Returning 'American Horror Story' stars Gabourey Sidibe, Frances Conroy, Sarah Paulson, Emma Roberts, Leslie Grossman and Avantika Vandanapu titillated fans when they were photographed filming season 13. Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images Logo text When Ryan Murphy called up each of his legacy American Horror Story stars to ask them if they would return for the upcoming 13th season, he couldn’t even get out the full question.
“I couldn’t get the sentence out of my mouth fast enough: ‘Will you come back…’ ‘Yes.’ I was like, ‘Well, OK,'” Murphy tells The Hollywood Reporter with a laugh. That even included Jessica Lange, who hadn’t starred on his and Brad Falchuk’s hit horror anthology in a series regular role since season four’s Freak Show.
“If she had said no, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” he admits.
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But Lange said yes. So did Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Emma Roberts, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Billie Lourd, Frances Conroy, Gabourey Sidibe and Leslie Grossman.
The 13-episode season, which returns Sept. 24 on FX and Hulu (at 6 p.m. PT), is a tribute to the entire series, and will see the returning cast reprising many of their iconic roles. Lange is playing all four of her characters; Paulson is playing six and Peters, five. Murphy has compared the season to the Avengers, saying they all come together to defeat the ultimate evil.
“This season is a tribute to all of the seasons, which we’ll never do again,” he says now of the effort, which included many, many months of writing. “But it was fun. It was like getting the band back together and once they got on the set with me, it was like we never stopped making this. Most of them had accents and they instantly fell back into their characters. It was fascinating and thrilling.”
With Murphy’s latest TV offering, The Shards, now released (we talked about that this week, too), THR pressed the prolific creator on what he’s doing next, which includes the next season in his Monster franchise, The Lizzie Borden Story, him seriously considering rebooting Glee and spilling more details about AHS season 13 — including on Ariana Grande’s exit. He also reveals that he’s already working on season 14 and another untitled adaptation. Mainly, Murphy says he has one thing in mind: “How do I bring projects back to L.A.?”
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There is a ton of excitement around the upcoming all-star 13th season of American Horror Story. How many more seasons of AHS do you want to do?
American Horror Story is an interesting thing, because some seasons I’m very involved and some I’m not involved at all or some I’m half-way in. Brad Falchuk and I created that show together, and we worked on it this year together. And [showrunners] Ned Martel and Charlie Carver were our lieutenants on the crowd who did a wonderful job.
I have a great passion for that show, and [FX boss] John Landgraf has a great passion for that show. It’s a very important show in my career. It’s something that John said, “As long as you want to keep making them, I’ll keep airing them.” That’s always been the idea behind it, which is very empowering.
Season 13 is not the end; I’m working on season 14 as we speak in terms of, “What’s the idea?” and “Who wants to be in it?”
I loved doing this season because I had not directed an American Horror Story since Freak Show, I think. Not since season four. And I directed the pilot this year and I just love the process of going to all the castmembers, all of whom are very busy, and saying, “Hey, can we get the band back together?”
How did those calls to the AHS cast go?
It all started with Jessica [Lange] because Jessica, after we did the first four seasons, wanted to go off and do different things, which I understood completely. But I reached out to her thinking she would say no, and if she had said no, I probably wouldn’t have done it. She told me a story about how she was doing Broadway last season and she would go out after the show, and there were all of these young people who were there because they all watched her work on American Horror Story. And she was very moved by that. I said, “Well, that’s funny, because my idea is for you to do all four of your favorite characters.” And she said, “Sign me up. I’d love to do it.” I was so grateful.
Sarah [Paulson] and I talked about it. She said yes. Sarah played six characters in the season. With all of the OGs, it wasn’t even a conversation. I couldn’t get the sentence out of my mouth fast enough. “Will you come back…” “Yes.” I was like, “Well, OK.” So before I started writing it, I had all of them — Emma [Roberts] and Evan [Peters] and Kathy Bates; Angela Bassett and Gabourey Sidibe and Leslie Grossman.
We also had a lot of the original costumes still in storage that we got to use. So there are little Easter eggs threaded around in the set decoration where fans can be like, “Wait, wasn’t that in season two?” It was. This season is a thank you to the fans for continuing to watch.
Jessica Lange and Evan Peters in American Horror Story season three, Coven. Michele K. Short/FX Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection Ariana Grande exited season 13 because of her Eternal Sunshine tour. (She’s since announced a step back from the public eye.) Can you reveal what role you had in mind for her, or is it something you would save for down the line?
I love Ariana Grande. We’re great friends. I had an idea and I came to her and she, very immediately, said, “I’m not sure because I think I’m going on tour.” I don’t think the tour had been announced, and she had obviously just finished the Wicked movie. So when it came time to do that episode, I called her up and she was like, “I don’t know how I’m going to juggle the tour with this.” And I said, “OK, if you can’t, we can push to another season.” She said, “Great.”
