Shooting the third iteration of the gothic miniseries “American Horror Story” is just beginning in New Orleans, and the participants are reluctant to say anything more about it, causing some problems on a panel at the TV Critics press tour.
An impressive array of actresses took the stage, with Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett joining the returning Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson. But asked what their characters will be, producer Tim Minear at first only said “they play characters.”
Oh.
“I’m going to have them not give away too much about their characters this year because we’re trying to keep some things close to the vest,” Minear said. “If you’ve heard something online, it’s probably not true. We’re at the very beginning stages of shooting the show, and we’d like to keep a lot of the surprises on the screen. And I’d like to keep my job.”
At least their character names were projected on a screen, with Bassett playing the famous New Orleans voodoo queen Marie Laveau, and Bates a socialite serial killer named Madame LaLaurie.
Paulson will play Lange’s daughter.
And other than that, they were asked, well, what effect does shooting in New Orleans bring to the production?
“Humidity,” cracked Bates.
Though Lange, for her part expounded on its delights:
“There is something in that city that is unique in this country, and it has a kind of it has a power. It has an authenticity that I think is lacking from most places in this country now. It has a sense of history, and the people live in the past and the present,” Lange said. “Dylan had a wonderful description of it. He says, ‘New Orleans is like one long poem,’ and that’s how I’ve always felt about that town.”
Bob Dylan, in his “Chronicles, Vol. 1” said in part:
There are a lot of places I like, but I like New Orleans better. There’s a thousand different angles at any moment. At any time you could run into a ritual honoring some vaguely known queen. Bluebloods, titled persons like crazy drunks, lean weakly against the walls and drag themselves through the gutter. Even they seem to have insights you might want to listen to. No action seems inappropriate here. The city is one very long poem. Gardens full of pansies, pink petunias, opiates. Flower-bedecked shrines, white myrtles, bougainvillea and purple oleander stimulate your senses, make you feel cool and clear inside.
Lange wasn’t done in her literary namedropping: “Truman Capote said, ‘New Orleans is a secret.’ So there’s all of this kind of sense of place that I think will lend itself over time to this piece in a way that the back lot at Paramount never did.
“There is something about New Orleans that is going to inform all our characters, inform this story, inform the writing, the look of the place, everything, and it’s inescapable. Like, when you are on the street there, there is something that’s so hypnotic and so I don’t know. It’s almost drug like being there and working there. So I just want to say I’m thrilled because I’ve been in love with New Orleans for a very long time. So to have this opportunity to work there is I mean, again, it’s like a great gift.”
If Lange was grateful, Bates wanted to get something off her chest about one of her last network experiences, starring in the legal drama “Harry’s Law” that NBC ultimately canceled.
“I think they treated us like shit,” she said in her plainspoken way. “They kicked us to the curb. I think they disrespected us. I think they disrespected our 7 to 11 million viewers every week. And I think they’re getting what they deserve. Thank you.”
Because she plays a serial killer in the new series, NBC might have reason to be a little worried.
“American Horror Story: Coven” returns to FX in October.