If you’ve ever had an eerie experience at a hotel, the latest iteration of “American Horror Story” is absolutely made for you.
Executive producer Ryan Murphy retains much of the ensemble cast — and adds such notables as music superstar Lady Gaga, Wes Bentley (“American Beauty”), “White Collar” alum Matt Bomer (directed last year by Murphy in HBO’s “The Normal Heart”) and singer-actor Cheyenne Jackson — as the FX franchise begins its fifth round with the debut of “American Horror Story: Hotel” Wednesday (Oct. 7).
The new mystery references the show’s first season, which came to be subtitled “Murder House,” as the saga revolves around Los Angeles’ Hotel Cortez and its staff and residents … plus two particularly questionable “guests,” the Ten Commandment Killer and the Addiction Demon.
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“Hotel” is the first “American Horror Story” variation not to feature Jessica Lange, apparently, though Murphy has said “she’ll be back.” The many returnees include Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Sarah Paulson, Finn Wittrock, Chloe Sevigny, Denis O’Hare, Evan Peters, Emma Roberts (now also working for Murphy on Fox’s “Scream Queens”), Mare Winningham and Lily Rabe … who appeared recently in ABC’s “The Whispers,” and who reportedly comes to “Hotel” as Aileen Wuornos, the real-life serial killer Charlize Theron won an Oscar for playing in the 2003 movie “Monster.”
“We were really inspired by the idea of a hotel,” Murphy tells Zap2it. Teamed again in making the new “Horror Story” with several of his usual producing partners including Brad Falchuk, he says, “There was a surveillance video that went around two years ago that just showed a girl getting into an elevator in a downtown hotel that is rumored to be haunted, and she was never seen again. So that was around two years ago [when] we started thinking of this idea.”
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Having earned an Emmy for her first season (and the show’s third), “American Horror Story: Coven,” Bates says she keeps re-upping because “one of the most exciting things — besides working with so many wonderful actors — is seeing it all put together, and seeing what everybody else has been doing in other scenes, and realizing that everybody is bringing their ‘A’ game. So to feel part of that is just a great honor, and to be among [these] actors. And you want to learn things from them, too.”
Other “American Horror Story” newcomers for “Hotel” include Max Greenfield (“New Girl”), Darren Criss (one of Murphy’s “Glee” stars), Madchen Amick (“Twin Peaks”) and Naomi Campbell. Murphy admits that in keeping actors on the series, the challenge each season is “to try and give them something different, something that is challenging to them. One thing that I do with the cast every year is I always say, ‘What have you always wanted to do, or what have you always wanted to play?’ So this is a cast that’s very involved in a lot of those decisions, but it sort of rises and falls.
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“Some seasons, an actor will be specifically the lead. The next year, they’re supporting. Sarah (a recent Emmy nominee as conjoined twins in last season’s ‘Freak Show’) has gone through that experience. Kathy has gone through that experience on the show … Angela as well.”
Thus, Murphy adds that he feels “more pressure to just keep them around because one of the fun things about the show, I think, for the actors — why they love it — is they all have one-year deals. And after this season is up, they can go do other things. That’s what happened with Jessica Lange. She decided she wanted a year off to do a play [‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’], which I bought for her. Stupidly.”
