Stalh23's Celebrity Gossip: Adam Levine, Jessica Lange 'American Horror Story' Details Revealed

Monday, June 25, 2012

Adam Levine, Jessica Lange 'American Horror Story' Details Revealed

In 'AHS' season two, Lange is 'a bride of Christ,' writer tells MTV News.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Tami Katzoff

Jessica Lange in "American Horror Story"
Photo:

While there have been scant details regarding the second season of "American Horror Story" floating around since it was announced it would be rebooted in a new time and place with spanking-new characters, what fans have been most clamoring to know about is how season one bad girl Jessica Lange will be re-imagined for the series.

"She's not playing this kind of ersatz Tennessee Williams character this time," "AHS" writer Tim Minear told MTV News about Lange in season two. "She's playing something that's a little more East Coast, a little more patrician."

While she was a bit of a darkly motivated, self-involved floozy in season one, her new backstory seems to paint a different picture for the character. "She's playing a nun," he said. "She's playing an administrator of a facility. It's different. In this instance, she's a bride of Christ."

Season one of the FX horror series took place in sunny Los Angeles, which served as the backdrop to Murder House and its disturbed inhabitants, both living and dead. But, season two will take place in the 1960s on the East Coast with a mental institution as the locale for all the creepiness. Lange will call the shots, which is sort of what she did in season one as well, but it seems she'll be motivated in a whole new set of ways.

"We thought it would be cool. I mean, the truth is, when I first met with [creators] Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk about the show, I came in, I read the pilot script, and I'm like, 'OK 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,' " Minear recalled.

"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 two, 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."

Given that anything is possible in the "AHS" world, there's a chance that the infamous Murder House just might make a cameo. "I wouldn't rule anything out," Minear shared.

Sure, everyone has been salivating over details about Lange and her newly learned good-girl character, but there's another casting that has everyone intrigued: Maroon 5 leading man Adam Levine has been cast as one of "The Lovers." "Let's say that Adam's character is kind of a nod to contemporary sensibilities, as opposed to something from the mid-century," Minear noted.

Levine joins other returning castmembers Zachary Quinto, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Lily Rabe as well as Lange.

Levine and his bandmates will drop Overexposed on Tuesday. They will sit down with MTV News for an "MTV First" on Monday to discuss the new album, and perhaps Levine will share more details about his "AHS" role.

Don't miss the premiere of Maroon 5's "One More Night" video during "MTV First: Maroon 5" on Monday, June 25, at 7:53 p.m. on MTV, followed by a 30-minute Q&A with the band on MTV.com.

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