Jessica Lange says FX was 'too cheap' to drive AHS stars home

Jessica Lange says FX left its American Horror Story stars to drive themselves home after night shoots in New Orleans.

She raised the complaint at the American Horror Story: 13 panel at PaleyFest NY on 8 October, alongside Sarah Paulson. Her remarks were reported by Variety via Entertainment Weekly.

Lange was talking about Season 3, Coven, which filmed in New Orleans. She said she and her co-stars would finish at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, drive themselves home and park on a street in the French Quarter. She called it a bone of contention. She has not forgotten.

Her words were blunt. FX was “too fucking cheap” to provide cars or drivers for the stars at the time, she said.

Lange had joined the PaleyFest NY line-up as a late addition to the previously announced Paulson panel, according to the Paley Center. The festival is the Paley Museum’s annual, multiday television event, and its listing had the American Horror Story: 13 session at 7:00 pm on 8 October with Lange as an in-person participant.

The appearance comes with her return to the series in AHS 13. It is her first appearance on the show since 2018’s AHS: Apocalypse, according to Variety.

American Horror Story is an FX horror anthology series from Ryan Murphy, meaning each season tells a new story with many of the same actors. The new season stars Lange, Paulson, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe and Leslie Grossman, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

For fans, this means a familiar face in several familiar roles. Lange said she agreed to come back on condition she could play all four of her previous characters, plus one mystery character. She said Murphy first spoke to her about playing Season 1’s Constance.

Lange won Emmys for her roles in the show’s first and third seasons. FX did not have a response to her car-service claim in the reports of the panel.