Emma Roberts is in New York City this week promoting season two of Scream Queens, which premieres Sept. 20 on Fox. Cosmopolitan.com caught up with her at the after-party for Coach’s spring/summer 2017 fashion show to find out a little more about TV’s top Chanel and how Emma made the leap from good girl to queen bitch.
Who is the bitchspiration for your character, Chanel Oberlin?
Ooh, I love a bitchspiration! I mean, there’s the obvious: Regina George in Mean Girls. And then Death Becomes Her is one of my favorite movies. I love it because it’s relatable bitchiness — even though what they’re doing is crazy, it totally makes sense when you’re invested in the movie.
That’s what I love about Scream Queens: It’s totally deranged, but you kind of believe it when you’re caught up in it. You get sucked in. I do when I’m reading the scripts. I’m like, "This rant is insane!" but by the end I find myself rooting for the Chanels. Even though you should be against them, you can’t help rooting for them in a weird, demented way.
They’re the most interesting characters.
They’re the most fun. I always wanted to play a role like that, but my whole career, no one ever wanted to cast me in a bitchy role. They were like, "We don’t believe you. You’re too nice." And then I played Chanel and they were like, "Oh my god, we had no idea you had that in you this whole time!"
You played a mean girl in American Horror Story: Coven too though. Was Ryan Murphy (the creator of Scream Queens and American Horror Story) the first person to take that chance on you then?
I was only supposed to be in a few episodes of Coven. But then Madison Montgomery [Emma’s character in Coven] just kind of took on a life of her own and she stayed on the show longer than expected. Then I came back the next year [for American Horror Story: Freak Show].
It was during Freak Show that Ryan sent me the scripts for Scream Queens and Chanel was every mean-girl role I had ever loved growing up in one character, so I immediately said yes.
How did you manage to get Ryan Murphy to see you in this different light after so many other people in Hollywood wrote you off as a nice girl?
Ryan and I have a similar sense of humor — kind of a dark — and we always see each other at events. And he is close to my aunt Julia, so we would just see each other at events and laugh, and I think we just kind of clicked and got each other.
After getting that chance from Ryan, do you feel the need to prioritize his projects over others?
I mean, I love Ryan Murphy. I would do anything for him. I just told him I want to be on Feud next because it sounds amazing and I obsessed with Susan Sarandon, so I hope to get to do something on that.
What would you like to do on the show? Do you have a dream role?
I’d love to play a glamorous old-Hollywood movie star or something. I think that would be fun because I love doing period stuff. Freak Show was so fun because I got to wear all the vintage clothes, and do all the different hair and makeup. So anything like that would be great.
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