I had the chance to talk to Naomi Grossman and Barbara Tarbuck during an extremely spooky sleepover at the abandoned (and supposedly haunted) Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles as part of a kickoff for the DVD release of “American Horror Story: Asylum.” Needless to say, we were probably all a little unnerved by the setting.
While “AHS” was shot on sound stages and not at the abandoned hospital, the location definitely provided a vibe befitting the second season of the series. Dark, dreary and dirty, the hospital was abandoned in 1991, though rooms (and probably a lot of the patient files left behind) date back to the turn of the 20th century. Plenty of other film crews have come through this location, many of whom reported seeing ghosts and hearing voices. For the “lucky” fans who attended the sleepover, they were invited to solve a puzzle before 6:00 a.m. in order to free themselves from the grounds. I’m sure if someone had completely freaked out and wanted to leave, they could have, but kudos to FX for making everything as spooky as possible. Attendees were blindfolded, lectured by a stern-looking nun and faced stern-looking orderlies and white-lab-coated doctors around every corner. And if they bumped into a spirit, so be it.
Still, Grossman (Pepper the Pinhead), Tarbuck (Mother Superior) and I did manage to chat a bit about the show itself. I asked them what it was like meeting fans so devoted to their most recent work, and it turns out, even if you’re remembered as being a pinhead with a top knot and buck teeth, it’s still pretty cool.
Are you going to buy “American Horror Story: Asylum”?
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