Never a series that had trouble with taking things to the next level, American Horror Story is heading into somewhat new territory for its next season, as it won’t have Jessica Lange as the leading lady anymore, but rather the exponentially fearless Lady Gaga. And if you thought it would be impossible for her to add shock value to a production crew that has presumably seen it all before, you’d be wrong, and she did just that during the filming of a particularly bloody foursome coming to American Horror Story: Hotel.
The foursome in question will include Gaga’s hotel owner Countess, her beau Donovan (played by Matt Bomer), and another couple. Countess and Donovan are a pair of bloodsuckers – though their affliction is more akin to hemophilia than vampirism – and this sexual tryst will go badly for their partners. More so than anything else, though, it was Gaga’s all-in approach to filming the scene that dropped everyone’s jaws.
She’s the only actress I think I’ve worked with who wanted to do more explicit stuff than what was written. You write a foursome for her and you expect a lot of questions. She never did that. She showed up and she was wearing diamond pasties, a Band-Aid on her hoo-ha, heels and a black veil that Alexander McQueen made for her on the day before his death. Then the crew gasped in delight and we were off!
It takes a certain amount of courage to present oneself in such a way, especially on a day when press outlets like EW were there for coverage. But anyone who has paid even a minute amount of attention to Lady Gaga’s career knows that she just don’t give a fu-u-u-ck. This isn’t even her only sex scene in the show, as far as we can tell, since she also gets a relationship going with Finn Wittrock’s character, which may also include Angela Bassett’s character. And this season also includes a killer who uses a dildo as a weapon, so the sky is really the limit here.
Gaga knew that joining the American Horror Story cast would be a challenge, but one she had no problem taking. Here’s how she approached it.
I walked in my first day and I was like, ‘I am going to give all of myself.’
And anything she didn’t give could just be covered up with diamonds and a Band-Aid, apparently. There was an additional little bit of weirdness going on with that scene, too, as John Travolta ended up wandering onto the set as it was being filmed. He was nearby filming for the Horror companion series American Crime Story, and he stayed on set after a conversation with Gaga to watch her part of the scene, in which she “writhes around on the bed like a famished animal.” Nice.
For what it’s worth, Bomer was wearing nothing but a sock over his junk during his scene. So he’s kind of brave, too. Find these two actors going through the bloody motions when American Horror Story: Hotel premieres on FX on Wednesday, October 7.
