Cheyenne Jackson Reveals His Favorite Seasons of American Horror Story

Like many actors in the anthology series’s overall cast, Cheyenne Jackson has appeared in several seasons of American Horror Story, starting with his role as Will Drake in 2015’s American Horror Story Hotel and, most recently, that of John Henry Moore in 2018’s American Horror Story: Apocalypse with roles in 2016’s American Horror Story: Roanoke and 2017’s American Horror Story: Cult in between. With Jackson now starring in Fox’s Call Me Kat alongside Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik, the actor isn’t expected to appear in the upcoming tenth AHS season but he is opening up about his favorite seasons of the horror anthology — and they may not be quite what you expect.

Speaking with AV Club, Jackson revealed that his favorite season, at least in terms of being a part of said season, is Roanoke.

“Honestly, the most fun—and I think it a great season, but it’s not everybody’s favorite—was Roanoke,” Jackson said. “I thought it was really outside the box. And also, for me—I’m usually on the show playing a little more restrained like I have a lot of exposition, and I’m kind of the straight man to someone’s crazy—I got to play an unhinged reality TV show producer. So that was really fun to just kind of go for it and break the fourth wall and all that.”

The sixth season of the series, Roanoke took the approach of the first half of the season being a paranormal documentary called “My Roanoke Nightmare” which reenacts the experiences of a couple who relocate to North Carolina while the second half was presented as found footage of the doomed production of a sequel. Jackson played Sidney Aaron James, the lead producer on the who is, as he describes, unhinged.

Jackson also revealed that he has a favorite season from a viewing perspective as well: Freak Show.

“That was probably my most fun, but my favorite to watch was actually Freak Show,” he said. “For some reason, that one really got in my soul, and Jessica [Lange]’s Elsa Mars was just beyond. It’s my all-time favorite. That was the first time I really hooked into the show, and it was so dark and creepy and beautiful and gothic. I’m excited about what they’re doing this year.”

Interestingly, Jackson isn’t alone among AHS cast to say that Freak Show is among their favorites. Lange herself counted Freak Show as her favorite, at least from the perspective of being a part of it.

“My very favorite, just from the experience of doing it, was Freak Show,” Lange told Gold Derby in 2019. “Although, I think Asylum was the better season, but I loved Freak Show.”

What’ your favorite season of American Horror Story? Let us know in the comments!