Julia Roberts Reveals Why She Won't Appear on 'American Horror Story'

Since the first appearance of her niece Emma in American Horror Story's Coven season, fans of the horror anthology series have wondered when Julia Roberts might herself make an appearance. However, it sounds like the Oscar-winner has no plans to -- and for very good reason.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Roberts opened up about why she won't appear on American Horror Story despite Emma Roberts' involvement and her own friendship with series creator Ryan Murphy. It turns out that for Roberts, it all comes down to the scare factor.

"You know everybody divides the world into two groups?" Roberts said. "My two groups are people that like to be scared and people who don't like to be scared. The first season of American Horror Story came out and the way that I took my kids to school then, there was a traffic light that I always hit red and there was a poster for American Horror Story right at that traffic light. I called Ryan and I said, 'I'm just going to tell you right now -- I don't think I can watch your show. I can't support you. I don't think I can do it.' He goes, 'Lady, you won't get through the commercial.' Okay, that's a good friend. Someone who really knows me and so of course I would never watch that."

Roberts went on to explain that talking with her niece also helped her realize that she couldn't watch the series, much less be part of it, especially after Emma talked about a particularly gruesome moment her character, Madison Montgomery, experienced.

"And then Emma's on it and I say, 'Emma, sweetheart, I don't think I can watch this show that you're in.'" Roberts said. "And she goes, 'Auntie, I was in this toy box at the end of this bed and they pulled my arm off.' I go, 'Okay. You just have to stop talking. I can't handle it.' So that is off the table for me. I don't watch things like that."

Given Roberts' squeamishness it's probably for the best that she's not tuning into American Horror Story, especially not for this season, Apocalypse. There have been more than a few gruesome moments on this installment of the FX series, many of them centered around the antichrist Michael Langdon (Cody Fern). Despite that, Fern isn't entirely certain Michael is completely evil.

"I knew that I had to come in with very strong choices about his physical life and his vocal life and how he controlled himself in a room -- because playing powerful is difficult, but playing evil is impossible," Fern said in a recent interview. "Everyone is saying, 'Oh he's so evil, he's so evil' ... [but] I don't see Michael Langdon as an evil character. I don't even see him as a bad character. I see him as somebody with a lot of purpose."

What do you think about Julia Roberts' reason for not being part of American Horror Story? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

American Horror Story: Apocalypse airs Wednesdays at 19/9c on FX.