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By Suzanne

Interview with Mark Consuelos of "American Horror Story: Asylum" on FX 11/26/12

Final Transcript
FX NETWORK: American Horror Story: Asylum
November 26, 2012/11:00 a.m. PST

SPEAKERS
Kristy Silvernail – Media Relations Manager, FX Network
Mark Consuelos – American Horror Story: Asylum, “Spivey”

PRESENTATION

Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the American Horror Story: Asylum. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer period. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Kristy Silvernail of FX. Please go ahead.

K. Silvernail Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the American Horror Story: Asylum conference call with guest star Mark Consuelos, who plays ‘Spivey,’ an inmate at Briarcliff who was first seen during a rough encounter with ‘Kit’ in Chapter 1 and reappeared again last week in “The Origins of Monstrosity,” where he revealed a perversion towards the seemingly innocent ‘Sister Mary Eunice.’ American Horror Story: Asylum airs Wednesday nights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on FX. As always, we respectfully request that you keep your questions focused on the series and the character.

With that said, let’s go ahead and take our first question.

Moderator Thank you. We’ll go to the line of Erin Willard of ScifMafia.com.

E. Willard Hi, Mark. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us today. I’ve been a fan for a long time.

M. Consuelos Oh, thank you.

E. Willard Can you tell us how you got involved in this part?

M. Consuelos Yes. I was … Ryan Murphy and he wanted to talk about this particular project, and over dinner he explained the role and how ‘Spivey’ was going to look. And we really got into the physical characteristics of ‘Spivey’ and he did warn me that he’s going to be a super dark kind of character, extremely demented, and for me I said, you understand that’s exactly why I would want to play ‘Spivey.’

E. Willard Great. So you were aware ahead of time of what you were going to have to go through with makeup and –

M. Consuelos No, I had no idea. But I literally said whatever you’re about to ask me to do, Ryan, the answer’s yes.

E. Willard Oh, that’s so great. Well, it’s a terrific part and you’ve been doing a great job. Thanks so much.

M. Consuelos Oh, thanks. Thanks.

Moderator And next we’ll go to the line of Jerry Nunn, Windy City Times.

J. Nunn Hey, I’m calling from Chicago and I heard that you grew up in Illinois.

M. Consuelos I did, yes in Lebanon, Illinois; southern Illinois.
J. Nunn Oh wow, okay. I wanted to know how long it took you to get that makeup on.

M. Consuelos Oh, it takes anywhere from two and a half to three and a half hours, depending on what’s going on. Whenever they say it’s going to take that long I’m like, yes, right, there’s no way, what’s so hard about that. But these guys are definitely artists. They’re amazing at what they do. And just getting it on and then once they get the stuff on the prosthetics, the way they go about touching them up and painting them and adjusting them, like I said they’re really artists.

J. Nunn I heard that the third season is getting picked up, so would you be interested in being on the show again for next season?

M. Consuelos Absolutely. … . It’s been so fun just to be part of it, the whole buzz around the show is exciting, and then when it actually starts airing people absolutely love it. I got extreme street credibility from my high school aged son, he’s like, “Dad, the fact that you’re in American Horror Story is absolutely cool.” And I was like, “I’m not sure if it’s appropriate for you.” And he was like, “Dad, come on, I’m a New York City kid in high school … .”
J. Nunn Right, right. Well, come back and visit us in Illinois soon.

M. Consuelos Thank you so much.

Moderator And next we go to the line of Amy Harrington, Pop Culture Passionistas.

A. Harrington Hi. Thank you so much for your time today.

M. Consuelos You’re welcome, Amy.

A. Harrington It’s obviously such a dark show, how do you protect yourself from taking that character and the tension of the storytelling home with you every night?

M. Consuelos Oh, that’s a great question. As dark as you think the stuff that you’re doing as an actor on that show is, once you watch it you’re like, oh, man, it could have been a lot darker, having seen some of the other things that people were doing. And so I don’t know, I saw it as such a great opportunity that I literally had so much fun doing it and there was excitement about doing it, and I didn’t have that much trouble separating myself from what was going on, on set.
A. Harrington It seems like you’re pretty different.

M. Consuelos I had a lot of fun, actually.

A. Harrington Yes, and to that end, what’s the atmosphere like on set between takes?

M. Consuelos I think it’s super professional. The directors have been amazing. The crews for the days that I’ve been there are outstanding, and the actors, that list of actors, gosh, you can’t get much better than that. Everybody’s super, super professional and I think they have a good time as well, but they’re there to work. You would think it would feel super heavy sometimes, but I think the stage manager … the assistant director did a really good job, when those moments are happening everybody was super respectful.

