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As you might expect from any character on American Horror Story, Kathy Bates’ Madame Delphine LaLaurie is evil. She loves torturing her slaves in increasingly gruesome ways and regularly spews hatred all around. But the complexity of the character and her arc within the series’ third season, Coven, is part of why Bates loves playing her.
For those not familiar with Coven’s storyline, Delphine is a 1830s high society Creole. Given immortality by Angela Bassett’s character as the real-life voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, Delphine is captured first by Fiona (Jessica Lange) and later by Marie. All the while she spews her racist hate and eventually gets a taste of her own wicked medicine.
In an interview with Collider, Bates said she enjoyed figuring out the motivation for someone like Delphine, who is loosely based on a real-life historic figure. “The main thing that daunted me, at the beginning, was, “What makes this woman so evil?” I tried all kinds of ways to understand….At some point, I think she probably got off on the power. For our show, we’re doing crazy shit anyway, so you don’t have to make sense of it.”
While the actress confessed that she knew the series had a reputation for “pushing the limits,” she was still surprised by some of the “horrific” scenes they shot. This may or may not include her character’s heinous torture or (SPOILER) Delphine having her head chopped off. Not to worry though; the head is still sentient meaning audiences will get more of Bates when American Horror Story: Coven returns to FX on Wednesday, January 8.
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