Why Taissa Farmiga Hasn't Been The Same Since Leaving American Horror Story

No, the haunted horrors of American Horror Story: Murder House didn't leave Taissa Farmiga terrified of the dark, or emotionally scar her in any other fashion. Quite the opposite is true, with the talented young performer speaking candidly about how her work in Murphy's creeped-out narratives has actually made her a better actor despite of her aversion to horror.

Farmiga admitted as much in a 2011 feature for Interview magazine, revealing that it took her a while to embrace the horror genre before confessing that, at least in some of her early American Horror Story appearances, her reactions are often genuine. "In the pilot episode there is this very scary scene in the basement," she recalled. "I suddenly became really terrified because of the scenario—like, actual terror running through my body."

The actor quickly learned that legitimate fear can be fantastic fuel for a great performance in the horror realm, and in a 2018 Indiewire interview promoting The Conjuring spinoff The Nun, Farmiga admittedly candidly that, even as she still struggles with the genre as a whole, what she learned working on AHS has helped her excel at playing scared on screens big and small. 

"I do not like horror movies. I always had an amazing time on American Horror Story [but] it actually helped me discover that I'm a very scared person," Farmiga confessed. "I'm very jumpy, I scare very easily. So, when you have to go play these emotions like fear and terror, I realized that comes kind of natural to me."

As Taissa Farmiga continues to indulge in her own fears on screen, she's using it to deliver some of the best work of her career. Here's hoping she indulges in another season of American Horror Story sooner rather than later.