A. Harrington Excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it.

M. Consuelos Thank you. Thank you.

Moderator And next we go to the line of Earl Dittman, Wireless Digital Journal.
E. Dittman How are you this morning?

M. Consuelos I’m doing great. How are you?

E. Dittman I’m doing great, doing great. I have to say, looking over the stuff you’ve done this is really quite a departure from anything you’ve done in the past, so it must be really exciting for you as an actor and as a performer.

M. Consuelos It is. Thank God. Yes, I was so excited to do this.

E. Dittman So obviously you were a fan of the first season?

M. Consuelos Yes, a big fan, a big fan. I thought it was really interesting how they, I guess, classified it as a miniseries, that each year would be a little bit different –

E. Dittman Right, right.

M. Consuelos … super smart. It’s really interesting for an actor as well that you can continue to do season to season and not be playing the same role, which is one of the interesting things as an actor is you always want to try new things, so the fact that they set it up that you would be doing different things each season –

E. Dittman Yes, like Jessica [Lange] and Zach [Quinto] and Sarah [Paulson] and all of them, yes, they all have different parts. That whole repertory type of thing is really, really cool, I think as well.

M. Consuelos I totally agree. I totally agree.

E. Dittman Did Ryan come to you, or did you go to him, or how did this all come about for you?

M. Consuelos We met each other at a social thing and we decided to talk about a project that he was interested in me doing. Initially, he had written something with me in mind and I turned it down, and I said, “That would never have happened.” And he said, “No, it happened. You turned it down.” “No, I did not do that.” And he was like, “Yes, you did.” And after getting to know Ryan just a little bit, and he’s absolutely wonderful, I found out that he remembers every single thing, he’s so specific, and that’s one of his strong points, and very, very specific, he knows what he wants and he knows how things go. So there was actually a conversation about something that I didn’t do turned into a conversation about something I could potentially do, which I’m glad, timing is everything, so I’m glad it actually worked out.

E. Dittman Did he write this for you, or was it already written and he just thought of you for it?

M. Consuelos Well, you know the romantic actor in me … he couldn’t help but write this demented, just disgusting looking, deplorable human being after meeting me – no, I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Ryan.

E. Dittman Okay. But before I let you go, so you did mention you would be interested in next season, so it sounds like something you would welcome doing.

M. Consuelos Oh my gosh, yes. I think the fact that he does have that repertory of actors that feels like it’s very much that kind of thing where he gets a group of actors and he continues to work with them, yes, I would love to do it.

E. Dittman Fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Mark. I appreciate it.

M. Consuelos Thanks, man.

Moderator Next we go to the line of Kristyn Clarke, PopCultureMadness.com.

K. Clarke Hi, Mark. Thank you so much for speaking with us today.

M. Consuelos You’re welcome.

K. Clarke With the asylum being such a character itself within the show, what is it like, is it challenging at all to act in that environment? How intense is that?

M. Consuelos I’ve never been in an asylum, and you always feel like it’s sort of creepy and there’s this lore about them, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I tried to watch and do as much research as I possibly could. And I watched this one documentary called, I think it’s called … Follies, and I think it was shot in the mid-60s, at the same time this show was set. Are you still there?

K. Clarke Yes, I’m here.

M. Consuelos Okay, cool. And it kind of informed me a lot. It made me actually even more afraid after watching that documentary. But, yes, the set, the production designer … did such an amazing job, everything looks so authentic and substantial and it really sets the mood for the show.

K. Clarke As you were able to delve into this character, is there anything that you were surprised to learn about yourself by taking on this role?

M. Consuelos Not too much surprise I learned about myself, maybe something I probably already knew, but not too much. It will maybe surprise some people that watch it, but not too much that I didn’t know already myself.

K. Clarke Great. Thank you so much.

M. Consuelos Thank you.

Moderator And next we go to the line of Paulette Cohn of Xfinity TV.

