Is Dandy From ‘American Horror Story’ Really A Villain? Finn Wittrock Doesn’t Think So
Warning: the following contains spoilers about American Horror Story: Freak Show.
Even though his character has murdered several people, and there are still three episodes left in the current season of American Horror Story, Finn Wittrock said that he doesn’t think Dandy is villainous.
During an interview with Vulture, Wittrock mentioned that his American Horror Story character is actually someone who idolized Twisty the Clown before he killed him. And now that Twisty is gone, Dandy is emulating him.
“Dandy revered the clown, he puts him on a pedestal, he wants to be him, and then he basically becomes him. I mean, he becomes his own version of him. He’s still Dandy. I think he inhabits the clown’s spirit and that liberates him to do all the nefarious things that he does.”
When asked about ranking Dandy in with past American Horror Story characters, Wittrock said he could be pretty high up on the list.
“He’s definitely in the top three, right? But I can never think of him as a villain. I can never think of him as evil.”
Wittrock added that he is continuously learning more about his American Horror Story character.
“I just have to keep getting under his skin. But he realizes that his purpose in life is to kill. It doesn’t get more dangerous than that. Because I actually found that the killing is not out of hatred. He kind of likes the people that he kills. He wanted to be a performer, and somehow that’s transformed into murder, so he thinks of it as a performance, like he’s fulfilling his destiny.”
In an interview with Indiewire, Wittrock explained that this season of American Horror Story criticizes American culture, and each of the freaks has a human side like everyone else.
“There’s [sic] monsters in all of us, but there’s also vulnerability. I think there’s a lot. Ryan Murphy, he basically tries to find something that’s a pulse, a pressure point in our culture, and he grabs it and he squeezes it. I think Freak Show has a lot to do with the entertainment industry and the way we entertain ourselves, the objectification of people and the lengths we’ll go for our own amusement. It’s sort of a warped version of our pop culture.”
In a related report from the Inquisitr, when American Horror Story: Freak Show returns on January 7, it will have appearances from Neil Patrick Harris and his husband, David Burtka. Harris will come in as an illusionist named Chester, who also becomes the new owner of the freak show. Burtka will appear in the season finale as a love interest for Elsa (Jessica Lange).
[Image credit: FX via MTV]
