John Carroll Lynch on That Heartbreaking Choice and Trusting Ryan Murphy’s Vision (Exclusive)

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for The Beauty episode 7, “Beautiful Living Rooms.”]

The title medicine did wonders again in Wednesday’s (February 18) new episode of The Beauty. This time, Bryon (Ashton Kutcher) made an offer a desperate father, Meyer (John Carroll Lynch), and mother, Juliana (Kelli O’Hara), simply could not refuse: He could save their daughter, Joey (Kaylee Halko), who was dying of late-stage progeria, give them the drug, and set them up with millions of dollars in exchange for the man, an FBI supervisor, agreeing to take his agents off the case and let him do what he will with Jordan (Jess Alexander) and Cooper (Evan Peters).

Though he hesitated at first, we soon saw the Assassin (Anthony Ramos) and Jeremy (Jeremy Pope) attacking and capturing the feds at gunpoint, which meant he ultimately caved. Then, we got to see Joey’s parents transform into the DNA-modified, spryer versions of themselves before they were reintroduced to their Joey — now free of her terminal illness — living in a new state of bliss that was previously impossible.

For John Carroll Lynch, taking on this guest role was a no-brainer; he’s a Murphy-verse regular in American Horror Story and thus trusts the mega-producer’s vision … even if it means he’s gotta thrash on the floor in a pile of goo in the process. Here, the actor breaks down this emotionally evocative episode.

You have a lot of experience, obviously, working with Ryan Murphy in the past. At this point, what’s the process of you joining his projects? Does he just call you? Or do you ever even hesitate?

John Carroll Lynch: Well, he calls, and I say, “Yes.” That’s essentially it. I have found that saying yes to his requests always pays off in terms of, first of all, the degree of difficulty of the things that he asks me to do, but also the emotional payoff of doing them. I’m talking about it in terms of how the story unfolds, what the acting is, and that was true here in The Beauty, as well as anything else he’s ever asked me to do. It’s always a leap of faith. It’s always to a bigger universe than I can imagine. It’s always to a more powerfully grotesque as well as funny place that I can imagine. His worlds are bolder and more beautiful and scarier than I can imagine when I say the yes, and it’s always been a great pleasure and a humbling experience to do. That’s pretty much it.

In this series, you worked with a woman who has progeria, Kaylee Halko. How was the experience for you, navigating the disease that she’s living with and what the implications are for what the storyline is?

Her bravery to do something she’s never done before, to act, to fulfill a dream of hers was incredible. We all have a single life to live. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, it was quite focusing. When the doctor walks in with the cancer face, you’re like, “Oh, I have cancer.” And prostate cancer, in the way that I’ve experienced it, it is nothing compared to the day-to-day risks that she takes in her life to simply live her life. So to be face to face with someone so brave, to play with her in her first time acting, I think, was a great pleasure, and something that was incredibly powerful… Because real things — this is one of the things that Ryan worked with in Freak Show as well — his insistence on working with real people with these challenges, with these worlds, with these experiences, and you’re asked as an actor to meet that truth, and that’s a really expensive, weird word to say, but it’s a really expensive experience. Because I live in — when I’m doing a part, I’m living in an imaginary world where you’re working in imaginary circumstances. But in this case, the imaginary circumstances for me are absolutely real for her, and so I’m asked to step up my game to a deeper and more challenging level. That’s how I experienced it.

Not only her, but also getting to work with someone I admire so much as Kelli O’Hara, and Ashton was terrific. And I mean, so, so interesting. And his tone, his understanding of the tone of the piece, was so pure. It was really — this is what I mean by saying yes to Ryan: You’re going to have an experience as an actor that you don’t expect and that challenges you in new and different ways and leaves a mark. That’s an artist you want to go back to.

I loved the exchange that you’re referring to when your character and his wife get the offer that they pretty much can’t refuse, as far as the treatment for their daughter. But knowing that this thing kind of spirals out of control as a result of his decision, do you think your character experiences regret or that they kind of go full into the mindset of this was just what I had to do?

Anybody who has children will tell you, they’ll sell every stick of furniture, they’ll cash in everything they own, and they’ll trade their own well-being for the safety of their child. That’s the decision these two people make. Does the risk end up paying off? The interesting thing about this individual episode is that the devil comes to your house and offers you a bargain for your soul. In this episode, the devil pays off.

