With the release of brand new artwork for American Horror Story: Hotel also comes some info from the cast on what fans can expect from the upcoming season, with twists and turns expected around every corner.
AHS: Hotel coming this October
Matt Bomer - Donovan
What's happening in this season of American Horror Story?
I'll tell you what I can which is limited… we are at the hotel Cortez in Los Angeles, the hotel really is a character in itself in this show, just the way it's shot and the way as an actor you are constantly having to think about what your relationship is to that place, because it's changing over the course of the season. It's really the most magnificent set I've ever been on, it's massive! It's got a working elevator, it's so ornate and specific and detailed, it really has to be seen to be believed. It's completely immersive and transporting as an actor, it's been really fun to get to play in that set. I play Donovan who is a resident of the hotel and is closely affiliated with Lady Gaga's character and my mother Iris is played by Kathy Bates. He (Donovan) is a darker soul, he's somebody who has a very complicated relationship with his mother.
Why is the new season set in a hotel?
I think Hotel really in many ways harkens back to Murder House (series one) in terms of a location that's really relatable and so primarily frightening, because it is so close to home. We've all been in a place where our wellbeing, our sustenance, our safety is being looked after by an entity that we're not entirely in control of. I think there's something really primarily frightening about that.
Tell us about your character.
His name is Donovan he's a resident of the hotel Cortez and closely affiliated with many characters on the show. Particularly with Lady Gaga's character and my mother Iris played by Kathy Bates, they have a very complicated relationship, which I think influences all the relationships in his life. He's somebody who's dream and aspirations being in Los Angeles haven't quite worked out as he had hoped.
Kathy Bates - Iris
What's happening this season in AHS?
Hotel is a hotel that you've never seen before, but also it's something you might have seen in Los Angeles during its hay day. Now it's in the present day, so it's a bit shabby, but it's stunning to walk into. Iris is at the desk, she checks people in. In her spare time she does crossword puzzles. She also makes sure that the hotels' activities are going in the right direction and she completes everything she needs to do for The Countess who is the owner of the hotel.
What's it like to work with Lady Gaga?
Lady Gaga, I thought it was brilliant casting and I saw a bit of her first incarnation - 'mother monster', and she really reinvents herself and that really surprised me. To see her singing on the Oscars and then here, so she seems like a young woman who can really transform herself. So I imagine she's going to come and work really hard, and I have this feeling that she's going to bring a lot to the company and also fit in very well.
What can fans expect from this season?
I think their jaws will drop, I really do. Because there are characters that come out of nowhere, that you've never seen before, that you will hope never to see again. Also, the evil in the hotel has a logic, which I find particularly disturbing, because that means that there is an intelligence operating behind it.
Finn Wittrock - Tristan
Why is a hotel such a great location for this show?
Hotels are scary, this hotel is kind of creepy, it's beautiful but there is something oddly mysterious and dark about hotels, especially one with a lot of history. Hotel Cortez has a lot of dark twisted history, weird things lurking in the hall way. You don't know what's happened in the room before you've been there, you don't know what your neighbour is doing in the next room. There are a lot of possibilities in terms of horror, of what you can do and what's scary about a hotel.
Have you worked with Lady Gaga?
Not just yet. We've been talking a lot and getting to know each other, because we have a lot to do together. Ummm... a lot to do, like, capital D O together. It's going to be fun, it's going to be cool to get to know her as a person and beyond just the image. She's really excited, she's getting really into the part, the part was written for her. She's whip smart and really dedicated to this and making this cool and real, and making a real person out of this, so you know I'm curious.
Denis O'Hare and Cheyenne Jackson - Liz Taylor and Will Drake
Why the hotel?
C: There's nothing really more frightening than a hotel, its fraught with so many things. There are so many people coming and going, there are so many strangers, so many secrets, you never know who's on the other side of the door... you're nothing, you're just a number.
D: The idea that people go to hotel to get lost, to escape, to be anonymous and usually people are doing things in hotels that are illegal or immoral. They're in there for a reason - either someone having sex, doing drugs, hiding body parts, they're in there for a reason... My character Liz Taylor has a master key to all the rooms...
C: Liz Taylor full gorgeousness, I got on set a couple of weeks ago and I saw him from behind and I just saw his bald head, an earring and a lash, I was like 'please god let that be O'Hare' and it was!
What makes you keep coming back?
D: He (Ryan Murphy) offered me the part this year, he wrote me an e-mail and I read it and I went 'ahhh no' this is not something I want to do, for all kinds of reasons. And then I wrote back and I was like 'yes, I'm game.' But I didn't want to shave my head, wear six inch heels, I didn't want to put on a dress, these are not things I had envisaged for myself. Because its challenging, it challenges my notions of who I am, my own identity. I'm a gay man who has eschewed a certain kind of behaviour for maybe bad reasons, this is like smack that right in the middle of it, so you have to come to work and confront stuff that you don't want to confront. We as the actors are doing stuff that is dangerous to us personally and it shows up on screen.
C: Absolutely, I have things in this character too that I am having to face about myself, masculinity all these kind of things.
D: But I am loving, loving, loving this character and now of course find myself looking at peoples shoes and going what are those? I couldn't wear those heels it's too much for me.
Angela Bassett - Ramona Royale
Tell us about this season?
It's set in present day this time, we're up from the 1800's. It's set in Los Angeles at an old hotel that's seen its hay day. The proprietor of it is Elizabeth being played by Lady Gaga, so that's an interesting thing because she's mysterious and intriguing and she's quite a character herself, so they've written a larger than life character for her. There's closed doors and things that go on behind closed doors, that you don't allow the world to see, or that you only do at night, or that you only go to hotels at night, behind closed doors to act upon, desires and fetishes and dreams, so we will see... I think it can be very dark, very nasty, very exciting and titillating.
American Horror Story: Hotel premieres on Tuesday 20th October 10pm on FOX in the UK.
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