CULTURE

Wait, Why Is Andy Warhol in American Horror Story?

‘American Horror Story: Cult’ will include Andy Warhol in an already jam packed season that will also tackle Donald Trump, Charles Manson and Clowns.


Andy Warhol paints the Statue of Liberty in Paris, France on April 22nd, 1986.
Francois LOCHON

American Horror Story: Cult is about the election. It’s also about clowns. Bees are involved somehow. One mustn’t forget the bees. Mainly, though, it’s about cults, as the name suggests.

Now it’s also about Andy Warhol as well. Why? Well, who knows.

That’s quite a lot going on for a show we’ve only actually seen about two minutes of footage from. Creator and producer Ryan Murphy tried to offer some more clarifying details over the weekend, but only served to create more confusion about what to expect. He explained that in addition to playing that alt-righty cult leader “Kai” we were introduced to in the trailer, Evan Peters (surprisingly the biggest winner of the cast departures of Jessica Lang and Lady Gaga) will also multi-task by appearing as several famous cult leaders.

“Peters will also play a number of actual historical cult leaders throughout the season, including [Charles] Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh…and Andy Warhol,” reported Entertainment Weekly.

It follows then that Lena Dunham will appear as the woman who once attempted to murder Warhol.

“Lena Dunham is playing Valerie Solanas, who attempted to shoot Andy Warhol, because she felt denied the cult of personality that was Warhol and the Factory at the time,” Murphy told EW whose other claim to fame is as the author of the radical feminist SCUM Manifesto. We should also clarify that Solana didn’t “attempt” to shoot Warhol. She succeeded.

The particularly episode that will include the Solanas/Warhol interlude will be all about female rage, an ongoing theme throughout the season.

How, exactly, the shooting of a pop artist who surrounded himself with proto-club kids in 1960s New York City ties into the modern day main story of a nice lesbian mother in Michigan who goes mad after several clown sightings following Donald Trump’s electoral win remains very much to be seen.

We know that the anthology series has gone to particularly bonkers places before, and yet this same EW story promises the season will be “more grounded.”

Yet, Murphy is a man who constructs his shows around big moments. There was Lang recreating a David Bowie music video in the Freak Show season, set more than a dozen years before Bowie even recorded the shot. Coven‘s “If we can get her, why not?” Stevie Knicks cameo. Myrtle Snow’s “Balenciaga” death rattle. Lady Gaga on a white horse in Studio 54 in Hotel. Whatever the ending of Roanoke was. The Name Game.

At some points, it seems AHS is scripted to guarantee us copious amount of Tumblr .GIF sets and memes more than a coherent story line (and maybe that’s why American Crime Story is Murphy’s most critically acclaimed show: there’s already a real life, coherent story line there).

So we probably should know better than to think to hard about how this will all make sense. We’re sure the eventual .GIFs will all make it worth it.

Related: Andy Warhol Will Finally Get a Biopic Thanks to Jared Leto

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