On the subject of the lead actors Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott, he continued: “We’re still negotiating with a handful (of the cast members) about returning… We’re also meeting with new actors whom we’ve targeted roles for. I will say that Connie and Dylan will not be playing the leads of the show in the second season. We’d love for them to come back and do something, maybe a smaller role or a cameo.”

Madness or genius? Whilst the idea for a seasonal anthology is an intriguing one the finale leaves many aspects unresolved and the characters are obsessively loved in fan quarters. No doubt the show will face un uphill struggle to placate the hordes of Constance, Violet and Tate fans.

Source: DIY Television

TVLine caught up with Britton to talk about tonight’s (bizarre, dark, creepy, bloody) episode of FX’s American Horror Story, in which the former Friday Night Lights actor stars. During the conversation, they asked her for an update on the Friday Night Lights movie. Back in October Britton said Peter Berg, the director of the FNL film, and developer of the NBC series, was “totally fired up” to do the movie and that Jason Katims was talking about writing the script, however from what she says now, Berg is tied up with other projects:

I think Pete [Berg] is really tied up next year, so I don’t think that would happen until the end of next year — if it happens at all. But everybody really wants to make it happen.

What she says about Berg isn’t all that surprising. It’s the “if it happens at all” that sounds a bit less optimistic than fans of the football themed drama series (which was based on a movie, which was based on a book) will want to hear.

Berg has two projects in the works, the first of which is directing Battleship, which is due out next year. IMDB also has him listed as set to direct a film called Lone Survivor, which he also wrote.

So while it sounds like Britton would still be up for doing the movie, the project may not happen anytime soon. This is, of course, assuming there’s no one else available to take over the project in Berg’s place. But given Berg’s involvement in the original film and the series, it’s hard to see that as a positive scenario. Waiting might actually be the better option here, even if it takes years.

Clear eyes, full hearts…

Source: Cinema Blend

The former Spin City star had long harboured a desire to have a family of her own, but it wasn’t until her dad’s death that the single actress realised there was no point in delaying her plans any longer.

She got in touch with an adoption agency and, earlier this month (Nov11), became a first-time mother to nine-month-old Ethiopian boy Yoby.

But that doesn’t mean Britton, 44, has given up hope of finding love.

She tells People magazine, “I’ve always hoped to find a man that will be a great husband and father. I have faith that I’ll find that. It’s just in a different order.”

Source: Contactmusic.com

2. The return of the redheads. The slain redheaded twins who bought the farm way back in the first episode will pop back into the Harmons’ lives — the scripts refer to them “The Mischief Twins” — and they’ll be doing their destructive best to keep the Harmons in the house!

3. Yes, Jessica Lange does her best Tennessee Williams even when the cameras aren’t rolling. Sample chatter to Britton, who was hung up on making sure her birthing pains looked and sounded legit: “Oh, Ms. Scaaaahlett, I don’t know nuthin’ about birthin’ babies.” (Britton’s reply? “I dare you to say that in the next take.”) And after one of Britton’s more colorful ad-libs: “Girl, that’s a convent next door. You can’t be yelling about vagin-ahs!”

4. Seriously though, Lange and Britton have fun making this show. “Was that too much?” Britton asks, after her first take at wailing like a banshee (because poor Viv’s being dragged back into the haunted house against her will.) Lange laughs and answers: “It’s never too much, especially not for this show!” And when “Birth” director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon asked if Constance might be running around in 5-inch heels during the birthing scene, Lange says: “I’m going to sprint like in the olden days!”

5. P.S. It’s “Ms. Lange” on set. Because she’s Jessica F—ing Lange, that’s why.

6. The house could actually be haunted. Even the real-life owners think so. They’ve certainly decorated Los Angeles’ Rosenheim Mansion, a massive 15,000-square foot, six-bedroom home built in 1908, to accommodate souls (or ghouls?) of differing tastes. Alongside the original Tiffany stained glass, the house’s bizarre art collection also includes statues of a goat wielding a shield, a monkey with a banana and a knight with a sword, pencil sketches of Japanese children, Italian paintings, a tiger clock…

7. Brains taste like coconut! Or at least something fruity. Britton can’t remember exactly because the flavored gelatin looked a little too close to fresh brain meat. “It was all perfectly fine to consume, but my stomach, like, killed. I felt nauseous after I ate it,” the actress says. As for the pancreas, which she ate at 3 in the morning, it went down a lot smoother — and Britton has the fun, blood-smeared photos of herself post-organ snack saved on her iPhone to prove it.

