Ryan Murphy Says American Horror Story Has Always Been a Mystery to Him

The Editors of GQ
Updated
At the Man of the Year's GQ Live last night, the director also touched on rejection, pitching Pose, and John Travolta's eyebrows.

During night two of the first-ever GQ Live in Los Angeles, Ryan Murphy—a director/producer/writer/reason why so many of your favorite actors have gotten so much good work throughout the past decade—told GQ editor in chief Jim Nelson that his hit FX series American Horror Story, which recently wrapped its eighth season, had always been a mystery to him.

"I'm really extra," Murphy said when asked about his work, which also includes the recent hit Pose and this year's American Crime Story iteration, The Assassination of Gianni Versace. "But I'm extra in my life, too... [with Horror Story] I don't know, that show's always been a mystery to me. I don't understand it. I think it has a very feminine point of view."

Noting that his next project is the long-reported Netflix origin story of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest villain Nurse Ratched, set to star Sarah Paulson, Murphy said he's been thrilled to spend so much of his recent career on "feminist horror stories that a lot of women are involved with." It's part of the reason, he added, why he casts so many older actresses in his shows.

"Kathy Bates had just had an NBC series that didn't get renewed, and was having a hard time looking for work," he says of bringing the legend into his troupe a few years ago. "And I was just like, how? You have a fucking Oscar!"

Murphy also suggested that there are two key kernels of wisdom to unlocking what's made him such a success: never fearing rejection ("I always knew that I would fail, I would always just try") and "a discipline that was born from a desire to eat and put food on my table. I always tell people to stay in the game. Don't get dejected by a no. If you're still working, you're still in it."

Throughout the hour-long talk, Murphy also touched down on topics like Versace subject Andrew Cunanan ("he was the original Kim Kardashian," he joked, "because he did this to become famous"), John Travolta's eyebrows in The People v O.J. Simpson ("he always wanted them bigger"), and jettisoning the idea of featuring Trump as a character on Pose ("I didn't wanna see his fuckin' face anymore").

For more with Murphy, revisit his GQ Men of the Year profile right here.