You have to be respectful. Who is busier than Ariana Grande? No one. She had told me at the time, “I have this album that’s dropping.” It was really, truly a scheduling conflict. I said, “OK, we’ll kick that can down the road,” and she said, “Great.” Ariana is a big fan of horror. She’s obviously done homages of that in her work; she did Scream Queens for me and loved the experience, and people love her in that show. So I will always work with her.
I love her, and I support her. It was a very big swing, but I might bring that back for another season, per Ariana’s availability. I think the world of her.
You also just dropped your Lizzie Borden series first look. The other Monster cases were clear-cut crimes, while Lizzie was acquitted and the case remains unsolved. She’s also a female serial killer, which is rarer. Did any of that give you pause when tackling this story?
I find that show, which I do with Ian Brennan, to be very interesting because you know that no matter what you do, it’s going to be controversial. That’s baked into the cake. I’m always interested in, not glorifying these characters, but the Monster franchise is only about one thing: Are monsters made, or are they born?
With the Lizzie Borden case, I had a very deep connection to that. When I was in kindergarten, I won first place singing the Lizzie Borden nursery rhyme [“Lizzie Borden Took an Ax…”] in a choral competition, if you can believe that. That was the first thing I ever won. So I grew up with that nursery rhyme. I’m from the Midwest. I thought everybody knew that nursery rhyme, and they did not.
I like investigating that story because, in many ways, you can look at what it deals with women and society and it’s very about today. It’s a very modern story. The story of Lizzie Borden is: Did she do it or did she not? There are many theories. But I think it taps into Victorian America and this idea of, “Why can’t I do this? Why can’t my parents understand me?” I think everyone, male or female, who is a teenager knows about that. And I’m like, “Why can’t we write about that?”
It is an interesting season because it is the Lizzie Borden story, but there are also other female “killers” who I was always interested in exploring. I always wanted to do something about Aileen Wuornos. I’ve always wanted to do something about the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who Dracula was modeled after. So we are kind of doing this fantasia of women vs. the system, and it’s not what they did, it’s the question of: What made them do it? Why did they do it, if they did it? That’s what the show is about. And it has three really great “monsters” behind it: Lizzie Borden [played by Ella Beatty], Aileen Wuornos and Elizabeth Báthory.
Vicky Krieps plays Báthory, as well as the maid. She plays two parts. And then when I was working on it, there was only one actress who I thought could [play Wuornos], and that was Sarah Paulson. I told her, “I have this thing,” and she’s like, “Oh, God.” Then she read it and said, “It’s going to be hard, but I’ll do it.”
I love the season. Sarah Adina Smith, who directed many of the episodes, is a wonderful female director and I’m going to work with her again on something soon. I thought it was really interesting to explore the themes that are modern.
Ella Beatty as Lizzie Borden in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, premiering Sept. 17 with all episodes on Netflix. Courtesy of Netflix Some burning questions: What is the status of The Beauty season two? Have you landed on what couple you want to focus on for Love Story season two? And what’s a white whale story you want to tackle next?
Those are all things that I’m considering and thinking about. And trying to figure them out.
You have to figure out what you’re interested in doing next, and I’m lucky enough that I have really great partners who want to do this and that. I haven’t figured it out yet. I have many things coming out between August and Christmas, and I’m sort of plotting out my next two years. I don’t think I’ll ever do as much again as I did this year because I have three young children.
With me, it always starts with the idea: What are you interested in? And sometimes, you work on something and abandon it. We were doing an entire other Monster season — Ian and I wrote two of them. And it didn’t feel right. So sometimes, I work on something and kick the can down the road.
The next thing I’m doing, I start shooting December in Europe — I’ve always wanted to do a vampire story and I always wondered why nobody has made a show about these characters I love [from a book and movie adaptation]. So that’s the next thing I’m going to tackle.
I’m also considering Glee.
How seriously?
It’s something to consider. For many, many people now in their 20s, they grew up on that show and it meant something to them. The music meant something. So, let’s kick it around and see what we get. It’s always about the story for me. What’s the story? Do I want to tell the story now? Sometimes I want to wait.
I’m considering a lot of stuff. To me, it’s always about how the scripts come in and what it costs. You have to be conscious about all of that. But because I have such great partners, I’m able to create things that give thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people jobs. We need to bring production back to LA. We have to figure out: How do we make shows in L.A. so that people who came here and worked here can be with their families and not have to go out of state? I think that caused a lot of difficulties for people, so I’m not thinking about it in terms of projects, I’m thinking about: “How do I bring projects back to L.A.?”
But I am optimist and I love everything I have coming out. I think I’m in a development phase.
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The Shards releases new episodes Wednesdays on FX and Hulu; American Horror Story season 13 premieres Sept. 24.
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