8. Tate can’t spell YouTube. That’s what being trapped in Murder House will do to you. He’ll be looking for something on the Web to cheer Violet up because, you know, she’s dead, and her parents have a lot going on already….

9. …or, as Violet puts it: “If they find out I killed myself, they’ll go insane. Literally. For real this time.” Oh, Ryan Murphy. You slay us.

10. Why are Vivien and Violet both wearing, er, violet? Coincidence, or is something up?

11. Ben will be in deep denial until the end. Even though he buried Hayden and then had several conversations with her in the house, Ben won’t be able to accept that Violet isn’t exactly living. Or that’s how McDermott tells it: “Violet’s still there,” McDermott explains. “It’s kind of hard to compute. I don’t think Ben really gets it until the finale. That’s when he’ll realize, ‘Oh, sh–.’ Everyone’s dead.’”

12. Oh yeah, someone else dies! Yeah yeah, someone always dies at the end of the season, but you should brace yourself for this one…

13. Also, Ben can’t cut an umbilical cord to save his life. It takes a few takes before McDermott gets the hang of it.

14. A happy ending for Ben and Viv? Impossible? The pain of labor does funny things to women — and just imagine if some possible Antichrist were fighting its way out! The Harmons will share a sweet moment (read: moment) during Vivien’s birth. Britton says she always hoped the two might find their way back to each other. “We always talked about it, that in the end, there was actually going to be a sense of reunion between the two of them, even in death or whatever,” she says.

15. Could the house be on supernatural steroids? “Whatever character defects these people had, it’s all amped up now,” McDermott says. “The house definitely has a huge influence on everybody who enters it and what it does to you and what it tells you, how it talks to you and what it makes you do. Maybe without the house, maybe it would have been different.”

16. About next season… Both Britton and McDermott say they want in, dead or alive, but neither has much more to add. Says McDermott: “If this was it, I had a great time.”

Source: TV Guide

In the end, it was too much: Ben had been such a small man; Hayden, a crazy, home-wrecking bitch. Poor Viv had eaten brains, fought with ghosts, been impregnated by a Rubber Man, visited the loony bin and after all that, died a deflated death in American Horror Story’s penultimate episode, “Birth.”
But Connie Britton wasn’t surprised; the actress had known from the beginning that Vivien wasn’t destined to live long.

“I always knew Vivien was going to die,” she told TVGuide.com right before filming the gruesome birth last month. “In a way, I feel like I finally made it now that I’m a ghost. In this world that Ryan Murphy has created, it’s cool to be a ghost.” During the filming of the episode, Dylan McDermott mercilessly teased his co-star: “Viv’s bleeding out! You’re bleeding out!”

And bleed out she did, which was a big deal to no one except the house’s last (living) man standing, Ben. Dr. Charles took the first baby, pronounced it stillborn, and then handed it off to his still-grieving wife Nora. The second baby was claimed by Constance — and a minute later, Hayden. (And who knows? Chad and Patrick could still change their minds and make another play for the little guy.)

As for what’s next, Britton teases, “Hayden is always going to be a bee in Vivien’s bonnet.”

But maybe sharing the afterlife will give Viv an advantage. “Listen, in that situation more than any other, that is where Vivien can prevail,” she continued. “Now they’re on the same playing field.”

Before the show’s launch, Murphy described Vivien as a “heroic character,” and at the time, Britton said not playing the victim was part of the project’s appeal: “To have Vivien actually take some power and what it looks like, that’s what I’m really committed to doing here. It’s challenging because this is not a genre that is usually open to that.”

Asked if that still holds true heading into the finale, Britton said she had no doubt. “I am trusting Ryan here — in the last episode, Vivien is going to prevail. She’s going to prevail as a ghost.”

What do you think will happen next? Will Vivien and Hayden throw down for one of the babies? Is one of them really the Antichrist? Will Ben be toast too? What is Tate’s next move? Are you already anticipating having nightmares starring Thaddeus Montgomery? (I am!) Leave all your thoughts in the comments and let’s discuss.

