Random Casts Of ‘American Horror Story’ (13 items)

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  (#6) Taissa Farmiga

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  Taissa Farmiga was very young and relatively inexperienced when she was cast in the first season of American Horror Story. She learned much about the industry during filming, as she confided to Rogue magazine:

  I love people-watching, and when I’m on set, that’s the best place to do it because I’m working with actors who have been doing this for years and years, and they have so much history and experience, even in how they walk into a room and the way they present themselves and hold themselves. One of the first times I worked with Jessica Lange, I remember just staring.

  Farmiga seemed to fit right in, and she returned for two other seasons: Coven and Roanoke. She appreciates the show's skill in mixing camp and terror, claiming, "I hate being scared. I hate watching dark things. If I’m picking a movie or TV show to watch, I go comedy all the way, but I love playing [dark] stuff."
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  (#4) Lily Rabe

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  Actress Lily Rabe brings an exquisite vulnerability to all the characters she plays on American Horror Story, and she thrives on the challenges brought to her by the show's demanding scripts. "It’s all over the spectrum in terms of information, so you just have to be ready to roll with the punches and be on your toes. You have to be pretty game," she said to Rolling Stone.

  Rabe feels a great sense of camaraderie with the cast and crew, also revealing to the magazine:

  It’s a massively appealing thing; a television show. You have a steady job for five or six months and you have this feeling of family. And yet you get this incredible luxury of playing someone new every year.
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  (#5) Kathy Bates

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  American Horror Story fans were delighted when horror icon Kathy Bates signed on to play Madame Delphine LaLaurie on Coven. In a press interview for Coven's debut, she told a journalist, "I’m just hoping they don’t ask me to do something really horrific." As indicated by subsequent seasons, however, Bates seemingly adapted to the type of gruesome horror the show is known for.

  Later in the interview, she pointed to the series's exploration of female identity in culture as one of the reasons she initially signed on, saying:

  It throws that patriarchal view of women in your face. That idea of woman as witch, and woman as mysterious and powerful, is one of the underlying messages of the show.
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  (#13) Cheyenne Jackson

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  Cheyenne Jackson made his American Horror Story debut in Hotel, and he's been a regular cast member ever since, with the exception of 1984. The actor, whose background is in comedy, never knows what to expect on set when he's filming the anthology series. He told Vanity Fair:

  There definitely are days where we’re like, "Oh my god." You know, special effects, and somebody walks by and they’re covered in goo. It's just another day at the office.

  Jackson is on board for the uncertainty of the plot as each season progresses, saying, “They kind of keep us in the dark - which I love."
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  (#8) Jessica Lange

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  Jessica Lange has strong opinions about how her seasons of American Horror Story compare - she appeared in every season up until Apocalypse. She agreed with Gold Derby's analysis, saying:

  Of the four that I did, I would put them in exactly the order that you just did, Asylum first, Freak Show second, Murder House third, and then Coven, which was the other season that I did, in fourth place.

  Lange, whose acting in the show earned her two Emmys, fed off the frenetic energy on set. "You never had time to prepare," she explained. "You never knew where your character was going. You never knew the next scripts, when you were even going to get it. Sometimes you’d only get it the morning when you would start shooting that episode."
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  (#1) Evan Peters

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  Evan Peters knows himself well. He told GQ in 2018:

  I'm goofy, I'm silly, I like to have fun. I don't like to yell and scream. I actually hate it. I think it's disgusting and really awful, and it's been a challenge for me. Horror Story sort of demanded that of me.

  How did such a laid-back person end up playing some of the most demented characters in the show's history? Evans says he had to take himself quite far out of his comfort zone. "It's just exhausting. It's really mentally draining, and you don't want to go to those places ever in your life," he said.

  He does, however, take measures to ensure the negativity of his work doesn't affect him: "I fight really hard to combat that [darkness] and make sure that I'm watching comedies and [spending time] with my fiancée... and chilling with friends and watching movies."

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