P. Cohn Good morning, Mark. You have an ABC comedy that you’re going to be producing with Kelly. I was wondering, do you prefer producing because it gives you more control, or do you prefer acting?
M. Consuelos Oh gosh, I guess it depends on the project. There are certain projects that you love to be involved in no matter what capacity, as producing, or in front of the camera, whatever it is, and there’s certain projects that probably I wouldn’t even consider getting behind, just the sheer magnitude of certain projects I couldn’t produce, so just to come in and act would probably be a lot easier. But I like aspects of both. I think that for a couple of years I focused on more the producing because I wanted to be close to home after traveling a lot for work. And now that the kids are a little bit older I’m enjoying acting again and taking these jobs. This particular job for FX really I would travel one day, work one day, maybe two days, and then be on the red eye home. So a lot of times I was only gone for two to three days, which is perfect for having a family in a different part of the country.

P. Cohn Are you hoping that American Horror Story will change how people think about you and maybe they will offer you more dramatic roles?

M. Consuelos I really love the dramatic roles. And the great thing about this job is that although it’s extremely dramatic, it’s so much fun. … roles, but it is a drama, and it’s not necessarily a procedural like cop show, this is extreme drama, and it’s so fun to play. And, yes, I think that typically I wouldn’t be seen as, or given the opportunity to do this job or play this character, so I hope that opens me up a little bit to more opportunities.

P. Cohn Perfect, thank you so much.

M. Consuelos Thank you.

Moderator And next we go to the line of Adam Lawton of MediaMikes.com.

A. Lawton Mark, how are you doing today?

M. Consuelos I’m doing great. Thank you.

A. Lawton I’m a big fan. I’ve been watching a lot of your stuff. I’m always a fan of the … characters. My question today is, were you allowed to give your own input in developing the character yourself, or did they have it pretty well set that they had a certain agenda for you to work the character?

M. Consuelos I think that with most good scripts and good shows they expect the actor to bring some of their ideas and some of the things, the back story of the character, or just certain aspects, they expect the actor to do some of that stuff, and I think it’s always a good collaboration between the actor and the writer and the director to try stuff out during the process. And I think what was really great is that people were open to certain things and they would let you know if that was something they wanted you to do more, cut that in half, do more of that, we need you to do this, but I feel like on any really, really good show I think everybody comes with their own stuff and you want to try as much as you can.

I would say that the character was really clear in some of the things that he’d been doing and some of these actions, so it makes it easier for the actor, it informed the character and what you would think he’d be going through. There wasn’t really a lot of gray area here. Do you know what I mean? They wrote him very specifically, which I really appreciated. But just because they are very specific about those things, it doesn’t mean that it limits you. Actually, it makes those possibilities and some of your choices even greater.

A. Lawton Okay. Now, would you say that you’re more of a fan of that type of direction, or do you like to sometimes have a little bit more defining in a role?

M. Consuelos No, I love the collaboration. I think every actor would probably say that it’s always a collaboration and if you ask directors they expect the actors to bring something. They don’t want to be thinking for everybody. I think I enjoy this kind of – again, I think it was a hybrid of both. There was a lot of collaboration but it was also very, very specific with an extremely specific view, especially from Ryan, on certain things that I thought were really good. You have to have a specific view and you have to be pretty precise about that. I think as an actor it’s always great to have a little bit of both.

A. Lawton Excellent. Cool. And thanks a lot, I appreciate it.

M. Consuelos Thanks, man.

Moderator And we go now to Monique Jones, TV-Equals.com.

M. Jones Hi, Mark. Thanks for speaking with me today.

M. Consuelos You’re welcome.

M. Jones How did you get into character, because there’s a lot of dark stuff that ‘Spivey’ has in his personality?

M. Consuelos Yes. I don’t know, I think you just kind of get into it a little bit. And I was saying before that the sets are so amazing and the makeup and the wardrobe are also really specific that it really, really helps that kind of suspended belief, and you get into character pretty easily on set. And then again you’re working with some of the greatest actors ever, they’re so fantastic, and I think that also helps, and the directors were great. I think what they do on the show specifically is they set you up to do really good work, you’ve got a lot of support all around.

M. Jones And how has your family and fans reacted to this role, since it’s very different than what a lot of people have seen you in?

M. Consuelos Yes, I think it disturbed my wife a little bit, in a good way. She’s hooked on the show, but she finds it so disturbing and she can’t look away. She wants to look away, but she can’t look away. And I have one 15-year-old son who loves the genre and he’s been watching it too, which I’m kind of on the fence whether or not he should be able to watch it, but I’ve gotten an incredible amount of street credibility for being on “such a cool show,” as he puts it. And I think the fans have responded really, really well to it, and they didn’t expect it, and they’re appreciating it and enjoying it.