Source: TV Guide

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You gave birth and you died! Did you know Vivien was gonna die? How far in advance did Ryan tell you?
CONNIE BRITTON: Totally. He told me the first conversation we ever had about it. Oh yeah, I always knew I was gonna die.

Oh you did?! You big liars!
I know!

So he told you in your initial meeting?
Yeah. Honestly, because of the way the everybody works, that was always the intent, but who knows? You never knew what was actually going to happen on the show. Every week we were all really surprised. Initially we kinda thought it was gonna be kind of a murder-suicide kinda thing with me and Dylan’s character. But then I think pretty early on I knew it was probably going to be during childbirth. I was excited about it.

American Horror Story: Get the latest news, photos, and more

Well, the one good thing is you’re dead but you’re still on the show.
On that show, ghosts are the ones who really have the life.

You don’t have to worry about costume changes anymore.
No, but that’s what’s so funny. I sorta thought that, too. Somebody, maybe it was Kate Mara, said, “No no no no. Apparently, all the ghosts have complete wardrobes.” It’s true. In the last episode, I have never had more wardrobe changes and, by the way, several of them couture. I don’t know where these ghosts go shopping.

You’re outta the loony bin and onto the runway!
I knowww!

What was “Birth” like to film? The most intense so far?
Well, I mean really on our show can you say? It took three whole days to shoot that sequence. So I was really having to scream for three days straight. It was exhausting and interesting because I haven’t actually given birth. I really wanted to try and have it be as accurate as it could. They had a med tech on set and stuff like that. It was really exhausting and kind of brutal.

What has Vivien’s journey been like for you? It’s been so up and down…well more downs.
Overall, it really was fun, which really surprised me actually. Honestly, it was just so challenging for me as an actress and that’s fun. I really ended up having fun even though I was scared to death half the time. Not only scared by the material but just scared as an actress, like, how in the world am I going to do that today. But that’s a really fun way to feel as an actor.

It’s almost a happy ending since Violet now at least gets to be with her mother.
I know. I know what you mean. By the way, that’s just an example of how perverse this show is. It’s kind of a happy ending: She can be together with her dead daughter. I mean really, only from the mind of Ryan Murphy.

Can you say anything about the finale? Vivian pops back up right?
Oh yeah. I’m living the dream as a ghost.

Can you tease anything regarding the plot?
I really don’t wanna ruin it for you. I love the finale. Let me put it this way: a lot happens.

What does this mean for you about season 2? Do you know anything?
Um. I…mmm. [Laughs] I’m really not at liberty to say. I wouldn’t be surprised if season 2 is very different from season 1 but that’s all I know.

What’s next for you? You have an adorable new baby so you’re probably gonna be taking care of him.
Yeah. I’m gonna take some time off and be with my little love. We’ll see how the next chapter unfolds.

Well, you just potentially birthed the Antichrist so you’re allowed to take a break.
Don’t you think? Isn’t it funny that the birthing episode we shot right after I got back from adopting my baby.

Was it surreal then to film that?
Yeah, the whole thing because the whole season I was in the process of doing the final motions of getting the baby and going to Ethiopia, which I did while we were shooting. It really was fascinating to me in terms of life imitating art. But I’m happy to report that my beautiful new baby is not the devil. [Laughs] As far as I can tell anyway. [Laughs]

Source: Inside TV

On being labeled “Hot” at 44: “I’m just flattered and blown away by it,” says the Boston native. “Listen at this point my reaction is, ‘Oh, thank god.’”

Gym avoidance:

Hiking and swimming dominate Britton’s stay fit routine: “It is a hilarious part of my personal history that I taught aerobics back in the day when I was pounding the pavement in New York. Ever since then I don’t really need to ever step foot in a gym again.”

Kiss and Tell:

So, who’s the best kisser of her three TV paramours —Dylan McDermott, Kyle Chandler or Michael J. Fox.? “All three of them are amazing kissers in their own right. And I’ll leave it at that.”

Most surprising:

“I majored in Chinese [Asian Studies] in college [Dartmouth]. I had a great opportunity to study in China and I didn’t want to pass that up. I’ve always been interested in international cultures.”

