Let no one say Lily Rabe isn’t one hell of an actress. Literally. As Sister Mary Eunice in the second season of “American Horror Story,” she played an innocent nun who is taken over by the devil. At PaleyFest, she talked to HitFix about getting into character and why she wants to play an action hero.
The actress, who’s the daughter of actress Jill Clayburgh and playwright David Rabe, has heady credentials — including a Tony nod for her portrayal of Portia in “The Merchant of Venice.” Thus, it’s no surprise she was a gripping and convincing nun-turned-devil on “AHS.” She admits that the challenge of the role was figuring out not how to play the devil, but how to play the the nun — and from there, the possession “just happened.”
Rabe also talked about much she loved doing the physically demanding stunts required of her character — and how she wouldn’t mind doing an action film, either. Hey, if she can tackle the grim job of playing Satan, playing a super hero should be a piece of cake for her. “I am nuts about doing my own stunts… I said, please let me do it all. And it was a really great ab workout.”
During the PaleyFest panel, Rabe joked about getting to have sex with the Monsignor (Joseph Fiennes) after Jessica Lange admitted it was the one thing she wanted to do on the show but didn’t get the chance.
Rabe also talked about her latest hobby — guitar. She jokingly accused co-star Sarah Paulson of absolutely despising her lack of talent, which Paulson didn’t exactly deny. Because Rabe would practice with banjo-picker Zachary Quinto, it turns out they played “The Rainbow Connection” a lot more than Paulson would have liked. I guess the devil just got into them.