President of Clowns of America International claims the Ryan Murphy-created show induces 'clown fear' with the psychotic Twisty the Clown portrayed by John Carroll Lynch.
- Oct 17, 2014
AceShowbiz - Clown gets the spotlight on "American Horror Story: Freak Show", but not in the way that real professional clowns want. Clowns of America International has slammed the show over the sinister representation of clowns on the series.
Glenn Kohlberger, president of the nation's biggest clown club, claims the show induces "clown fear" by featuring the murderous Twisty the Clown, portrayed by John Carroll Lynch, who stakes out his victims while donning full clown garb.
Kohlberger tells The Hollywood Reporter, "Hollywood makes money sensationalizing the norm. They can take any situation no matter how good or pure and turn it into a nightmare." He adds, "We do not support in any way, shape or form any medium that sensationalizes or adds to coulrophobia or 'clown fear.' "
Learning of people's reactions to Twisty, series co-creator Ryan Murphy tells Entertainment Weekly, "I'm not surprised because I saw it as soon as we saw John in makeup on the set. The first thing we shot with John was where he stabs the boy at the lake so I knew it was kind of good. But some of the crew had such a visceral reaction, and some of them left during the shooting of it because they were too disturbed. So I was like, I think we've tapped into a phobia that is pretty powerful."
In other news, Neil Patrick Harris has just revealed he and his husband David Burtka were offered to star in the first season of "American Horror Story", but he turned it down because they had just played a dysfunctional "couple" in "A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas".
"Loved Ryan [Murphy], loved the idea of a horror anthology show. Knew nothing about it, but we had just played ourselves as a couple, not getting along, and I thought, it just seems weird to do that twice, like as individual actors, to play a couple that hates each other twice," he explains, "It just felt weird. So I said no, that we shouldn't do it. And David wanted to. I said, 'I just don't want us to be known as a couple that don't like each other. That seems weird.' And then wouldn't you know, 'American Horror Story' is a big, gigantic success and super awesome."
Harris still has a chance to be part of the hit FX series as Murphy recently said he had a role for the "How I Met Your Mother" alum. "He's game. He had very specific ideas of what he wanted to do, and I had very specific ideas, so we're melding them," Murphy said.
