What would Coven have been without Marie Laveau? While many familiar faces are returning for Season 8 of American Horror Story, a crossover of season 3’s Coven and season 1’s Murder House, Angela Bassett‘s Voodoo Queen will not be one of them.
“I’m not in Horror Story. I’m not, not unless they get some brilliant idea. I love Coven though,” Bassett, 59, said in the Us Weekly video suite at the the Television Critics Association’s press tour.
Coven was the first time Bassett stepped into the Ryan Murphy universe and it earned her an Emmy nomination. The actress went on to star in the next three seasons, Freak Show, Hotel and Roanoke. However, the Voodoo Queen was still her favorite character.
“She’s very special to my heart. We got to shoot in New Orleans which is beautiful, that beautiful decay of a city. It was scary; it was funny; it was risqué; it was intriguing; it was historical,” she told Us. “You get to work with the great Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange and Sarah [Paulson], Gabby [Sidibe], just on and on and on. So it was really special, and it was the beginning of it all, beginning of me joining a family.”
Bassett is returning to season 2 of Murphy’s procedural drama on Fox, 9-1-1, where she plays LAPD patrol sergeant Athena Grant. The Oscar nominee is pretty much willing to do whatever Murphy asks.
“The characters that he paints are not run of the mill, but they’re folk that we’re familiar with or we’re intrigued by. He’s just not afraid to be bold with them and cover a spectrum,” she shared. “The world is so big and populated by so many interesting types of characters and he brings them to the fore. So I think that’s what it is [about him]. Along with these insane stories from time to time, and situations. He can’t help himself!”
Season 2 of 9-1-1 premieres on Fox Sunday, September 23, at 8 p.m. ET.
