MOVIE/ MINISERIES & REALITY ISSUE

Taissa Farmiga as Violet HarmonBy Matt Webb MitovichRyan Murphy, who with Brad Falchukcreated FX’s American Horror Story,has but one directive for any TV Academymembers who are iffy about putting theanthology series on Emmy’s short list.Don’t. Be. Scared.Invited to pen an overture to the skepticalvoter, “I would just say to not let the word‘horror’ throw you,” Murphy offers. “Don’tlet it turn you off of something that I feel is areally emotional journey.”Dylan McDermott, one of the Season 1leads, echoes that sentiment, saying thatwhile there might be an inclination to dismissthe miniseries’ maiden campaign as “just ahorror show,” “If you look deeper into it,you realize the scripts and the acting and theproduction value and the veryidea of this is special. If you’rea voter, you really do have totake it seriously and look underthe gloss.”“Yes, it is sort of a horror story,”Murphy allows, “but it’s almosta feminine horror story. It’semotional, and it reaches itsconclusions in a very cool way.”But before we talk conclusions, let’s go backto the beginning.The First Chapter of FX’s ‘American Horror Story’ Miniseries Took the Shortform Thriller to the MaxSCARY GOODSPINNING A GHOST STORYBefore there was Glee, there was abject horror.It was almost four years ago – prior to the debut ofMurphy’s musical dramedy for Fox – when he andFalchuk first batted around the idea for what wouldeventually be American Horror Story. An amalgamationof spine-tinglers such as Rosemary’s Baby and The Shiningand envisioned as a deeply dark exploration of infidelity,the envelope-pushing anthology series revolves aroundBen (McDermott) and Vivien Harmon (ConnieBritton), a husband and wife who, with teen daughterViolet (Taissa Farmiga) in tow, relocate fromBoston to Los Angeles. The move represents a way toescape a difficult couple of years during which Vivienhad given birth to a stillborn baby, and Ben, a shrink,engaged in an affair with a nubile psychiatry student.In other words, it’s really the stuff of any number offractured family dramas, until you add in the extremelyhaunted house into which the Harmons move and therobust roster of restless spirits still residing within itswalls – all determined to lure the new owners to grislyfates not unlike their own.A recipe of copious amounts of Karo syrup, a toothy“infantata” and an ominous figure clad in a rubber suitmight not whip up traditional Emmy bait. But thatwasn’t Murphy’s plan.“I never go into anything with that [intent],” he says.“I just thought that what we were doing was uniqueand original, and I thought that people would reallylove the concept. Then once we attracted the castthat we did – Connie Britton, Jessica Lange, DylanMcDermott, Frances Conroy … Pretty much all ofour first choices and a very sort of cool group of people– I thought, ‘There is something here.’ You can alwaystell if something is fresh if you can attract a certainlevel of talent.”For most everyone in the cast, Horror Story markedtheir first time working with Murphy and Falchuk.And considering what the creators were about to askthem to do in the name of spinning this sometimesunseemlysaga, a frightening amount of trust neededto be earned and bestowed.THE PENTAGRAM OF TRUST“Ryan basically presented it to me by saying, ‘This isgoing to be like nothing you’ve ever done before,’” saysBritton, who came off a five-year run as Friday NightLights’ beloved Tami Taylor. “And not only that, it wasactually going to turn what I’d been doing on its eara bit, going from this wonderful TV marriage to acompletely damaged one.”“Everybody who came onto the show had come offsomething that was very opposite,” Murphy notes.McDermott was best known for his work as an estimablelegal eagle on The Practice; on Horror Story, his BenHarmon crosses many a line (and isn’t above entombinga mistress beneath a gazebo). Conroy had followed upher turn as Six Feet Under’s emotionally stunted matriarchwith light-hearted appearances on How I MetYour Mother; here, she was a housekeeper full ofsecrets (including a younger, vixenish visage, and thenone-too-small fact that she was dead).