"American Horror Story" creator Ryan Murphy sat down with Entertainment Weekly to dish on the upcoming fourth season titled, "Freak Show." The season will be set in the mid-1950s and centers around one of the last remaining freak shows in America.
"The year is 1952. A troupe of curiosities has just arrived to town, coinciding with the strange emergence of a dark entity that savagely threatens the lives of townsfolk and freaks alike," an official description reads. "This is the story of the performers and their desperate journey of survival amidst the dying world of the American carny experience."
For months the show has provided very vague descriptions of the characters, but EW got the inside scoop from Murphy and the main stars.
Jessica Lange as Elsa Mars, leader of the freak show: "My character is very manipulative. She understands what's needed and provides it," Lange told EW. "However, the thing I want to be very clear is that Elsa really loves these people. She truly cares for them in her own selfish, narcissistic way. It's not just exploitation."
Sarah Paulson as conjoined twins Dot and Bette: with people losing interest in the circus act, Elsa hatches a plan to gain popularity by adding "freaks" to the show. One of her new attractions is Dot and Bette, who have very different personalities but share the same body.
"It's not as simple as nice and evil," Paulson told EW. "It's more complicated, in true Ryan Murphy style."
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Kathy Bates as Ethel Darling: Ethel sports a very thick beard and will be Elsa's "right hand woman."
"She helps run the camp, and she's sort of the guardian of the law," Murphy said. "She had a real tragedy in that she was circus star in the '20s and '30s and then she had her baby and she became a down-and-out drunk, and Elsa saved her."
Michael Chiklis as Dell Toledo: Murphy said Dell is a strongman who's an outlaw and could bump heads with his son at the freak show.
"Jimmy is the big man on campus and is the male leader of the group until Del comes and they begin to battle for power under Elsa," Murphy said.
Wes Bentley as : Edward Mordrake
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Also joining the cast is Emma Roberts and Denis O'Haire as con artists; Frances Conroy who plays a wealthy woman whose son (Finn Whitrock) is eager to join the freak show; Gabourey Sidibe who plays a Barbizon model who returns to Jupiter because her mother (Patti LaBelle) is missing; and Angela Bassett as three-breasted Desiree Dupree, who is married to Dell.