Real world scary: “Here’s the thing: When I see a little baby spider, I do feel a little bit of remorse right before I kill it,” says Britton who finds some “serious” spiders while hiking in L.A. with her dogs. “Black widows, brown recluses, gigantic hairy disgusting tarantulas … I have no room in my world for those things.”

Christmas do-gooder:

“I like to do charitable stuff. One year I gave a well for drinking water. If you get a gift in somebody’s name and then you give them information about the organization, they learn about it and everybody feels like they did something to help out.”

Party-er or party pooper?

“My favorite thing to do on New Year’s is to be with friends and be amongst people you love,” says Britton, who often plays host. “I’m one of these people who really love New Year’s and always has a great time.”

Scary movie:

“The scariest to me — which is probably what ruined me forever — was The Exorcist. I can remember walking up in nightmarish sweats at the idea of Linda Blair’s heard turning around in circles,” says Britton, who did some refreshing of “suspenseful and character driven” scary movies like Rosemary’s Baby, Don’t Look Now, and The Shining to inspire her work on American Horror Story.

Secrets to aging well (Britton turned 44 in March):

“For me I’ve tried really hard in my life to keep that pressure of that to as much of a minimum as I can and yet its always there. For me it’s really more about — and as I get older even more so — having my body feeling good and so I do things that help me to do that: hiking, Pilates, I swim whenever I get the chance. I love to swim.”

Once a co-star, always a friend:

“For sure, [Spin City's] Michael [J. Fox] and I had kind of lost touch a little and then we reconnected last year and I went to his big Parkinson’s benefit in New York and it was so great to see him. I feel like he will always been such an important person in my life. Kyle [Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler], without question, he and I were just true partners and we will be lifetime friends. I feel that way about Dylan [American Horror Story's Dylan McDermott] too. I mean, of course Dylan and I have been working together a much shorter time but I have a really strong connection with him and a really strong instinct we will remain friends for a long time after this too.

Cooking with Connie:

“Oh no. it’s so tragic I had my first Thanksgiving at my house [in 2010]. It was a great success but it was so terrifying because I had never done it before and my family came to my house and proceeded to just about laugh me out of the place because I had probably one pot and one pan,” says Britton, who after her parents passed away decided to host her first Thanksgiving dinner in 2010, repeated again in 2011. “But with the help of everybody involved because we have a such a longstanding tradition of how the turkey is prepared and the stuffing and what goes into our Thanksgiving. Everybody pitched in and we actually had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. I felt a great sense of accomplishment about that. That’s a great thing, starting new traditions, awesome.”

You are what you eat:

“I am not afraid of having a cupcake. I’m also not afraid of having a delicious, very decadent dinner. But in my day-to-day world, I also feel great when I’m doing juices; vegetables; raw foods… I feel the difference.”

Education before acting:

“100%. And that was one thing about my parents. They said to us our whole lives, the one thing we can give you is an education, they made that seem like the greatest gift which it was. I think it made me a well-rounded person and I always believed a really good actor is a well-rounded person. It’s more important to spend time in the world than to spend time in a green room that’s what I’ve always said.”

Keeps her up at night:

“I try not to worry but choices keep me up at night; because I want to make choices that are reflective of who I am in the world and it’s almost as if the more successful you become at that the more challenging it is to do because the stakes get higher, for instance after Friday Night Lights, I definitely stayed up at night worrying about what I was going to do next, how to look at that and how to think about that. American Horror Story has been such a great choice because It’s so different and I’m flexing such completely different muscles as an actor.”

Taking risks:

On saying yes to American Horror Story: It was presented to Britton by co-creator Ryan Murphy, as: ‘This is something we’ve never seen you do before. It will be turning what you’ve just been doing on its ear.’ I was intrigued by that and I thought it was such a fun opportunity to do exactly that and when I read the script, I was like, ‘how does this work?’ It felt like a big risk. As an actor it’s really important to take risks but that’s also what keeps you up at night. When you take risks, you can definitely fail”

New year’s resolution:

“I like to think about what the past year, where I’ve come in the past year and really acknowledge that and appreciate that and look ahead at what would be great to shift in next year. I don’t really believe in being really hard core about it because if you’re hard-core about it, rules are made to be broken. I do like to put that challenge out there.”

