American Horror Story Writer Describes Jessica Lange’s and Adam Levine’s New Characters

Steve Barton   |  

Jun 23, 2012

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Curious about what direction “American Horror Story” will be taking with Jessica Lange’s new character in Season 2? What about Adam Levine’s role as one of “The Lovers”? Well, writer Tim Minear dished some dirt to MTV, and we have the highlights right here.

“She’s not playing this kind of ersatz Tennessee Williams character this time,” said Minear of Lange’s Season 2 transformation. “She’s playing something that’s a little more East Coast, a little more patrician. She’s playing a nun… an administrator of a facility. It’s different. In this instance she’s a bride of Christ.”

As most viewers are aware, Season 2 will take place in the 1960s on the East Coast with a mental institution as the setting for all the creepiness. And that drastic shift from the Season 1 locale of sunny Los Angeles was planned by its creators all along. “The truth is“, Minear recalled, “when I first met with Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk about the show, I came in, I read the pilot script, and I’m like, ‘Okay, guys, this is all very well and good — I don’t know how you make this into a TV show. I don’t know how you sustain this. And Ryan immediately had the answer, and that was, ‘Oh, the way we sustain it is by the end of the season, we have killed off every character.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m in!’ And then you revamp it. Basically, in Season 2 you have a whole new story, a whole new location, a whole new time frame. You just do something different,” he added. “The reason we’re doing it in the 1960s is because that fits the story that we want to tell.”

And Levine’s part in that story? When asked about the Maroon 5 leading man, Minear noted, “Let’s say that Adam’s character is kind of a nod to contemporary sensibilities, as opposed to something from the mid-century.”

As for whether there’s any chance that the infamous Season 1 “Murder House” might make a cameo, “I wouldn’t rule anything out,” Minear shared.

“American Horror Story” returns this fall. Along with Lange and Levine Season 2 stars include James Cromwell, Joseph Fiennes, Zachary Quinto, Chloe Sevigny, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, and Lizzie Brochere.

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