ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Who decided on Kais blue hair color?EVAN PETERS:That was originally my idea.
I remember seeing this movie calledSLC Punkand I always associated Detroit with this punk rock key in scene.
There was something kind of scary but alluring and kind of underground about blue hair.
FX
I was also looking around me and seeing so many people with blue hair I was shocked!
I was like, this is some kind of sign and I just have to do it.
Everybody has brown hair, blonde hair, and red hair.
That was the logic behind it.
I read a lot of books.
I readSeductive Poison, which is about a survivor of the Jonestown Massacre.
I readCombatting Cult Mind Control, which is a great book to help people get out of cults.
I read a great book calledThe Art of Seduction.
I watched as many documentaries as I could on cults a great one to watch isHoly Hellon Netflix.
What was your biggest takeaway or what did you learn about these kinds of leaders?
That they feed on peoples weaknesses?Thats exactly what they do.
Its usually people who are educated, oddly enough.
And smart and with it.
They want somebody to lead for them.
Another thing that they do is, they sleep deprive you so that you cant think clearly.
Everything that they say at that point becomes almost like theyre a god.
Youre playing multiple cult leaders, right, like Jim Jones and David Koresh?
Is that all in one episode?No, its all the way until the end.
Its over the course of some episodes.
Theres one episode where theres a lot of them.
How challenging was that?
Those are all very different guys.It was difficult.
But it was really, really fun.
It was incredibly difficult.
A lot of research was involved in it.
I would just listen to him constantly.
For every person, there was luckily some sort of video or recording of them on YouTube.
Lena Dunham is playing Valerie Solanas, who tried to kill Warhol.
How was it working with her?Shes a sweetheart.
She did a great job and we had a lot of fun playing around in The Factory.
I got a kick out of her.
Youve done this seven years now.
Its definitely your biggest character since Tate in season 1.
How do you qualify Kai?
How do you rank him?
Its a very current character with the fear thats going on in our country.
I think Kai ranks as No.
1 on all the characters Ive played.
Hes very wound up and high-strung and on edge all the time.
He could get angry so easily.
That hasnt started to wind down till a little bit now.
It took me a little over a week to let that go.
[Laughs] But it was a lot.
It was just the longest, most exhausting shoot and the hardest I had to work.
On a lighter note, is that actual Cheetos dust on your face?It was yeah.
So we threw in a little orange paint in there as well.
There were definitely Cheetos chunks in there and I definitely rubbed Cheetos all over my face.
Was that a good mask?
How did that affect the skin?It was nice.
It was kind of an astringent and a little drying.
It was good for the normal to oily skin and to alleviate that shine.
They were like, You could wipe it off and we could reapply it.
I was like, Lets just keep it on.
Its going to be so hard to match that so lets keep it on.
So everything I ate tasted or smelled like Cheetos.
You had to wear the Rubber Man costume.
How are the costumes?
How does that rate against the clown gear?I have to say its a little hot.
A lot of that material is pretty thick and the jacket is leather.
Those masks are really scary but kind of hilarious because we cant see anything.
So were like trying to walk around the set and were bumping into everything and swinging knives and missing.
Youve had to do some nutty things on the show.
Its a little daunting.
You kind of have to in a sense check out or put up a wall.
I have done some insane stuff.
So I was like, lets just get in there and break the ice.
Was the nail gun scene disturbing to shoot?
Its terrifying to watch.It was intense.
Everybody was upset and had to be upset about killing our friend.
Makeup did a great job and made it very real and it was also performed very real.
Tuesdays episode reveals that Dr. Vincent is your brother.
Was that a surprise to you?No, I knew that going in.
I love the relationship between Beverly (Adine Porter) and Kai.
She seems to be getting more power hungry.
Do we continue to follow that relationships evolution?Yeah, absolutely.
And youre right on track with that: shes definitely getting more power hungry.
I want it to be equal power but then years of oppression.
Its interesting seeing that relationship unfold and I dont think youll be disappointed as the season goes on.
It must so weird to be so antagonistic for Sarah but last season you were married onRoanoke.
I really like working with her.
But then, at the end of the day or in between takes, laugh or screw around.
What can you say about Kai going forward?
Is his rise just going to continue?Yeah.
It gets pretty terrifying.
