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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did this all come about?
BILLY EICHNER:I did not audition.
Frank Ockenfels/FX
Ryan offered me the part.
I met him a few years ago at one of those pre-Emmy parties.
You and I just met Dolly Parton at a pre-Emmy party.
What if this means you’re going to work with Dolly Parton next?!?!
We’re doing the sequel toRhinestone.
That led to a couple of email exchanges and an in-person meeting in his office.
I told him I really wanted to work with him, that I was a huge fan.
That came out of a conversation we were having where I wanted to play a villain in something.
I thought some of my qualities that people were already aware of could be used in a different way.
It could be fun to draw people in with comedy and then go in a different direction.
That’s when he said he wanted to see me inAmerican Horror Story.
That was a couple of years ago.
Last fall, he got in touch with me and said he had a role for me onHorror Story.
Did you know it was going to be about the election?
You’re very vocal on social media about our leader.
Did the fact that it was about this political climate make you more excited?
It made me excited.
It made me nervous.
I’m a real news junkie.
Even before the election, I was one of those people watching CNN every night.
I’ve always been a current events guy in general.
Once I started reading the scripts, that’s when I got excited about it.
It doesn’t necessarily come out right away and says it’s a satire.
There are some real strong elements of satire here.
Important question: Are you working with real bees?
[Laughs] They’re not real bees.
There’s a real honeycomb situation and a real beehive situation.
But actual bees flying around did not happen.
There’s a child actor there.
There’s also one very scared gay actor there.
Thank god there are no real bees flying around.
I have never been stung by a bee in my entire life.
While I’m playing a beekeeper, of all times!
I was like, it serves me right for being in Brentwood.
What was that like?
We shot all of those gym scenes within two days back to back.
Those were probably the two most intense days emotionally I had during the show.
You’re not sure who these characters are.
In episode 4, we answer the question of, who is Harrison and how did he get here?
You see a lot of the backstory.
We see Harrison at this extraordinarily vulnerable, lost place in his life.
I think Harrison has a lot of masculinity issues.
And even though he’s openly gay, he has this very archaic relationship with his wife.
That’s clearly coming from somewhere.
I think we shot that portion later on in the day.
One of my easiest jobs was watching Evan jerk off in the shower.
That was the least of my concerns to tell you the truth!
What can you say about that?
We do get back to the Meadow situation.
And you and Leslie have had a blast together, right?
Then, off camera, we’re having the most fun I’ve ever had.
We went to see Cher.
We’re constantly texting each other.
Billie Lourd threw us an amazing wrap party this past weekend.
We all really love each other.
We’re like the fun side of a cult, off camera.
For all I know Sarah Paulson is pregnant with Chaz Bono’s baby.
So what can you say aboutBilly on the Street?
It’s not coming back to truTV.
Billy on the Streethas had kind of an unusual trajectory.
Going way back, it started off pre-YouTube.
When I was doingBilly on the Streetinterviews, they were one segment in my live shows.
Then it took off on YouTube.
Then I started working on Funny or Die.
It’s been around a long time and has always been an evolving animal.
We are once again going to evolve.
I do want to reiterate that truTV were amazing partners.
They could not be more artist-friendly.
What truTV said in their statement is actually true: the show is very, very time-consuming.
From start to finish, the show was taking me almost 10 months out of the year to do.
I wanna play different roles and do different types of things.
It’s not going away.
Everyone on Twitter was freaking out.
It’s not going away.
It’s going to evolve and we’re going to distribute it differently.
If it appears onDollyParton.comstarting Monday, I would not be surprised.
I am filming segments exclusively at Dollywood.
I’m now under contract as a Dollywood entertainer in her theme park.
I do three shows a day.
By the way, I would love to film at Dollywood!
American Horror Story: Cultairs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m.