Best Christmas Gift received:

“My family is such practical gift givers. My favorite gift last year was my iPad from my sister and brother in-law.”

Source:

Yet Boston-born Britton was intrigued by the premise of the show, which is why she signed on despite her aversion to all things spooky: A troubled couple, Ben and Vivien Harmon, leave Boston with their teenage daughter to start over in sunny LA, after Vivien’s miscarriage and Ben’s indiscretion with a student. They find themselves in a restored mansion with a dark—make that very dark—history.

While working with writer and director Ryan Murphy was a draw for Britton because of his collaborative approach with actors and her admiration for his other projects (the aforementioned Glee and Nip/Tuck among them), the prospect of playing Vivien Harmon offered her the chance to take on the complete inverse of Friday Night Lights’ down-home Tami Taylor. “I was drawn to the psychological aspect of the story,” she says, “playing this character in the midst of a crumbling marriage who is now dealing with all sorts of problems living in this house.”

House of Horrors
Of course, by problems, we’re not talking leaky roofs and domestic squabbles. More like dead people pounding on the door, shape-shifting maids making passes at her husband, and a rubber-suited ghost who impregnates her with his demonic seed (and that’s just the first episode). Murder? Infidelity? Sex with ghostly gimps? Sign me up, said her costar, native New Englander Dylan McDermott, who plays her husband, Dr. Ben Harmon. “Lots of actors have concerns—Will I have to be naked? Do love scenes? Jerk off? Cry? Jerk off and cry? But I had no issues about any of the stuff that goes on in the Polanski-esque world of this show. For me, it was a no-brainer. I wish I had some reservations about it, but I didn’t,” McDermott says.

The fact is, not many viewers have reservations, either, and they’re clamoring for fantasy, horror, and twisted psychological fare. American Horror Story has already been renewed for a second season—and earned a 1.6 ratings share in the 18–49 audience for its premiere, reportedly leading all of cable television for the night. With other fright-based shows like Once Upon a Time and Grimm also crowding TV lineups, what does the acceptance— and popularity—of vividly gory and raw adult scenes say about what people want?

McDermott feels that people like to be scared. “We’re fascinated with the good and evil inside of each of us, as well as the existence of the devil himself. I mean, he’s the biggest bad guy in the world. What’s badder than that?”

Britton believes the fascination with evil transcends religious concepts. “I think this is about a collective consciousness of evil seeping into our culture from lots of different places,” she says. “The show taps into this consciousness, this idea that evil is palpable and close.”

At the very least, says McDermott, over-the-top shows like this one strike a nerve—and need to. “I think many people have trouble feeling anything,” McDermott says. “It may be that movies and TV can help people experience those feelings. The easiest thing to feel is fear. It taps into the most primal element of humanity. Some people run from it, but a whole group of us are running toward it.”

While American Horror Story bears all the hallmarks of its genre—creepy old house, check; body parts in the basement, check; disturbing next-door neighbor with a secret (played brilliantly and deliciously by Jessica Lange), check—the real fear is rooted in something far more common than an encounter with the supernatural: infidelity.

“The show is designed to push limits, make you uncomfortable, and it’s weird and kinky and all that,” says McDermott, “but it’s first and foremost a show about marriage. Because at the base of all this is a fractured family.”

But it’s also, says Britton, about what it means to search for a safe harbor. “This family leaves a troubled and unstable place in search of stability, to create a new life, and yet where they end up is somewhere far worse.” Between the unsettled ghosts the family has in tow and the ones already in residence in the creepy old house, the couple’s worst fears collide: that the greatest danger to them is not what’s out there, but what’s right at home. And then, naturally, there’s a demonic gimp in a black latex suit.

“I had reservations about the guy in the rubber suit,” Britton admits. “I honestly did not think he’d make it to TV.” Yet this seemingly gimmicky and gratuitous presence not only made it on, but also has a recurring, albeit mute, role as the embodiment of terror—and the dark soul of the house itself. Britton admits she’s come around on it: “Maybe I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid now, but I’ve become quite used to the rubber man. He conjures something so specific and shocking. And I now think there is a place for him on television.”

“I think we all have a rubber man inside us,” McDermott says. “I also think latex is the new black.”