Lily Rabe discusses her role of Sister Mary Eunice McKee for the Home Entertainment release of American Horror Story: Asylum: Season 2 | The Fan Carpet Ltd • The Fan Carpet: The RED Carpet for FANS • The Fan Carpet: Fansites Network • The Fan Carpet: Slate • The Fan Carpet: Theatre Spotlight • The Fan Carpet: Arena • The Fan Carpet: International

Lily Rabe discusses her role of Sister Mary Eunice McKee for the Home Entertainment release of American Horror Story: Asylum: Season 2


The Fan Carpet Chats To...
30 September 2013

Check into Briarcliff as the second terrifying slice of the Emmy-award winning anthology show American Horror Story: Asylum comes to Blu-Ray and DVD on 23 September 2013 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

The year is 1964 as we’re introduced to the doctors and nuns who occupy the asylum alongside Nazis, mutants, innocents and serial killers who all make up the fabric of patients. These include Sister Jude (Emmy award-winner Jessica Lange – Cape Fear), Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell – L.A. Confidential), Dr Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto – Star Trek) and Kit Walker (Evan Peters – the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past), a patient assumed to be the notorious masked serial killer Bloodyface. As journalist Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson – Martha, Marcy, May Marlene) visits Briarcliff intent on exposing its mistreatment of patients, she unearths unthinkable horrors that could end with her very own imprisonment.
 
Meanwhile, in the present day, two young adults visiting the now-derelict asylum are stalked by another incarnation of Bloodyface…

Asylum see’s cast returns from the brilliant Jessica Lange, Zachary Quinto, Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) and Dylan McDermott (Olympus Has Fallen) who are joined by new additions James Cromwell and Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love). There are also guest appearances from Ian McShane (Deadwood) and Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine, all who complete the stellar cast line up.

From the creators of Glee and Nip/Tuck, every new episode of American Horror Story: Asylum brings a fresh amount of insanity-fuelled shock, horror and gore to surprise even the most hardened of fans. This season has earned more rave reviews than its predecessor, earning three nominations for the upcoming Emmy awards including Best Actress (Lange), Supporting Actress (Paulson) and Supporting Actor (both Cromwell and Quinto).

Authentically stylish and scary as hell, be sure to visit Briarcliff when American Horror Story: Asylum comes to Blu-ray and DVD on 23 September 2013 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.  Be warned: once you enter, you may find it impossible to leave.

 

 

I’m very Catholic and this show scares the crap out of me.  How was the show first presented to you?

When Ryan called me up I was doing a play in New York and I remember I was sitting in my dressing room before a show, he called to tell me about the new season and the part that he wanted me to play.  I said yes before I knew much at all because getting to work with Ryan is something I say yes to.  I trust him.  So I didn’t know that much.  I knew a bit about the character I’d be playing and I knew the time period and I knew it would be in an asylum and I knew what Jessica was playing.  But the information came in in bits.

 

What is it about this particular show that has galvanized audiences the way that it has?

Well, that’s part of it, it’s not like anything else on television.  What Ryan does with all of his shows, which are so incredibly different from one another, it’s just amazing that these three different shows that are on the air right now are born out of the same brain and are so incredibly different.  What they all — they’re all very original, very brave and each universe that he creates the show is its own universe. So for an audience member at least for me watching his shows, to get to sort of step into that world that is so specific to the show is I think very appealing.  And can appeal to so many different, that’s why there’s so many, it’s not just for targeted age groups, there’s vast mass of appeal to his shows I think.

 

 

For an actor, what is the best part about living in a world that’s so grey?

Wow, that is where everything happens isn’t it, in the grey.  I feel that that’s sort of where, certainly where we are today.  As an actor because it’s true, and for my character so much is in the middle because so much is happening to her and so it’s not black or white.  Is it this Mary Eunice or that Mary Eunice?  All of it is living inside of her and is very complicated way.  And for all of the characters you know we are all — he writes and creates and his writers create such multidimensional characters.  No one is ever stuck sort of with a caricature.  That grayness is a good place to go to work everyday.

 

Would you say that insanity is overrated?  Do embrace the responsibility wholeheartedly?  Do you ever question some of the motivation of the characters?

No, I don’t question them because that wouldn’t help me while I’m playing the part you know.  It’s bad when you step into that, for me anyway, no, I would find no value in sort of being resistant or questioning what’s happening in the world of the show or what’s happening for my character.  It’s much more fun.   I’d rather just jump out of the plane and then know that my parachute is going to be there.  Too much trepidation with my work.  I can only speak for myself, it has never made me as happy as when I just jump in.  So that’s what I’m doing.

 

How do you decompress at the end of the day?

I do love a cheeseburger but sleep is a good thing.  We work long hours.  I think we all like to just try and sleep when we can.  Then you do the things that you do in your life that you know feel like you are living your life outside of work.  She’s on my mind 24/7 right now, that’s for sure.

 

 

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM: SEASON 2 IS OUT NOW