Within his American Horror Story universe, Ryan Murphy has taken a variety of actors and actresses and transformed them into completely different beings, for better and for worse. When it was announced that pop music icon Lady Gaga would be joining the cast of American Horror Story: Hotel, imaginations ran wild with the possibilities of what her character would be. Well, it has now been revealed, and it sounds like Lady Gaga will be playing…Lady Gaga, hotel owner.
As Elizabeth, Gaga will basically have a lot of the same interests as she does in her normal day to day life – and I’m using the word “normal” lightly – but that doesn’t mean that she won’t get far more extreme than her fans have ever seen her before. Here’s what Murphy said about it at the TCA press event.
She owns the hotel. She is a very wealthy social doyenne, who is consumed with art and fashion and people. She has a nefarious plan that is revealed in the first episode, but plays out over the course of the season.
First thing’s first: I’ve never used the word doyenne in casual conversation. Moving on, I can’t wait to see the ways in which Lady Gaga’s artistic tastes mesh with Ryan Murphy’s, because it seems like this hotel’s interior (and possibly the employees’ work uniforms) could make for some of the most interesting visuals on TV in 2015. I’m expecting wild and crazy statues, paintings and feathers on everything. And depending on what her nefarious plans are, there’s potential for even more wacky sights and sounds as the season goes on.
But it’s not just the art and fashion that fit in with Lady Gaga’s lifestyle, as Elizabeth will also share the musician’s bisexual tendencies. Finn Wittrock will play a male model named Tristan Duffy, and the actor says he “finds the biggest high in Lady Gaga,” and that they have a lot to do together. Meanwhile, Angela Bassett is playing an actress named Ramona Royale, and here’s how she described the character, according to TVLine.
I have a very strong, real, lasting relationship with [Lady Gaga’s] character, so I’m sure I’ll be at odds with [Finn Wittrock] down there…I don’t live at the hotel, but I visit very often.
Murphy did later clarify that the relationships that Gaga will have with these characters is indeed sexual. I may have trouble wiping Bassett’s hermaphroditic Freak Show character out of my mind during those scenes, as well as the slightly incestuous angle given to Wittrock’s Dandy Mott last season for a role that earned the actor his first Emmy nomination. But it’s more than possible that all it’ll take is the first five minutes of Hotel to make me forget last season existed.
American Horror Story: Hotel, which Murphy also teased will have the series’ most disturbing scene yet, will take over your TVs this fall when it hits FX on Wednesday, October 7.
