepard, and
had no idea what she'd do next.
In 2019, she told GoldDerby:
"Going into that series somehow revitalized me and made me understand that there was a
whole way of working that I had never done before [...]. It forced me to work in a way
with complete and total abandon."
The story checks out:
"What is this?
Knotty pine!"
Emma Roberts was tired of being typecast.
She felt like casting directors only saw her as a "girl next door" type.
So when Ryan Murphy offered her the role of powerful witch Madison Montgomery, she leapt
at the chance.
"Azazel, we submit to you, body and soul!
The lord of the underworld, we offer you our obedience and everlasting devotion!"
Playing Madison clearly gave Roberts a new sense of confidence.
As she told Collider,
"It’s definitely made me a more fearless actress.
Things I would normally say no to, I’m more like, 'Bring it on!'"
Her stint on AHS has certainly opened doors for her, too.
In another interview with Collider, she noted,
"I remember before Madison, I would go up for parts and they'd be like, 'She's too sweet,'
or 'She's too nice.'
Now, after Madison [...] no one says that."
It's easy to see why.
"I mean, why wait for some phony, happily-ever-after when you can have your piece now, I say.
What about you Luke?"
Lady Gaga always wanted to break into acting - long before her music career ever took off.
For proof, look no further than her bit role on this Sopranos episode.
She put those acting ambitions on the backburner for a long time - but Ryan Murphy ultimately
helped turn that dream into a reality.
He cast her as the vampiric Countess in American Horror Story: Hotel.
"I lived in New York many years ago.
I loved roaming the streets, devouring the pulse of the city.
Electrifying."
As Murphy told Billboard in 2015:
"She has always wanted to be an actress.
She studied it in college, but she was too terrified to go on auditions."
When Murphy showed her footage of one of her scenes in AHS, Gaga reportedly began to sob.
Murphy told Billboard:
"I was worried, but she told me later that it was because she was so happy that somebody
had believed in her."
Gaga's newfound confidence as an actress changed her entire career.
She went on to star as Ally alongside Bradley Cooper in the 2018 remake of A Star is Born,
which was nominated for several Academy Awards and won Best Original Song for "Shallow."
American Horror Story: Freak Show wouldn't have been complete without Twisty the Clown.
The terrifying character was played by actor John Carroll Lynch, and it was his first time
ever working on the show.
The character had a rather nasty habit of sneaking up on innocent people and killing
them.
And the fact that Twisty barely spoke a word made him all the more frightening.
That proved to be quite an actorly challenge for Lynch, who had to rely solely on body
language for the performance.
As he told Collider in 2014:
"There are a lot of things that I've never tried before because the character is silent.
[...] There was the challenge of being told, 'There’s almost no dialogue and we’re
gonna take away half of your face.
Let’s see if you can act in those circumstances.'”
Judging by his nightmare-inducing performance as Twisty, we'd say he nailed it - and became
a more versatile actor in the process.
In 2018, Cody Fern joined American Horror Story for Apocalypse.
He memorably played Michael Langdon, otherwise known as The Antichrist.
To prepare for the part - and get into the mindset of a ghoulish entity like Michael
- Fern spent lots of time reading up on theology, psychology, and philosophy.
Michael has been Fern's biggest role to date, and apparently, Fern still hasn't entirely
moved on from the character.
In June 2019, he told GoldDerby:
People have more [of] an interest in the darker aspects of life.And I think it’s very much
about trying to understand the darkness within ourselves."
"I'm a serious actor."
"Heh heh."
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