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#Post#: 31569--------------------------------------------------
All things.... **** SPOILERS ****
By: Mac Date: October 9, 2014, 11:33 am
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Talk spoilers if need be...
So the priemere of American Horror Story happened last night and
Ryan Murphy (Creator) talks some reveling stuff, if you have not
seen the show yet.
[glow=red,2,300]American Horror Story: Freak Show[/glow]
Well, that was unlike any trip to the circus we’ve ever taken.
Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s American Horror Story: Freak Show
made its highly anticipated debut with a huge episode that
included an old-fashioned sex tape, a bearded lady, and a David
Bowie musical number. For its biggest season yet, co-creator
Murphy talked to EW for an epic postmortem interview that covers
all the big twists (and, of course, Twisty) and clues to season
five!
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start with the opening credits.
They’re animated this year. What made you want to switch it up?
RYAN MURPHY: Well I think the whole thing about this season is
we wanted to do something that was more challenging in every way
this season. I felt that way. So this is the first season we’ve
done an all-animated title sequence, which is really difficult
and takes a long time. We also kept the same theme song but
redid it. I love them. There’s a lot of startling imagery in
them. There’s a lot of clues. A lot of goodies in them for the
fans like things that are going to be happening. Like when you
watch the Coven titles and you watch all 13 episodes of Coven,
you’re like “That makes sense.”
The style is so different. The use of split screens really
reminded me of Brian DePalma—was he your inspiration?
Well, I mean, I’m always influenced by him, and yes, that is
sort of an homage to him in some weird way. But I think this
season is unusual in that it’s sort of like a weird cross
between Douglas Sirk and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I’m guessing you brought the Douglas Sirk.
I did! If you watch this season as compared to last season, the
camera barely moves this season. It’s a much more still
cinematic exploration, which means our brilliant director of
photography, Michael Goi, had a lot longer time to light.
Everything had to be much more spot on because you don’t move
the camera. But I really wanted it to be wider frames, bigger
frames, stiller frames. And I really put much more of an
emphasis this season on the production design and the costumes
than ever before because it has that sort of Douglas Sirk ‘50s
thing to it.
Did you just want to slow it down to show the sets and the
scope? So much of the first 3 seasons was jump cuts and very
fast editing.
Yeah we’re using some George Antheil music who was a big
composer from back then and whose music was used in a lot of
‘50s and ‘60s horror movies. I like paying homage to the early
‘50s and horror movies and back then they didn’t have Steadicam
and they didn’t have jump cuts. So we don’t do as much as that.
I felt like I wanted it to be in a more eerie world as opposed
to a more startling abrupt world.
And so much more color, like reds. The last two seasons were
very dark with a lot of blacks and grays. Why choose color?
Well I think we were paying homage to The Greatest Show on
Earth, that great movie. But more than that, I think people when
they think of the freak world and the world of carny, it’s a lot
of black and white images. That’s how I knew them. I sort of
wanted to bring them to life. So with the production design and
set design we made a very distinctive choice of let’s do the
brightest colors known to man and let’s let everything soak in
Lipton iced tea for a week. There’s a faded melancholy feeling
to it. You can see that the colors are beginning to dim—that was
by design because it’s the end of an era.
How far outside New Orleans is that set? It looks like you all
are on water somewhere.
Yeah we’re in New Orleans. We’re in an area where there was some
bad flooding from Katrina. It’s a farm. We rented many many
acres. The challenge of this season was we built everything
twice. We built an entire city so you’re seeing a functioning
city—it works. All of the tents we built but a lot of those
props—the Ferris wheel, the carousel, the trailers—all that
stuff Mark Worthington, our brilliant production designer,
scoured the entire country for months to find that stuff and
it’s all authentic. It was all used in that carnie world. So we
built the exterior of the city and then we built the interior in
a soundstage. So we had to do everything twice which we’ve never
done before so that’s why I think it feels so big and
spectacular.
You haven’t directed an episode of AHS since Asylum—what was it
like to be back?
It was fascinating. I did it for many reasons. I wanted to do
something that was challenging and by far the biggest challenge
I’ve ever done in my career in terms of technically was the
Sarah Paulson/two heads thing. I told her I wanted to do
something that challenged her and she was a little afraid and
she said, “Okay let’s go for it.” Also it was Jessica’s idea and
I really wanted to do it for her. To be quite honest, I fell in
love with it in the writing of it in a way that was more
personal to me than perhaps any of the other seasons we’ve done.
