"American Horror Story" Stars Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott on Ghosts, Trust, and What the Heck was on That Ultrasound

For the past four weeks, FX's American Horror Story has been shocking, delighting, and confusing the heck out of its rapidly expanding audience (the show has been gaining viewers every week and is now on-track to be FX's biggest first-season hit ever). We here at AfterElton like to think that our readers are smarter than the average bear, and while the discussion on our weekly recaps has been lively and illuminating, we don't know if we're any closer to unraveling the show's mysteries.

On Friday I had the chance to check in with AHS stars Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott (on a group call arranged by the network) and while they were pretty tight-lipped about the various WTF-heavy storylines, they did tease a few clues and shared their thoughts on being at the center of the crazypantsiest show on television.

Oh - I think it's also worth mentioning that when the call started there was a technical glitch that made the participants' voices repeat, creating the aural equivalent of a house of mirrors. Probably all in a day's work for America's Most Haunted Couple, eh?

Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott as Viv and Ben Harmon

ON THEIR CHARACTERS' POSSIBLE FUTURE (OR LACK THEREOF)

Dylan McDermott: i think it's sort of open-ended - we're not quite sure about the next episode, let alone next year. So we're sort of flying by the seat of our pants with this - it's all discovery here. I don't think we know.

Connie Britton: i don't know that Brad and Ryan know. Which, again, is really fun. it's such an evolution - it feels like we really do watch this thing come to life, and it's really fantastic.

ON THEIR FAVORITE CHARACTERS/STORYLINES

DM: i love Jessica [Lange] and her whole story and where she's going, and to see Addy die this week was really so powerful - and her dragging her to get to the house and make her a ghost to keep her i thought was a great storyline. Her having a young lover and all these mentally handicapped kids is such a great backstory for her, so i'm really interested to see what's going to happen to her character.

CB: i kind of love how it all sort of evolves each week. I love that there are so many ghosts in this house that we could never count them, and they create this culture and this community in this house that we have stumbled upon. i think it's fun that we're watching these human people stumble upon this crazy world.

ON REAL-LIFE SUPERNATURAL ENCOUNTERS

DM: I did have one in 1989 - i don't believe in this kind of stuff at all, I'm kind of cynical in that way - but I was in Louisiana doing a movie and I was in a car with two other people at night and the headlights sort of washed over this ghostlike figure. It was around midnight in Louisiana, I don't know if that's specific to Louisiana or not, but I did see this and they did see this sort of ethereal being separately, and we didn't say anything for like two minutes and then we all brought it up.

CB: I also am not a big believer in ghosts, or I don't really walk around in fear of ghosts, but I have definitely had an experience with ghosts which was in Italy - I was staying at this really amazing old Tuscan villa that was my friend's house and I woke up in the middle of the night and heard all kinds of moving around upstairs above me - furniture moving and voices, and I thought that some plumbing must have exploded or whatever. And I asked them about it the next day and they said no no no, nobody was up at night, nothing was moving, nothing was happening. And then it came out that they were very aware that this house was haunted and they told me all kinds of stories of the various Etruscan ghosts that they've experienced while they were there. And this is my friend's house and I've been back several times and I can never, ever sleep at night when i go there.

ON THE SHOW'S COMPLEXITY

DM: I think the great thing about this show is the complexity of it. Most of the time people are aiming so low on television - they're trying to reach that common denominator, especially on network television. And when you see a show that is so ripe and rich with all these storylines and all these questions - it's almost like a puzzle every week and people are trying to figure it out. I have friends texting me all the time saying, "Is this true?" "Is this happening?" "What's the relationship of Tate and Jessica?" They're trying to figure out the story, and I think that's why people are intrigued by the show. It's not to easy to figure out. People are smart, and people want to have something to watch that's interesting and intelligent and this show offers that - and a lot of television doesn't offer that, it's too easy. It's really the complexity of this show that makes it stand out.

ON WHAT ATTRACTED HER TO THE ROLE

CB: I think that what I was interested in was that she is someone who's been very strong and together in her life and she's kind of watching her world crumble around her, and I liked the idea of someone like that falling apart and seeing them in conflict with themselves in the midst of disaster. And to me - I like to play different things as an actor but one sort of common denominator is that I like to play women who are empowered in some way, even when they are going through crisis or when they are going through conflict or difficulty. And it's always interesting to me in the midst of that to find where their power comes from. So that's been the fun part and the challenge for me with this character. And it's also fun to see her falling apart a little bit.

ON WHERE THINGS GO FROM HERE

DM: We're definitely in crisis. The thing is that I am treating patients still in the house. So I am trying to save this marriage - family is the most important thing to me, but it is obviously slipping through my fingers and I can't seem to hold it together. So we will be seeing more of that, me trying to hold it together as it's all falling apart.

ON WHAT SHE THINKS WAS ON THAT ULTRASOUND

CB: I really don't know what she saw but my suspicion is that it was something with horns. I think that's Vivian's fear, that it's something with horns.