[Didn't know she was Jill Clayburgh's daughter]
Excerpt from interview in Times Picayune, NOLA
http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/201...oven_re_2.html
Lily Rabe’s character Misty Day, burned for her powers of life-restoration in the premiere episode of “American Horror Story: Coven,” returned in episode two to police bayou gator-harvesting and care for Zoe’s patchwork boyfriend, Kylenstein. Day’s house, actually a built set in the “Coven” soundstage complex in New Orleans, reveals the character’s strong affinity for
Stevie Nicks.
Concert posters and even a vintage 8-track tape decorate the set. The story link may have come from Rabe’s personal appreciation for the Fleetwood Mac singer, whose 1975 song “Rhiannon” was based on the legend of a Welsh witch.
“I am obsessed with Stevie Nicks,” Rabe said during a recent visit to “Coven’s” set. “So it was a wonderful when they first told me. I thought it was a joke, because I just learned the guitar. I'm terrible but I am learning, and I started last season. The only songs I wanted to play, because they’re sort of in my register, were Stevie Nicks songs. I'd been playing the songs really badly in my trailer.”
I asked: So, is it possible if not probable that “Coven” co-creator Ryan Murphy (“Nip/Tuck,” “Glee,” the earlier two seasons of “American Horror Story” anthology) learned of Rabe’s passion for Nicks and wrote it into the character?
“I don't know,” Rabe said. “Nothing could have made me happier. I love everything about her. She's incredible and she informs so much of who Misty is. Misty is really isolated when she comes back, and Stevie is her biggest relationship, really, at the start of episode two. The person, those lyrics, who that woman is to her, is really what keeps her going. (What) inspires her and informs all of her decisions is this love of this woman. It's a total love affair that she has with her, so it's really fun.”
The daughter of actress Jill Clayburgh and playwright David Rabe, Lily Rabe is a founding member of the unique “American Horror Story” acting company, with some players returning as different characters each season.
“Something that’s so wonderfully unique, obviously, about the show is that it’s like doing repertory theater,” she said. “That's been the experience for me. All three years I've said yes knowing nothing but the character’s name, I think. First year, I knew her name. I said to Ryan, ‘Nora? Yes.’ Second year, same thing. This year I don't think I had a name when I signed on.
“I think Ryan and the writers and everyone behind the show (are) really supporting these incredible roles and particularly such amazingly rich roles for multidimensional women. You're never going to get stuck. It's very scary to say a blind ‘Yes’ to somebody. I can’t think of very many people I’d do that with. But you know you're not going to be stuck playing a stereotype, and that it will be exciting and that you’ll also be working with these other great actors, some of whom I have been working with all three years. Some of them are new, and always great.”
Another reason Rabe can give Murphy and the show a confident script-unseen “Yes” every season is that she knows that the stories beneath the shifting, over-the-top horror tales told each season have ambitions to transcend the genre.
“Ryan has an amazing ability of saying, ‘This is the world we’re living in’ and then putting all the characters in that show in the same world and letting the audience into that world,” Rabe said. “Virtually no one could do it better than he can. He does it with all of his shows so differently.
“In this show specifically, there is something heightened about it, which can be part of the fun. You really get to let it rip. I would also argue that something I love about the show is that there's a real opportunity, even with these characters, who are supernatural or extraordinary or greater-than or larger-than, to tell the truth.
“That’s why you care about the characters. In Ryan’s shows, the heart of all of it is something very truthful and human, I believe, both as viewer and a fan of his, and also now working for him for three years.”
“Coven” is the first extended residency in New Orleans for Rabe, whose prior visits have been centered around Jazz Fest.
“Living down here is a totally different experience,” said Rabe, who’s been enthusiastically exploring the local music scene in her down-time. “For my character, it's really been delicious and sweet. We’ve been able to shoot on location a lot in the heat, and I love that. It's fun when you're sweating for real and you don't have to spray it on.
“I think there's such an intense and amazing energy in the city that really works beautifully with the show. It does a lot of the work, really.”