I did it and I loved doing it. It took a long time. It took many
many weeks. But it was really rewarding. I learned a lot.
The Paulson thing is so seamless. But how rigorous is that to
shoot her?
It’s hard. On average, if you have a two-person scene maybe it
will take five hours. If Sarah Paulson’s character is in it,
it’s around 12-20. Sarah has to do everything four times. We had
a fake Dot made for her based on her own head. She pre-records
most of her dialogue. So she’s wearing an invisible earwig when
she’s doing scenes with herself. It’s incredibly grueling and
very draining on Sarah but she really went for it. I think the
results are really quite amazing. One of the things is most
conjoined twins on film are depicted with two actors that are
connected at the chest. That’s certainly something we thought
about doing. But for Sarah, I wanted to challenge her and we
thought it would be great to do the two-heads/one body.
We did a screen test early on to see if we could even make it
work and we were told we could make it work but it would be
incredibly time consuming and expensive. I had no idea how time
consuming. But we have like 23 people only on those shots so
it’s been fascinating. People are really having a reaction to
it. At the premiere, people gasped when they first saw Sarah.
I’m just so thrilled for her because I think it’s by far the
best, most creative challenging work I’ve seen maybe any actor
do. Every character thing she does is so thought out. She has
backstories for the characters. One is left-handed and one is
right so she’s had to work on that. It’s just been brilliant to
watch someone at the top of her game working on all those
choices.
It’s like two people fighting with each other.
Yeah, and that’s what the season is about: two souls in one body
fighting for the right to choose. She’s worked all that out in
advance.
Bette seems so sweet, but we learn in the premiere that Bette is
the one that killed their mother. So she’s actually the darker
one?
Well Bette is the one with show business dreams and people with
show business dreams are usually killers. I love that she’s show
business obsessed and will do anything to be a star and if her
mother doesn’t let her go see films in glorious Technicolor she
acts out. It was also because the mother was ashamed of them and
hiding them on the farm. It was more than just a show business
dream, she got sick of being hidden in the shadows. It’s sort of
20 something years of misery bubbling up.
It does feel like the other theme is the dream of fame because
Elsa is also holding onto that.
Yeah. There’s something about Elsa that the carny world is also
exploring: you have to remember that in the ’20s and ’30s, when
that world was at its peak, those performers were in many ways
the biggest stars America had to offer. They were making
thousands of dollars. They were treated like royalty. And then
overnight that went away. So she’s the representation of the
dashed dream.
Her look seemed very inspired by Marlene Dietrich.
Yes and no. There’s also a lot of Bette Davis in there. When
Jessica and I were first talking about that character I always
imagined her in that monkey fur which is what she’s first
wearing. We shot that scene in 102-degree weather and here she
is in that literal 1952 period coat that weighed 80lbs. So she
made me put that on at one point.
I bet you loved that!
It was so hot. It was literally like wearing a monkey. It was
awful. But that’s the fun of the show. And Lou Eyrich, our
costume designer, does such a brilliant job of that. Many times
we’re finding real stuff carny performers wore or copy the
costumes. Yesterday, Lou was making a Harlequin suit for an 8ft
tall man. So everybody I feel is very challenged by the
material, which was the point. Last year, which was our most
successful year I thought in many ways, was our easiest year
because it was glamorous and funny and modern and contemporary.
This year was much more research-involved and I like that.
I love that Elsa has a burn book for Marlene Dietrich!
[Laughs] I like that too. Jessica loves that book.
The first episode really zeroes in on Elsa, Jimmy and the twins.
Are they what the focus of the season will be?
Well in typical fashion when you have a cast like this you can
do it two ways: you can throw everybody into the first episode
and then there’s not a lot of time to service those backstories.
So what we decided in the writing was we’re parceling everything
out. So the first one is about Elsa and Bette and Dot and Jimmy.
Then the second one you spend a lot of time with Kathy Bates and
Chilies and Angela Bassett. Then in the third one you meet Emma
Roberts and Denis O’Hare. That’s when the story coalesces. It’s
a slower rollout than we’ve ever done.
Twisty might be one of the scariest creations you guys have
done. Who came up with him?
That’s interesting. When we first started to do Twisty, he was
the same character. Then it was my boss Dana Walden who said I
think you need to do something physically with him so that he’s
different than the other clowns we’ve seen in pop culture. The
clown is such a trope in that genre. So we worked a little bit
before we even started to write on the backstory and we really
came up with a gruesome, hideous story that you find out in
episode four. You see the bottom part of his face in episode
two. But in episode four we spend a lot of time with that and
you see it more and you learn what is going on with him and it’s
really awful and scary.