M. Jones Great. Thanks so much.

M. Consuelos Thank you.

Moderator (Instructions given.) And we go to the line of Sammi Turano, TV Grapevine.

S. Turano Thank you. I’ve been a fan of yours since I was a little girl.

M. Consuelos Oh gosh, thank you.

S. Turano No problem. My question for you is you mentioned that your son watches it, even though you said he was a bit young. How does it feel knowing you’re doing a role that your son can really love and be proud of and tell all his friends about?

M. Consuelos Again, the fact that he likes it and thinks it’s cool, for a father, you immediately become uncool once you become a father and especially the older they get and the older you get it’s that inevitability of just as cool as you think you are you’re probably just as lame in your kids’ eyes, so the fact that he really likes it, and he really likes the horror genre and some of the sci-fi stuff as well, so we do have some discussions about doing the character, the makeup and how they do it, and it’s cool. I’ve been enjoying the conversation with him.

S. Turano Wonderful. What are the odds that we’re going to get Kelly to guest star?

M. Consuelos Hey, listen, you never know with Mr. Murphy, because he can have anybody on the show.

S. Turano Wonderful. Well, thank you so much. Have a great day.

M. Consuelos Thank you.

Moderator And next we go to the line of Earl Dittman, Wireless Digital Journal.

E. Dittman Mark, I have to be honest and say that the first couple of times I saw your character I didn’t even realize it was you.

M. Consuelos Good.

E. Dittman It wasn’t until this last one I thought, “That’s Mark Consuelos. I didn’t even realize that was him.” That’s how much you got into the character, and I just didn’t even notice. And I’m a bit of an aficionado of the series so it just completely blew me away, the performance.

M. Consuelos Thank you.

E. Dittman You’re quite welcome, because you just surprised the heck out of me in a wonderful way. Do you like taking adventurous roles like this? When roles come along this way, because I certainly, like you said, street credibility, I think this has opened you up to a whole new thing, because I certainly look at you in a different way, and I’m sure a lot of Hollywood does too, are you open to doing things that are maybe like this or a little more outside of the box than, say, a –

M. Consuelos Oh God, yes. Yes, absolutely. And the great thing about this role is when I was talking to Ryan Murphy about it, he had very specific opinions about what he would look like. And he was like, we’ll start with your teeth, they can’t be that white and nice, so we’re going to completely screw up your teeth and everything. And then we’re going to start with …, and your hair, and your face, and body type and the way he walks, and it was just so exciting just to come at it from that point of view, because frankly a lot of the stuff that I do, it’s the exact opposite of that, and they want to make it as perfect as possible. I’m typically the guy that ends up kissing the girl at the end of the scene, or at the end of the show or whatever it is, not that that’s not fantastic, but for an actor, especially since I’ve been doing that kind of stuff so much, to be given the opportunity to play a role that people, if you didn’t tell them that it was me, they probably wouldn’t even figure it out, which is great.

E. Dittman Yes, yes.

M. Consuelos To me that’s a huge compliment and there was a lot of thought that went into that, in the appearance of the guy and the era and how they lived and how unhealthy he was, and that was fun, yes. And absolutely, I’m absolutely open to continuing in getting those opportunities.

E. Dittman But I’ve always understood from every actor I’ve talked to that doing the soaps, though, is a good training ground for actors, even though some people look at soaps as, oh, they’re on soaps, but I understand they’re really great training grounds.

M. Consuelos Yes, a tremendous amount of material and the workload is significant on soaps. You really, really have to learn how to work quickly and make specific choices and work long hours and you’re just appreciative to be working. So in that respect, yes, I think it can be a great training ground.

E. Dittman Yes. Well, I appreciate it. Again, thanks for a great performance, and thanks for talking to us today. I really appreciate it.

M. Consuelos Okay, man. Thank you.

E. Dittman Thanks a lot.

Moderator There’s no one else in queue at this time. Please continue.

K. Silvernail All right, well, thank you again so much to everybody for participating today, and especially you, Mark, thanks for taking time out of your day to be with us.

M. Consuelos Thank you.

K. Silvernail As a reminder, American Horror Story: Asylum airs Wednesday nights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.Thanks again, and you may now disconnect.

M. Consuelos Thank you.

Moderator That does conclude our conference call for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Executive TeleConference. You may now disconnect.

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