Lange 'fascinated by freak shows'

Jessica Lange has always been “fascinated” by freak shows.

The 65-year-old is currently promoting the new season of American Horror Story, which changes themes every year.

This season American Horror Story: Freak Show has a grotesque carnivalesque setting and Jessica has revealed she pitched the concept to creator Ryan Murphy initially.

“Yeah this had been in my mind for a long time. I have forever been fascinated and I photograph it a lot myself—small-time kind of carnival, sideshow, things like that,” she explained to Entertainment Weekly. “I mean I started kind of looking into freak shows. It is an amazing history and I’ve always been fascinated by a community of people living like gypsies, on the road and travelling from place to place and, in this case, heightened to the degree that they’re all extremely special.

“So it was something I suggested to him a year or so ago. I had originally imagined it like a travelling freak show, maybe Dustbowl, with that kind of desperation. Ryan has set it in another time, which I think is clever, actually.”

American Horror Story: Freak Show takes place in a small American South town during the early 1950s.

Jessica has scooped up two Emmys for her work on the programme, and she’s been part of the series since it debuted in 2011.

And although she thinks the fourth season might be the best, Jessica won’t be coming back to film a fifth.

“I haven’t reconsidered. I’m just trying to get through this year, and I think this year, without a doubt, will be my favourite,” she said. “I think just the richness of it and the time and the place and the characters. I just think it’s going to be unique. And I think, to my mind, what I’ve seen already and what we’ve done, it will far surpass anything we’ve done before.”