A lot of people are freaked out by this clown. A couple people
walked out on the premiere because they were too upset by the
clown. I personally don’t have that phobia but I understand that
people do. To them I say, watch it in the daytime because it
only gets worse.
Will we eventually understand his end game?
Yeah you will find out very early on, like why is he collecting
children in the school bus?
And at the end he sees the freak show troupe disposing of the
cop’s body. Will he hold that over them?
Well yeah. All I’ll say about that is Twisty is not to be
trusted. He’s specifically plotting something and you find out
why he’s doing what he’s doing.
He seems to not like the freak show and we’ll find out why?
Oh yeah. He hates them.
What is Ethel’s accent? Where is she from?
Kathy came up with that idea which I love. She thought that
Ethel would be from Baltimore. So we’re saying in that period
the two most famous things to come out of Baltimore were Kathy
Bates’ character and Wallis Simpson. She worked really hard on
her Baltimore-ese. Somebody watched a screening of the first
episode and said, “I thought Kathy Bates was out of a John
Waters movie.” And I’m like “You’re right!” Because that’s set
in Baltimore and back in the day, the accents were even thicker.
But I love that. I love when she says “spektakular.”
Is that Pepper’s brother? Or is that just someone who looks like
her?
That is not a physical relation. That is just another pinhead
that was with her in the orphanage.
#Post#: 31570--------------------------------------------------
Re: All things.... **** SPOILERS ****
By: Mac Date: October 9, 2014, 11:33 am
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[glow=red,2,300]American Horror Story Freak Show Cont.[/glow]
And then Grace Gummer returns after being in Coven. Is that
character going to recur?
Oh yes. I love her. She’s very talented. The Peppermint Girl
comes back. I’m not going to say for good or for bad. But I
think the world of her. She’s really talented and really funny.
What happens to her might be the scariest thing that happens all
season but she was game.
Well that’s saying a lot because you already had Meryl Streep’s
daughter do a carny sex tape!
Well yes I did but I was very chaste with Grace in those takes.
I was very protective of her. We don’t show what happened to
that character but we allude to it.
This season is much more sexual compared to Coven. Is that a
conscious choice?
Yes. It was a conscious choice only because we’re really
following the research. I mean the people who were in these
carnivals loved to party to be quite blunt. They were very free
with their sexuality. Within the protective world of their
family, they felt very uninhibited. They actually liked and
appreciated their differences. There’s a reason for where that
phrase comes from, “Get your freak on.” I love juxtaposing the
freethinking, non-judgmental carnie folks with the Mamie
Eisenhower housewives. The carny folk got it right in many ways.
It is sexier this year and more graphic sexually than any of the
seasons.
How did you find all the people that play the carnies?
Well for the most part it was research. When we decided this was
the world we were going to write about, we did a lot of
research. In the case of Jyoti Amge (Ma Petite), we saw video
where she was crowned World’s Smallest Woman by the Guinness
Book of World Records. At the end of that, she says “I really
wanna be an actress.” I called her up and said, “You came to the
right place—are you interested?” She said, “Yes!” And then it
took 8 months to get the visa.
In the case of Amazon Eve, that part was originally written for
a man. That part was originally called Johnny Long in the Pants
and we were searching for a man. Erika Ervin saw the call and
she auditioned and I thought she was so great and unusual that
we rewrote the part for her.
In the case of Rose Siggins (Legless Suzi) and Mat Fraser who
plays Paul the Illustrated Seal Boy, we found out something
about them online. We personally called them up and said “Would
you join the show? We want to write something for you.” So it
happened in many different ways but it took a long time to
happen.
Dandy and Gloria Mott are the opposite end of the spectrum. She
seems a little too attached and he seems like a grown child.
Well that’s our homage to “What would Norman Bates have been
like if he lived in Florida?” He’s a boy who was born into great
life and privilege and on the outside has it all but on the
inside he feels like a freak. So he wants to be somewhere where
he fits in. So when he’s not allowed to, he becomes dark and
murderous. I love all those scenes that Franny and Finn have
together. It’s fun to rich those rich, pampered people who are
on the outside are so beautiful but on the inside are the
biggest monsters of them all.
Elsa sings Bowie’s “Life on Mars” at the end. So there will be
modern music this season?