“I told everyone, ‘Look, this is cable, and I’m interestedin doing the opposite of what I’ve been doing on Glee.I want to push envelopes,’” Murphy relates. “We alljust wanted to do something very bold and risk-taking,so it was certainly a leap of faith.”Lange, meanwhile, was a premiere get, an unlikelysuspect boasting two Oscars, an Emmy Award andfour Golden Globe Awards on her mantel. As a steelmagnolia with a questionable value set, she immediatelyimmersed herself into the role of Constance, theHarmons’ nosy/nasty Southern-fried neighbor.“When we got Jessica,” recalls Murphy, “I felt, ‘OK, thisclearly sends a message that this is an elevated thing.’”However, it’s not a project without vivid jolts of perversity.McDermott, even eight months after the scene firstaired, can’t help but chuckle when he recalls one of thepilot’s more memorable moments.“Any time you have to masturbate and cry at the sametime, you certainly have to have a lot of trust in thecreator and the director – and Ryan, you just naturallytrust him,” the actor notes.That widespread trust in turn fueled fearless performances.“If you question it all the time, you’ll look ridiculous,so you really have to go all in with a show like this,”McDermott attests. “And that’s why people responded.”CHANGED REACTIONSRespond people did. It was last summer when atheater-style screening of the pilot for members of theTelevision Critics Association first got the buzz going.Going in, little was known about the project save for itspedigree, the assembly of on-camera talent and a sliverof plot. (Murphy readily admits, “I didn’t really wantto tell people where we were going.”) Coming out ofthat first look, many were slack-jawed if not at a loss forwords to describe the frenzied first hour.And while some would remain put off by the intensityof the material and/or perceived indulgences ofits auteurs, other opinions would gel over time, as thewhole began to outweigh the sum of its parts.Time magazine, for one, went from pegging AmericanHorror Story as an orgy of “fever-dream melodrama”to touting it as a “compelling turn” on scare fare.Similarly, New York Magazine simultaneously deemedthe series “defiantly absurd”and a “powerful” “allegoryabout worst-case scenarios.”“What I think is so brilliantabout what Ryan andBrad do is that they havea very distinct vision thatis so outside the box. Andthey have a great talent forbringing that into fruition,”Britton says. “Audiences are really drawn to that. Theyappreciate being challenged by something they’venever seen before.”“It’s an interesting show for me,” Murphy muses,“because the reaction to it where we started versus wherewe were when (Season 1) ended was very different.I think people really got on board and ‘got’ what wewere trying to do.”McDermott with Connie Britton as Vivien HarmonDylan McDermott as Ben HarmonWHAT’S OLD IS “BOO!” AGAINThough Murphy and Falchuk labored to hold theircards close to the vest throughout Season 1, lest theytip their hand as to who survives the Harmons’ haunting,their one and only plan from American Horror Story’soutset was to refresh the cast and reset the setting withevery cycle of 13 episodes, thus affording the dramaminiseries eligibility.So whereas in the first go-round, a Los Angeles mansehosted modern-day horror, the second run will beset in the 1960s and at an East Coast asylum for theinsane. McDermott, Britton, TV daughter Farmigaand Conroy are gone, but Lange and other Season1 costars such as Zachary Quinto, Evan Peters,Sarah Paulson and Lily Rabe will be back – thoughas different characters. New arrivals Chloë Sevigny(Big Love), James Cromwell (Babe) andsinger Adam Levine will round outthe revamped ensemble.“Because we are a miniseries, everyseason we can tell a containable story,which I think is a really cool idea,”Murphy enthuses. “I’m having a lotof fun with that.”“It’s exciting,” McDermott says of theseasonal restart, a luxury afforded in large part by HorrorStory’s home on FX. “For network television in general,the numbers are dwindling, and it’s time for a new model– and that’s why cable is thriving. People want to havesomething new, something fresh – and this approach isdefinitely that.”12EMMY AWARDS PRINT EDITIONS 2012