SciFi Mafia was lucky enough to get a question in to the very gifted Denis O’Hare last week, after his exceptional performance on American Horror Story as Larry Harvey, aka Burn Man. He is also well-known to True Blood fans as Russell Edgington, which prompted our question about his work with horror. We already adored his work; now we adore him as well for how he feels about our favorite kind of television.
SciFi Mafia: Good morning. Thanks so much for being on this call. American Horror Story is absolutely my favorite new show of the season, and your work is elemental in that. What is it that you like and dislike about genre work like American Horror Story and True Blood?
Denis O’Hare: I guess I didn’t even know the word genre until I did True Blood. That’s how naïve I was, and I didn’t realize that there was a point of view about certain types of TV. And so I guess I found it disappointing that there is a segment of the critical community that looks at genre as something that is separate, less than. And especially when it comes to something like the awards I find it kind of baffling that True Blood has been snubbed so many times given the incredible range of acting they have on there, I mean, incredible storytelling and the incredible production values. So I guess I’ve been a little shocked at the prejudice that exists even by having a word called genre.
What I love about it is that it, like sci-fi, is truly imaginative. And I guess I’m a kid at heart in that when I go for entertainment. I want to be totally transported. I want to go somewhere else, I want to encounter different things, different beings, different universes. And so I love that aspect of being able to play those things in both True Blood and in American Horror Story.
AMEN. Could he have given a better answer? Could we love him any more? We don’t see how. Thanks again to Denis O’Hare for the work, for taking the time for our question, and for the absolutely eloquent response.
American Horror Story airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.
True Blood returns for season 5 in 2012 on HBO.
