One of the most secretive shows of recent memory, Grotesquerie made its debut on FX on September 25. The first two episodes play into the Ryan Murphy style of horror. Not only does it feature highly sexual storytelling, but the violence proves wildly deranged. Earlier in the week, FandomWire attended a press conference with the cast and Ryan Murphy to dig deeper into Grotesquerie and its origins.
Uncovering parts of the Grotesquerie puzzle
The series has been shrouded in secret, so many present wanted to hear more about its origins and themes. Ryan Murphy jumped in early. “I would call Grotesquerie a horror, thriller, drama, in that order. One of the things I also love is that it’s following a serial killer; it’s procedural. It is also about a family, with Niecy [Nash-Betts] and Courtney [B. Vance] and Raven [Goodwin], which I love, and Travis Kelce is a part of that family at some point.”
Murphy works in horror because of its ability to break its audience from passive watching. “It demands that you have a reaction. And most of the time, you do. I feel that about also romantic comedies— anything that makes you feel love, fear… something.” As the director, writer, and showrunner, he hopes audiences can use his shows as an outlet. “We live in a very anxious world, and I think when you’re watching a horror show like Grotesquerie, you can put all of the anxieties you’re feeling into a box.”
Of course, Murphy also believes in horror’s real-world applicability. “Horror is good versus evil, which is a very profound sentiment I think we’re dealing with in the world a lot right now. It’s a way to explore those feelings.” While he does not elaborate on specifics, the sense of unease in culture needs little context. “Horror just really puts an order in the world, and we all want to live in a world of order, not chaos. I think that is ultimately what Grotesquerie is about.”
Murphy’s choice to keep Grotesquerie under wraps was new for the producer. “I really kept this under lock and key. We didn’t share the scripts.” To play into the horror sensibilities, Murphy wanted “twists galore every week. That was important to me.” Unlike other Murphy shows, which drop their entire season at once, Grotesquerie wants its audience to follow it week-to-week. “Let people experience the story as it unfolds. I’ve not done that a lot in my career, but this is something I wanted to do.”
Ryan Murphy wrote the whole series and rewrote the screenplays as talent came on board.
Given Murphy’s penchant for horror, with American Horror Story, Monster, Scream Queens, and American Horror Stories, he had to find a unique lens for Grotesquerie. Murphy put a lot of himself directly into the series, including his creative mind. “I wrote all of it at once. It was a very personal experience,” Murphy explains. He brought on two other writers – Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken – to ensure it was in the best place possible.
“It was kind of, for me, a very personal piece. It was a meditation on what I think is going on in the world and what we’re all going through. How we’re feeling like this existential question, ‘Are these end times?’ – and if so, what can we do to fight and keep our humanity?”
Murphy recognizes that he’s often focused on obscure and frightening characters, which makes the dread his characters feel more palpable. “I think if you look at the canon of my work, I always have an interest in bogeymen. I was interested in creating a five-year-long odyssey for Niecy and Courtney, where we’re following one of the biggest badass villains of all time. Everybody is a suspect, and we’re trying to figure out who it is and what they want.”
“I also love the process of casting it [Grotesquerie], which was very different for me. When I cast Niecy [Nash-Betts] and Courtney [B. Vance] and- and Raven [Goodwin] and Nick [Nicholas Alexander Chavez] and Lesley [Manville] and Micaela [Diamond], I would do three drafts of all of the scripts to really pinpoint it.”
As he continued to add talent, Murphy made adjustments. “It is not just to the actors I was working with, what their talents were, but what I wanted as a fan to see them do. I rewrote all of those parts for these specific actors with their input and advice.” Murphy has a long career of hits, and little will change his stature in the industry. Instead, Murphy wants to challenge himself. “I’m not interested in the outcome, I’m interested in the process.”
This allowed Murphy to highlight an hour spent on set with an actor who got the shot immediately. Because of that, they tinkered with her delivery and eventually created a very different experience than what was on the page. “I think, on this show, it was much more fluid and written with love.”
Re-teaming with Niecy Nash and Courtney B. Vance was Murphy’s priority.
