With the latest season of American Horror Story in full swing, our attention has been firmly placed on the show’s jaw-droppingly gorgeous star Matt Bomer.
After gaining fans across the world as a male stripper in Magic Mike, and proving his acting talent in the heartbreaking HIV/AIDS drama The Normal Heart, Matt signed up as bloodsucking heartthrob Donovan in the weird and wonderful world of FOX’s American Horror Story: Hotel.
We sat down with Matt to talk life in the Hotel Cortez, horror movies, and bisexual blood orgies with Lady Gaga…
American Horror Story has been renewed for a sixth season, would you be open to coming back? If so, what type of character would you like to play next? Yeah, definitely. I would love to be back. I think I would probably just trust the powers that be, to take whatever I was given and enjoy that.
I think we need to see you as a villain next. Alright, tell Ryan Murphy!
You’ve come from what can be described as a traditional TV background, before you went headlong into this. American Horror Story is a new path for you. Does it feel different shooting it to other types of productions? You know, I came into the show wanting to work with all these incredible actors who I have been fans of for so long, because I’ve been watching the show since it first started airing. And I really am actually more star struck by the creatives behind the show now. I mean, look at the scene design around you right now. I’ve never seen an interior like this, the Countess’ penthouse, it’s some of the most incredible interiors I’ve ever seen. The wardrobe department, the writers – every job is different that way. But it’s been really nice to come into a place where they really trust you as an actor and give your creative process room to breathe. And they have the time and the funds to let that happen.
There’s the Lady Gaga that we see on TV, and then you guys get to spend time with her off screen, what are some of your favourite moments with her? I mean, she’s so relatable, and she’s able to make herself so accessible that I love all our time here in these safely confined places, where she can just bring her artistry to the table and you get to work with each other purely as artists. It’s only when we’re on location or maybe somewhere else that I’m going, ‘oh my god, yeah, that’s like the biggest star on the planet’. She’s such a committed actress that when you’re in the scene I’m usually just marvelling at the acting she’s doing. And I’ve had similar moments where she’ll change things up, take the take in such an interesting way that it really keeps you on your toes as an actor. So, I just love her. I couldn’t love her more.
What do you attribute the international appeal of the show to? It’s been so popular overseas… You know, it’s interesting, because even though it’s called American Horror Story, there are elements of the show that are universal, that aren’t just particularly a part of the American fabric. We all like to be scared. I remember being a fan of horror movies from a young age, far too young. I saw Nightmare on Elm Street a lot earlier than I should have. But there’s something about that feeling of fear that makes you appreciate life a little bit more after you watch it. I feel that’s universal, and certainly a lot of the themes on the show are.
Have you had any strange encounters or funny moments with fans since the show started airing? I love seeing people’s pictures of American Horror Story costumes for Halloween. I got a real kick out of that because I’ve never been a part of something – maybe Magic Mike, I don’t know, I didn’t see, and that’d be a really cold Halloween – but it was really interesting to see people take the characters they’d seen onscreen, whoever it was, and put their spin on it and to have their night of Halloween be a celebration of the show. I thought that was something really special and interesting.
Did you do any research into the mythology of vampirism or were you approaching it more from the addict side? Yeah, I think the addict was more important for me to understand, that mentality and what he was going through at the time when he did overdose. Because a certain part of him is frozen in that immediate post-adolescence and he never really is able to get past it. Even though he’s lived another 20 years he’s still struggling with the same conflicts. He’s still having these issues with his mother in the lobby.
When I first heard the word vampire I thought, ‘oh well, okay, what’s this going to be?’ But once I understood that it was much more about this blood virus that was passed on and that they were very mortal people still struggling with very mortal issues, they just had to be smart to survive. They had to take a lot of self-protective measures to survive and some of the issues that they had 20 years ago they’re still struggling with today.
When you get the scripts, do you ever wonder where the writers come up with all this horrific stuff? Every day, every time I get a script. You do have a wider creative license on a show like this, I think, and that’s really liberating as an actor. And then on top of that, you know, whatever comes in with the script, this is a writer’s medium. We get action to cut but they are, in essence, the deities. They are telling the story. They are pulling the strings and the writers on the show are so talented and bright and it’s so clear to me that they put such a great deal of thought into every character and in every scene. So, it never feels like too much.
What makes this season stand out for you? Is it the most scary one, the most glamorous one? It’s a very relatable environment. To me, it sort of does hearken back to season one in Murder House, and it being an environment that we’ve all been in before. We haven’t all been in an asylum or in a coven. But we’ve all been in a hotel where our well-being and our welfare is looked after by other people and we’re not in control of our immediate environments. And anybody could – theoretically or hypothetically – come knocking on your door at 3:00 in the morning. So, to me, that’s an immediate fear.
Have your kids seen you in your Donovan get up? No, but it’s interesting because you don’t realise what a huge cultural figure you’re working with. I haven’t said anything about Lady Gaga to them, just that I’m working with this girl. They’ve seen pictures that we’ve taken that are candid. They just think it’s an actress, and someone from their class at school has told them. So, they come home now and go ‘what’s Lady Gaga like?’ They don’t know who she is necessarily, it’s just playground lore. So I’m like, ‘oh, my God, am I cool now?’ But, no, they haven’t seen any of it. But I have one son who’s very creative and he’ll come up and go, ‘So I think I have this figured out.’ He’s seven. He’s like, ‘you’re both vampires and you’re in a room together and you’re in love and then someone opens the door and you disappear and turn into bats’. And I’m like, ‘yes, how did you know? There’s not a bloody four way. Come on. That’s exactly what happens. Bats.’
On the bloody four way… that kind of sets the tone for the rest of the season. How did you and Lady Gaga prepare for it? You know, it’s another testament to Stefani that she had Finn and I over to her house before we started filming so we could get to know her and feel comfortable around her and we weren’t having to show up naked for the first time saying, ‘hi, nice to meet you, let’s have a four-way’. She was great and so down to earth that by the time we got to set everybody was relatable.
A big part of the job on that was breaking the ice with the other two actors and making them feel as comfortable as they needed to be. But you can only really prepare so much, and then you have to leave it to the genius of Ryan Murphy. We were just committing to it fully and it was just happening in the moment. He was following the steady-cam around and going ‘do this now, now go down on her, and now go back to her’ – so you’re just kind of really having to be in the moment and just trust each other. It was actually a really unique experience. It sounds really terrifying, but there was also something really fun and liberating about it.
How long did it take to shoot? And how messy was it? I think the best aspect of it is that we were covered in, you know – the blood is largely corn syrup based, so it’s very sticky, and we were in between takes and they’d be like, ‘all right, we’re going to reset the cameras, guys, lay down’. And they would flick a giant plastic tarp over us. So we were laying there like veal chops, the four of us, with a clear tarp over us waiting for them to call and then they’d rip it off of us and be like, ‘all right, go’. And we’d just go right in. And that went on for maybe three hours or something. Time, there was no time. Time was not relevant. I didn’t care about time. It was not, you know – it was all relative.
What was the small talk like? We told stories. We told intimate stories, I’m sure. We did. Not about, like, sex, but just things that, you know, it was like we were just trading stories by the campfire. We just happened to be blood soaked and covered in tarp.
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