While American Horror Story has given audiences some of the most disturbing scenes on TV in its past four seasons – from Kathy Bates’ decapitated head to clown murders to masturbation with a Minotaur – apparently we haven’t seen the worst of it all just yet. Co-creator Ryan Murphy claims that American Horror Story: Hotel will feature the show’s most unsettling scene yet, and it all revolves around one of the new cast members.
For his first foray into the world of FX’s anthology horror, New Girl star Max Greenfield went through a huge physical transformation, and it sounds like that’ll have something to do with how bonkers Hotel will get. Here’s what Murphy had to say about it while promoting the upcoming season at the TCA press event.
The most disturbing scene we’ve ever done, he’s at the center of. He really pushed himself as an actor. I was proud of him.
Greenfield, who first broke out as the sweetheart Leo D’Amato on Veronica Mars, is far more known for bringing laughs and warm hearts, not disturbing the shit out of people. Of course, most of the actors and actresses in American Horror Story were known for other roles before taking things to violent and/or sexual extremes on this show. As well, Murphy likes to disturb people in a variety of ways, sometimes using horrifying gore and makeup, sometimes using dread and suspense, and sometimes by turning Denis O’Hare into a limbless chicken in a cage. It takes all kinds.
Thankfully, we now have a good idea of who Greenfield will be playing in Hotel, and it’s definitely unlike anything the actor has done before. Here’s how Murphy described him, according to TVLine.
He plays an addict who checks into the hotel and tangles with Sarah Paulson. I said, ‘I have a feeling that you can and want to do something really fucked up.’ And he said, ‘How did you know?’ So he cut off his beautiful hair and dyed it. And I think he’s lost 30 pounds. Yesterday, I talked to him and his waist I think is down to a 27. So he’s really committed to it.
That’s some serious Christian Bale and Jared Leto shit right there, and I can’t even quite imagine how that’s going to turn out, although my hopes have now skyrocketed. Will it be a transformation the likes of the Infantata or Twisty the Clown? Or something more subtle like Sarah Paulson’s two-headed woman? Will Lady Gaga look even weirder? I can keep the questions going all the way until that scene actually happens, but I’ll cut it short for now.
Don’t forget to tip the bellhop when American Horror Story: Hotel kicks off this fall on FX starting Wednesday, October 7, at 10 p.m. ET.