Two of the stars of Grotesquerie have Emmys sitting on their mantles thanks to Ryan Murphy. Both Niecy Nash-Betts and Courtney B. Vance had decades of acclaim, it was Murphy who got them over the top. On Grotesquerie, they do not just star on the series – they executive produce it as well. This could result in undue pressure on an actor, but as Vance puts “It’s just more opportunity to collaborate.” Vance continues, “This work we do is about people. I think when we lose sight of the fact, that “what do you think” and ‘what do you feel,’ we get in trouble.”
Through the collaboration with Murphy, Vance felt he had an ideal creative partner. “Ryan [Murphy] has the ideas but he’s smart enough and big enough to ask ‘What does he think about what I said? Does that work for you? Does it work?’ And if it don’t work, he’ll say “Okay, let me go back and think about it.” I so love that.” Nash-Betts agrees. “I love being a part of the creative process. You’re [gesturing to Murphy] an amazing collaborator and I love that you hear. That you listen. That you lean in, and you feel like your actors add value. That’s a safe space to be in, so thank you.”
Vance and Nash-Betts were excited to work together as well. As Nash-Betts tells Vance about hearing he would be cast opposite her, he cracks a smile. Nash excitedly tells the story “”As soon as Ryan [Murphy] told me you [Vance] were playing Marshall Tryon…” Vance cracks a joke, “You were ready to leave?” Nash-Betts laughs it off. “I immediately trusted it. I’ve worked with you before and understand the work ethic.”
The Tryon family came together thanks to Nash-Betts and Vance’s producer-work
Murphy tells us about Nash-Betts’ role as a producer early in the project. “When we were casting the role of “Merritt” that Raven [Goodwin] plays, I was like, ‘Well, Niecy, who do you want? What are you looking for?’ She was very involved in all of those auditions.” To Murphy, this would help the Tryon family gel quickly. “I think it led to a deeper connection because somebody chose you. Almost all of the lead actors on my shows have executive producer credits for that reason.”
Nash-Betts tells us about one moment they had together. “It was so funny because early on, I sent you [Murphy] a picture.” Nash-Betts chuckles and gestures to Raven and Vance. “It was me, you, and Raven [Goodwin], all in a line. I was like, ‘Don’t this make a beautiful family, Ryan?’” Without skipping a beat, Murphy confirms she actually sent the image.
While Grotesquerie features serial killers, it features a lot of time at home. Vance jokes “She’s [Nash-Betts] dealing with demons and nuns and priests and fathers and oh my. Then, she comes home, and she’s dealing with worse.” Raven Goodwin also gives credit to Nash-Betts. “Mom [“Lois Tryon”] is—what did I say earlier, she’s infected in every aspect of her life—emotionally, spiritually, mentally. To come home and try to nurture the unnurturable, trying to help people who clearly need to help themselves, is all the battle. So, it was a joy.”
Nash-Betts thinks the family is even more complicated. While Lois presents as successful, she’s struggling inside. “I feel like, at some point, Lois was a public success but a private failure. Some of that started to seep over into her work.” As Lois struggles to keep her family together, she cannot simply pass the buck. “It’s a mess all around but a delicious mess.” Goodwin agrees. “All around, all around.”
The Travis Kelce casting was unexpected, but after meeting the football player, Murphy saw the fit.
One of the most surprising arrivals to Murphy’s ensemble was future NFL Hall of Famer (and Taylor Swift’s current beau) Travis Kelce. Grotesquerie gives Kelce one of his first speaking roles outside of cameo work and features heavily in the trailers. Kelce approached Murphy to voice for his work. “He had a conversation with me, and he liked my work. Travis was interested in getting into acting. We were just talking about that and his future.”
After they finished the discussion, Murphy told Kelce he’d keep him in mind, but Kelce pressed the issue. “He said, ‘No, I want to do it now. I have three months now – do you have anything?’ We were just starting the pre-production of Grotesquerie, and I said, ‘Well, I have this one part, and if you’re interested,’ – and he said, ‘I would love that.” Suddenly, the NFL superstar found a home with Murphy’s team.
