With less than a month before the premiere of the "American Horror Story: Freak Show," series co-creator Ryan Murphy and stars Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson revealed new details about the plot and characters and of the highly anticipated installment of the FX anthology show.
It was previously announced that Lange plays Elsa Mars, a German expat who arrives in the small town of Jupiter, Florida to manage one of the last remaining freak shows in the country. "My character is very manipulative," the 65-year-old Emmy-winning actress told Entertainment Weekly. "She understands what's needed and she provides it. However the thing I want to be very clear that Elsa really loves these people. She truly cares for them in her own selfish narcissistic way. It's not just exploitation."
Elsa then recruits conjoined twins Bette and Dot (Sarah Paulson) in an attempt to draw more audience to her show. Bette and Dot are said to have very conflicting personalities, but "it's not as simple as nice and evil," Paulson, 39, told EW.
Aside from the conjoined twins, Elsa's group of freaks also includes Jimmy (Evan Peters) and his mom Ethel (Kathy Bates). Jimmy was born with lobster-like hands, while her mom was dubbed as the bearded woman.
"Ethel is basically Elsa's right hand woman," revealed Murphy. "She helps run the camp, and she's sort of the guardian of the law. She had a real tragedy in that she was a real circus star in the '20s and 30s and then she had her baby and she became a down-and-out drunk, and Elsa saved her."
Conflict in the campus grows more intense when Ethel's ex-husband and Jimmy's dad, Dell Toledo, (Michael Chiklis) joins the group. He is a strongman who's running from the law.
"Jimmy is the big man on campus and is the male leader of the group until Dell comes and they begin to battle for power under Elsa," Murphy revealed. Dell is with his new wife, Desiree Dupree, (Angela Bassett), who has three breasts.
Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch) is the season's main antagonist. He has already retired in Jupiter and is not pleased by the rise of Elsa's freak show. "He's out to make their lives a living hell," Murphy said.
Emma Roberts, who told E! News that that the scripts for "Freak Show" gave her nightmares, plays a con artist along with Denis O'Hare. Frances Conroy portrays a rich lady, whose son (Finn Whitrock) wants to be part of the freak show, while Gabourey Sidibe plays socialite who returns to Jupiter when her mother (Patti LaBelle) has gone missing.
Wes Bentley plays Edward Mordrake, who will be featured in the season's third and fourth episodes titled "Edward Mordrake, Pt. 1" and "Edward Mordrake, Pt. 2," according to SpoilerTV.
"He is a very famous horror myth," said Murphy of Mordrake. "It was a man with two faces; a normal face and then a face on the back of his head."
Based on the myth, Mordrake urged doctors to have his "demon face" removed, claiming that it whispered to him at night, according to George Milbry Gould's book "Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine"