Back in July, thanks to a leaked call sheet, it was highly suggested that not just the actor, but the character “Pepper” would be reprising her role in American Horror Story: Freak Show. Pepper, played by actress Naomi Grossman (who is actually quite attractive in real life), originally appeared in season two’s Asylum. As I mentioned before, the universe of Freak Show takes place in Jupiter, Florida, which in turn takes place about fifteen years before the series of events in Asylum.
Entertainment Weekly, which broke the story yesterday, writes:
Pepper is one of the members of the titular group of entertainers, managed by Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange). Explains Murphy, “What Elsa has done for 20 years is she goes around to hospitals and jails and rescues these ‘freak’ circus performers who are going to be shipped away to asylums and she signs the waivers and she becomes their guardians.” This season of AHS takes place in 1952, a good 12 years before the events of Asylum. So Freak Show, according to Murphy, “is sort of like what happened to Pepper before she went to the asylum.”
As previously noted, this is a huge deal since in four years of American Horror Story this is the first time a character has been used more than once, which apparently was not a decision they came about easily. Ryan Murphy stated, “We thought about it long and hard and we decided that it was interesting to do.”
Sadly, we’re not allowed to use the photo thanks to legal bologna, but EW has got the first look at Pepper, who appears alongside the world’s smallest woman.