It would be easy to write off Kelce as a football player posing as an actor, but the jump has worked in the past. Murphy believes it comes down to personality. “I always have a motto in my work. A star is a star is a star. It doesn’t matter what field you’re a star in—if you have that charisma, you are going to bring it to whatever you do.”
That charisma burst through, and Kelce brought his NFL-level commitment to the show. Murphy began gushing over Travis in the role, saying, “Niecy and I just instantly loved him and let him know he could not fail. He really was amazing.” To prepare, Kelce worked with an acting coach and ensured he was off-book when he arrived. “He was so professional and committed,” Murphy notes. “He kept saying to me, ‘I’m real coachable – coach me’ – so I did. He’s just the kindest, sweetest, and everything you think about him is true.”
Murphy finally got to work with Lesley Manville.
A pseudo-antagonist to Niecy Nash, Lesley Manville gets a showy part in the early episodes of Grotesquerie. It’s not only a very bold character but one whose brash sayings will undeniably cause controversy. Yet it also represented a long-time coming for the collaboration between Murphy and Manville. Manville believes it’s been at least a decade when asked how long they’d been circling each other. “It was 10 or 12 years ago that we met. Finally, there it was.” Murphy explains, “I’d always wanted to work with Lesley. And I really wrote this role for her specifically. I guess I came at it from a fanboy approach.”
Manville agrees that Murphy’s willingness to collaborate was a big reason why she took the role. “Well, listen, it always has to start with scripts, doesn’t it? I was really flattered and impressed by the way he tailored it for me to play Nurse Redd. Isn’t that the best possible way to work?” This also required Manville to be flexible for Murphy, but the two created something new in Manville’s career. “She [Nurse Redd] is such an extraordinary character. I don’t want to get out of bed and play the same character every week. This ticked the box in so many ways.”
Manville, an iconic actress in her own right, loved working with this talented ensemble. “The way we shot it, for me, reminded me of a theater rehearsal. Practically all of my stuff was with Niecy and Courtney. I felt every day we were there, we could just go in and see what came. And mostly, it was pretty damn good.” With so much talent on set, Manville reminded everyone how unique the opportunity was. “If you give actors – good actors – some rope, you know we usually don’t squander it.”
One of Murphy’s new collaborators is Nicholas Alexander Chavez. The young actor not only played Lyle Menendez in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, but he’s in Grotesquerie as Father Charlie. He booked the projects back-to-back, giving him a double dose of Murphy’s writing. “There was no time in between, and there was no decompression,” according to Chavez. “The benefit of playing “Father Charlie” is that I could just follow my impulses. I just trusted my instincts, and everyone around me enabled me to make bold choices.”
For Chavez, working with Murphy allowed him a unique opportunity as an actor. “Ryan is a world builder. It was interesting because I got to work with him on two very, very different worlds.” Of course, Monsters is based on very real-world events. Thus, the series relies on the interpretation of these moments. Meanwhile, Grotesquerie “was an entirely new world where the only limitations were our creativity.” Chavez credits Murphy for pushing the show into dark, unique moments. “It was interesting to be thrown into the depths of what Ryan is capable of coming up with.”
Micaela Diamond joins a legacy of nuns in Murphy projects.
While some nuns sing to Austrian children or try to hide out from the mob, in horror, nuns play a far different role. Michaela Diamond joins her first Ryan Murphy show with that baggage. “I think audiences have been tortured by nuns for a very long time. Of course, there’s the Ryan Murphy nun-ography, the Magdalene Laundries, and Doubt. I think the challenge of it was just figuring out who this one was.”
Sister Megan writes for a smaller paper, and covering true crime brings more readers to the publication. This also allows her to be crass. “They’re sometimes pure and innocent but can end up quite corrupt and hypocritical. I think the horror nun genre cracks open the question of ‘If nuns have trouble being good, what happens to the rest of us?’ I think playing a nun, you can justify many choices when you’re given a Ryan Murphy show to play in.”
You can catch new episodes of Grotesquerie every Wednesday at 9pm ET/8pm CT on FX. Grotesquerie is also available to stream on Hulu the next day.
