Hey, everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting this (I was waiting on the official transcript, which just arrived), but here's the Q&A with American Horror Story stars, Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott! (Unfortunately, it was a shorter-than-typical call, so I only got a couple of questions in.)
Q: Hi guys. How much did you know about the characters and their back-story going into the show?
C. Britton Well, I—and Dylan, you tell me if this is the same for you--but I think we actually didn’t know very much, but what was fun was it felt like it was sort of in … as we were going forward with Ryan and Brad. So, it feels constantly as though we’re back story and discovering who these people are, which is, to me, really fun and kind of adds to the mystery of the whole thing.
D. McDermott Yes. It kind of unravels as we go. I don’t think we know exactly where we’re going. So, it’s kind of fun to just open up the scripts and realize, “Oh, I didn’t even know this about myself.” So, that’s kind of the best part about the show.
Q: Yes. We love watching everything happen. I’m also wondering, as far as next season goes, hopefully there will be one, do you know if your characters are a part of it? Is that too much of a spoiler to tell us? Because there’s been some speculation that the seasons were each involving the family with the previous family possibly being ghosts and something like that. What do you know about going forward?
C. Britton What do you know, Dylan?
D. McDermott I think it’s sort of, again, open ended. We’re not quite sure about the next episode, never mind next year. So, we’re just sort of flying by the seat of our pants, which is, again, it’s all discovery here. So, I don’t think we know.
C. Britton I don’t know that Brad and Ryan know.
D. McDermott Right. Right.
C. Britton Again, it’s really fun.
D. McDermott Yes. Exactly.
C. Britton It’s such an evolution. It feels like we just really do watch this thing come to life, and it’s really fantastic.
Q: I was wondering, in such an intense show like this, were either of you ever uncomfortable with something that happens in the script, and you try to change it, or do you have any power over where the Harmons go?
C. Britton Well, I was just going to say, I think we have a lot of power over it, but I also think that the things about the script that make me uncomfortable are the things that are what make it interesting to me as an actress. So, if something was really—like, I mean, listen, I was not comfortable with the Rubber Man in the pilot, and I was convinced that the Rubber Man was going to go. But I really, again, I really—I’m so always amazed that Ryan and Brad can come up with something that I think is just going to be hideous and awful, and I’ve grown to really trust them to create it in a way that is only interesting. So, I kind of keep my mouth shut at this point.
D. McDermott After masturbating in the pilot, what else is there? I couldn’t be uncomfortable again.
E. Cheever You just put it all out there.
D. McDermott Yes, that’s it.
Q: I wanted to ask - have either of you had a supernatural experience in real life? And if not, do you believe in that kind of thing, or do you just think it’s all kind of made up?
D. McDermott For myself, I did have one in 1989. I don’t believe in this kind of stuff at all. I’m kind of cynical in that way.
But I was in … Louisiana. I was doing a movie. I was in the car with two other people at night. And the headlights washed over this ghost-like figure around midnight in Louisiana.
I don’t know if that’s specific to Louisiana or not, but I did see this. And they did see this sort of ethereal being suddenly, and we all just sort of didn’t say anything for like two minutes. And then, we all brought it up.
So, that was the only time in my life that I actually saw something and felt things, but never saw anything before like that. So, I have to say I did have a real experience. And also, I’m not that person, but that’s the only time I ever had it.
Q: Wow, okay. How about you, Connie?
C. Britton Well, I also am not a big believer in ghosts, or I don’t really walk around in fear of ghosts. But I have definitely had an experience with ghosts, which was in Italy. I was staying at this really amazing, old Tuscan villa. It was my friend’s house.
And I woke up in the middle of the night and heard all kinds of moving around upstairs above me and furniture moving and voices, and I thought that something must have—some plumbing must have exploded or whatever. And then, I asked them about it the next day, and they said, “Oh, no, no, no. No, nobody was up at night. Nothing was moving. Nothing was happening.”
And then, it came out that they were very aware that the house was haunted, and they told me all kinds of stories and the various … ghosts that they’ve experienced while they’re there. And I have never, and this is my friend’s house, I’ve been back several times, and I never, ever can sleep at night when I stay there.
