AHS: Evan Peters Had A Hard Time Filming Jimmy's Father Reveal On Freak Show
"American Horror Story: Freak Show" was one of the series most difficult seasons to shoot for several reasons. The most obvious was how many of the cast needed to have significant parts of their body altered to depict their unique appearances. Sarah Paulson, for example, plays conjoined twins who share a body. A character with two heads with two incredibly different personalities posed a challenge for Paulson as well as the special effects team. Also, actors playing off of Paulson had to remember which head was which.
Evan Peters had to wear fragile prosthetic hands to get the "lobster claw" appearance characteristic of Jimmy Darling's Ectrodactyly. Because the hands were so fragile, they didn't stay on very well, and touching anything would damage them. This wasn't the only hardship that Peters encountered while filming "AHS: Freak Show." His character also faced much emotional turmoil throughout the season, including discovering who his father was.
In an interview with Gold Derby, Peters explains why filming the scene hit him so hard. "That scene was particularly difficult to film," he says. "It was very late, and the subject matter's not easy. Anything with parents, to me, is very difficult."
Evan Peters describes Freak Show as a difficult season
Evan Peters says the scene was draining because, along with the father's reveal, Jimmy's mother had just died. Jimmy wasn't just dealing with one horrible pill to swallow. He was dealing with so much pain from both of his parents. "It was a very difficult season," Peters tells Gold Derby. "So I had to dig deep for that, and Michael [Ckiklis] was there ... Michael was very, very helpful and a very sweet guy." Chiklis, of course, plays Dell, the father who abandoned Jimmy and his mother in "American Horror Story: Freak Show." Peters credits Chiklis for helping him through the emotional subject matter.
"He was there every take, being my dad, you know, being what I needed in the scene, and we had a good time," Peters adds. "And then you get into the alley, and things get serious, but he's such a sweet, nice guy that it's not like you're intimidated by him or anything — just very welcoming and nice. So it was great."