‘American Horror Story: Hotel’: Characters Revealed! Debut Date Finally Set!

Get ready for a whole lot of ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ information including details on the characters and of course the debut date for October….

It’s customary for ‘American Horror Story’ creator Ryan Murphy to keep things close to the vest as he gets ready to embark on another season of the award winning anthology series on FX, but he did manage to leak out a few tidbits of information at the Television Critics Association press event on Friday.

Amongst those details included character names and descriptions for all the major cast as well as a few of the relationships that will be explored this season.

The biggest piece of information revealed was Lady Gaga will not only be appearing on ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ — she’s the star.

The pop star will play Elizabeth, the hotel owner in the story, and she’s not going to be stuck in an office looking over financial figures this season. No, Elizabeth will be mixing it up with more than a few cast members this season while getting in a few romantic trysts along the way. Expect Gaga’s character to wind up in bed with Matt Bomer, Cheyenne Jackson and Angela Bassett at different points this season. Elizabeth has a little bit of love for everybody it seems.

Here are details on the rest of the actors and the characters they’ll be portraying in ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’:

Lady Gaga — Elizabeth (hotel owner) — “She owns the hotel,” Murphy revealed on Friday. “She is a very wealthy social doyenne, who is consumed with art and fashion and people. She has a nefarious plan that is revealed in the first episode, but plays out over the course of the season.”

Kathy Bates — Iris (hotel manager) — “I have relationships with Matt Bomer and Wes(Bentley) and I can’t stand (Sarah) Paulson, I hate (her character),” Bates said. “Liz Taylor and I have a very close relationship.”

Denis O’Hare — Elizabeth Taylor (works in the Blue Parrot Bar) — Yes, Denis O’Hare is playing Kathy Bates’ bestie this season and he really got into this role. “I’m not actually playing Elizabeth Taylor, but I’m playing a person who is inspired by the awesomeness of things like Butterfield 8 and Cleopatra,” O’Hare said. “I shaved my head for the part — and other body parts.”

Angela Bassett — Ramona Royale — an actress who doesn’t live in the hotel but she visits there quite frequently and gets mixed up with more than a few of the guests. “I have a very strong, real, lasting relationship with (Lady Gaga’s) character, so I’m sure I’ll be at odds with (Finn Wittrock) down there,” Bassett said. “My character is this fabulous actress of the day.”

Finn Wittrock — Tristan Duffy — a male model and addict who is always looking for the next best high. He finds his greatest addiction in Lady Gaga’s character. “We have a lot to do together,” Wittrock said. “She sees all of me.”

Matt Bomer — Donovan — A resident of the hotel who mixes it up with a few of the characters including Lady Gaga, Kathy Bates and Finn Wittrock and apparently he’s got more than a few issues coming this season with the women of ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’.
“He has very interesting relationships with the lady folk in his life,” Bomer said. “I’ll leave it at that.”

Wes Bentley — Detective John Lowell — He goes undercover at the hotel to look into some very dark, twisted and grisly murders.

Chloe Sevigny — Alex Lowell — She’s John’s wife, a doctor and a mother who is dealing with a great tragedy that’s affected her family recently.

Cheyenne Jackson — Will Drake — A fashion icon who looks to reinvent himself by moving from New York to Los Angeles and of course all hell breaks loose once he checks into this hotel.

Sarah Paulson — Hypodermic Sally — Paulson breaks bad this season with her turn as Sally, who hates Kathy Bates’ character in “a rather ancient way for reasons that will be revealed quickly” according to the actress. She also mixes it up with Wes Bentley’s character in a rather dark way this season.

Several more characters will be revealed in the opening episode and throughout the season with Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Darren Criss, Max Greenfield and others joining the show.

Speaking of Max Greenfield — his character wasn’t revealed but his fate on the show was already sealed during the press event on Friday. According to Murphy, part of Greenfield’s reason for doing the show was for this reason and he’s all the way in leading up to the show.

“He plays an addict who checks into the hotel and tangles with Sarah Paulson,” Murphy said. “I said (to Max), ‘I have a feeling that you can and want to do something really fucked up.’ And he said, ‘How did you know?’ So he cut off his beautiful hair and dyed it. And I think he’s lost 30 pounds. Yesterday, I talked to him and his waist I think is down to a 27. So he’s really committed to it.”

Murphy also stated that the new season of ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ will be very much in tune with the first season — ‘Murder House’ — although it won’t be quite as claustrophobic where everything takes place within those four walls.

“This season harkens back to the first season and is much more rooted in the honest, primal fears as the first season was,” Murphy said. “While I feel like the first season trapped you in that house, the second season was very oppressive in the asylum, (this season) the horror is sneaking out of the hotel.”

And finally the debut date for ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ was revealed — Wednesday night, October 7 at 10pm ET on FX