That doesn’t make it less dangerous… That just simply doesn’t make it better. The fact that the devil actually pays it off, in a way, makes it worse.

Eric Liebowitz / FX

Yeah, it’s definitely a moral conundrum, but at the same time, it’s completely relatable, why they decide what they do.

It’s an interesting thing… What else are you gonna do? The other thing is to hold up to … I think it’s not dissimilar to things that are happening now in all kinds of circumstances. You’re given a choice, and the difference is kind of a moral and ethical code or whatever’s on the other side.

And so much of the moral, ethical code starts to feel thin and hollow, especially in the circumstances that these characters are given. You’ll betray yourself for your child. I think that’s a true statement, and that’s what he does.

On another note, there’s a lot of emotional resonance to the role, but also there’s a little bit of a physical element, too, in the transformation. What was that like, to get into the goop and do the stretching and all the things that you have to do physically?

This is the other side of working on Ryan Murphy stuff is you end up doing things like [this]. Look, in Freak Show, I spent every episode in a silk bag in the swamps. That was not comfortable. With Benjamin, with that character in 1984 again… It’s always something that is physically challenging because the worlds are so [wild], and that was true here, and you just feel so silly doing it. It was so silly. It was funny. We were doing it — Kelly and I were being shot at the same time, so I never saw what she was doing until I saw the episode, and I found I was so impressed. I was like, “Why didn’t I think of that?” It was just amazingly physically challenging and also feeling like you just have to embrace the silliness of it, the ridiculousness and go with it, and then they end up cutting it beautifully, and the effects and everything make it look really cool. And you just have to trust that that’s the case. These are all amazing trust exercises, but physically, it’s not something you’re not sore after — rolling around the floor, throwing your body around, doing contortions, and stuff like that. I’m getting old. It’s not easy.

You mentioned some of your AHS roles — Twisty, the Clown, Mr. Jingles — these aren’t redeemable characters the way that your guy in The Beauty is, so when you’re acting in these roles, especially in Ryan Murphy shows, do you have to find a backstory or a human element to them, or do you not need that?

He’s always written it. They’ve always written it. It’s there in the words. It’s there in the story… When I first joined American Horror Story was Freak Show, and all monsters are human, and I believe that I see that in the world. It’s an observation that’s clear and true to me. And each of the characters that you’re describing, especially to some degree Benjamin and Mr. Jingles, he finds redemption in the story of 1984. How he finds it, the way he finds it out, what the cost of that redemption is for other people, is always problematic, and it’s certainly true of Twisty. The thing that was funny about that character, interestingly, is that all he wanted was to make people laugh. That’s all he wanted. He was just ill-fit for the purpose at the end of the day.

I think that in this case, people who do these jobs, ethically, the job that Meyer is in, the people who do that have a sense of purpose and a sense of ethos that is difficult for everyone around them to deal with. I think they have a righteousness about them. They’re not necessarily wrong about that righteousness, and it’s almost I would prefer that, as opposed to calculating and cynical in terms of jobs. It’s, once you’ve betrayed that, who are you? And even though the emotional reasoning behind it is pure, it’s like, “What are you now? If you’re not that, what are you and I?” That’s a question I think that Ryan is always asking in all of these pieces, is, “Once you’ve swung past the buoy of morality, who are you?”

I know that you haven’t been announced for AHS Season 13, but do you have any hopes, just as a fan of the series, of what they might be doing bringing back all these longtimers?

That ensemble is ridiculously talented. I adore working with… all of them. They’re all terrific and and to spend any time with any of them, as far as acting is concerned, is always a joy. So, my hope for the 13th season is that getting the band back together provides, well, I believe, will provide a storyline and an experience for the fans of that show that is the reason why they showed up in the first place. And the reason why it worked so well is because it’s a company of actors. You’re on board with whoever they’re going to play. You know however they show up, you’re going to see where they go. And I started in a company — I was at the Guthrie Theater with a company of actors — and it was part of the joy of the audience for them to come and see, “Oh, who are they going to play this time?” And I think that’s part of the joy of it. And how amazing is it that you get Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters? I mean… who wouldn’t want that cast?

The Beauty, Wednesdays, 9/8c, FX