Boy.

Uh, whilst, um, Love Story was being released, um, I think around episode five or six was out, uh, Ryan gave me a call, you know, as he does, and then he started to describe American Horror Story as if I'd never heard of it before.

Mm-hmm.

Had so much fun learning about him, embodying him as best as I can.

Um, but now being welcomed into the horror realm, which I'm a huge fan of already, I think it's so much more fun to further stretch and develop those muscles that I, I developed with John.

Um, you know, John always wanted to be an actor.

Angela Bassett, Sarah Paulson, and Jessica Lange, who only said yes to Ryan Murphy if a musical number was involved, return to lead this all-star cover.

It's a super-sized, super starry, big, big thing.

It's a, it's an all-

It's... [laughs]

It is like The Avengers, brought back to defeat the ultimate evil.

I always ask ast- actors if they knew it was gonna be a hit, and they always say, "No, of course not." But when was the moment you realized this was catching on? Like, what was that first thing that happened that made you think, "Oh, people are paying attention and it's working"?

I think for me, when I really started to realize that it was, we had something, maybe like halfway through production.

And you know, everyone's, like, really in their stride.

All the actors, everybody from the top down was really giving 150%, the entire production.

But once we started to gather, like, big crowds outside, and it was like, "Okay, people are catching on." Um, the finished product far surpassed any idea, uh, that I had it would be, which I'm incredibly proud of and also very, very excited for.

But you know, you just, you go in and you wanna do the best job that you can, and, and you work with what you've got and who you're with, and, uh, just, you know, there was magic.

The whole thing was lightning in a bottle, and I think we, we captured something really amazing

"After living under the skin of real-life celebrities, how has your own personality as actors/people changed over the course of before, during, and after filming Love Story?"

Uh, you know, you two got to explore some, I mean, some really incredible highs of a relationship, um, but then some very deep lows with her, uh, you know, as, as Carolyn said, what was it like being in the thick of that relationship with her one? But then what was it like watching it back in the episodes?

Working with Sarah is such a gift.

She's such a beautiful human being and such a giving partner in this craziness.

So, I mean, from the get-go, we had this chemistry and this understanding of and for each other that, like, I'm ready to go the distance for you.

We felt very safe with each other.

So it was nice working.

you know, in the relationship when it's budding and it's everything rainbows and flowers and hunky dory.

Can you take me into that?

I mean, I read that you were listening to audiobooks.

He narrates his father's book, Profiles in Courage, so I listened to that l- almost religiously, in the shower, before work, during work on lunch breaks, after work, in the gym.

[laughs]

Whatever it was, to sleep sometimes, just so I could get into the rhythm of his speech patterns.

You know, you never seemed to harangue Carolyn for her life's choices.

Maybe this is it.

Absolutely.

Yeah, no, correct.

I remember sitting down with her and we were just, you know, like just talking, chatting at home.

I was like, you know, I don't think this is really working.

Haven't hit it yet.

It's been 13 years.

you really wanted to see that you were able to meet or...