Jessica Lange Says She “Got the Best” of American Horror Story

For many fans of the FX horror anthology series, Jessica Lange is American Horror Story, The actress brought to life some of the series’ most memorable characters to life during her tenure as series lead in the first four seasons — Murder House, Asylum, Coven, and Freak Show. But Lange departed the series after that Freak Show run and only briefly appeared in last season’s Apocalypse to reprise her Murder House role. Now, Lange is being pretty clear that her time on American Horror Story is over because she got the “best” of the series.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lange was asked if she will return to the series, to which Lange said she didn’t think she would because the first four seasons were the best of the series.

“I don’t think so,” Lange said. “I feel like I got the best of it in those first four seasons. Great characters. It was exciting to do. I worked with some of my favorite actors, but I can’t see that we could ever get back to that.”

This actually isn’t the first time that Lange has indicated that she’s done with American Horror Story. She told The Wrap earlier this year that she didn’t expect to come back for future seasons and admitted that she only came back for Apocalypse because she was getting to play Constance Langdon, her character from Murder House.

“I don’t think so,” Lange said. “I did this because it was recreating Constance, which was – for me, it was a very important time when I did that first season, Murder House. But I don’t think I would want to start from scratch and create a character. And also, I think a lot of the actors that I was working with, people that I really love working with, like Sarah [Paulson] or Frances [Conroy] or Kathy [Bates] – I don’t know who’s in this new season, but I don’t think it would be the same.”

Lange was a major player during the first four seasons of American Horror Story. Beyond her role as Constance in Murder House, she also played Sister Jude Martin in Asylum, the Supreme witch Fiona Goode in Coven, and Elsa Mars in Freak Show. When it came to returning for Apocalypse, though, Lange said in a previous interview that what won her over was an offer from Murphy that she simply couldn’t refuse — Constance’s death scene.

“To play a part like that, to play a scene like that, I find deliriously fun because it’s total abandon,” Lange said. “There’s no reason, there’s no logic. It’s just about the physical and emotional. So the idea that she is basically OD’ing and having these — are they visions, her children come to see her? It was my favorite scene to shoot, because there is a physical abandon to it that I always like to investigate.”

The latest season of American Horror Story — American Horror Story: 1984 — airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.