Well we don’t do a lot of them this season. Maybe we only have
five numbers. But as we started writing it, I thought I just
don’t want to do ‘50s music and neither did Jessica. So we
thought long and hard about that. I was very inspired with Baz
Luhrmann. I love what he does with his movies like Great Gatsby
and Moulin Rouge where you don’t play period stuff, you do stuff
from all eras that fit the story. So we decided we only were
going to highlight musical artists who at some point in their
career had identified themselves as feeling like freaks or
misfits or outcasts, which our people are going through. That’s
why we do David Bowie, Fiona Apple, Lana Del Rey, Kurt Cobain.
We do people who sort of have the same feelings as our
characters do.
Did Jessica know Bowie? Did she know “Life on Mars?”
Well I said to her, “Surely you must have dated David Bowie?”
“No. The one I did not!” Jessica knows everybody! But no she had
never known David. She immediately loved the song. She loved
doing Lana Del Rey, she was not that familiar when we started
with Lana Del Rey. But that’s been fun for her to do I think.
The big reveal at the end is that Elsa has no legs. When will we
learn what happened?
There’s an episode coming up where you get her backstory but
then as we go on you get more and more backstories.
Does it involve her being in Germany during the war?
No. We’re not doing any war thing at all.
Do other members of the freak show, like Ethel, know?
That is revealed but it seems to be a big secret. I just love
that shot that Jessica plays so well where she feels maybe even
like maybe she’s more of a misfit and a freak than all of her
freaks.
What can you say about next week’s episode? I’ve seen it but
there’s a fairly big development with Dandy and Twisty.
We meet Michael Chiklis and Angela Bassett’s characters that I
love. And Dandy, whose catchphrase is, “I’m bored. I’m so
bored,” finally finds something that does not bore him, which is
Twisty. So we explore that and that plays out over several
episodes.
Are they gonna be like Bonnie & Clyde?
Well let it suffice to say that Dandy becomes Twisty’s
apprentice.
It seems like Jimmy has eyes for Dot.
No I don’t think Jimmy has eyes for Dot, I think Dot has eyes
for Jimmy.
Patti LaBelle shows up next week as Frances Conroy’s maid, Nora,
for a brief scene. Will she have a bigger role?
Um, Patti did three episodes to me as a favor. When she found
out the end game there, she said yes. She’s great. I loved her
scenes. She has some fun stuff coming up in episodes two, three
and four.
I’m guessing it’s a dark end game since she’s in the Mott house
and Twisty’s around.
Well never underestimate Patti LaBelle.
Do you know what Matt Bomer is playing?
Yeah, we wrote that part. Then I wrote Matt said and said you
have first offer of refusal. He said “What is it?” because he
was getting ready to do Magic Mike XXL. When I told him the
role, he immediately said yes and cut a week out of his schedule
and came down to New Orleans and shot that episode which might
be one of our most horrendous episodes ever. But Matt loved
doing it.
Is he part of the freak show?
Mmm I don’t wanna say too much because I think if I say one
thing it will give it away. But it’s something Matt has never
played before, which was interesting for him.
Has there been more talk of Neil Patrick Harris coming on?
Yeah I spoke to Neil last week. He sort of had an idea of what
he wanted to do, and I had an idea that he liked. So I’m going
to call him next week. If I can make it work, it will be
something that shoots at the end. He’s very interested in the
show and obviously Neil is a magician and likes all that magic
stuff. So he’s fascinated with that. We’re trying to make it
work. I’m optimistic.
Are you going to be writing something for Jamie Brewer?
I hope so. Later in this season, perhaps. I like our troupe of
people to come in and out. Sometimes it’s a whole season long
arc and sometimes its an episode. So we’re working on all of
that always. All of our people I always try to keep their hand
in in some regard.
I’m guessing Gabourey Sidibe is later since you told me her
character arrives after her mother, Patti LaBelle, goes MIA?
Yeah, she comes later for, like, three episodes.
And have you figured out season 5?
Yes, I have figured it out. I’m already meeting with actors
about asking them to play roles.
Can you say anything about it?
Noooooooo! But there are clues in the first two episodes because
I figured out season 5 very early on and I know that the fans
love that. So there are clues that are dropped.
#Post#: 31571--------------------------------------------------
Re: All things.... **** SPOILERS ****
By: Chiprocks1 Date: October 9, 2014, 11:36 am
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SPOILERS!!!!
I highly doubt you will ever see me in this thread again. Gonna
drive out to St. Louis and let the air out of your tires!! ;D
#Post#: 31585--------------------------------------------------
Re: All things.... **** SPOILERS ****
By: Mac Date: October 9, 2014, 5:42 pm
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I read that... Now I know what happens.
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