Sarah Paulson is performing her most difficult role yet in FX's American Horror Story: Freak Show in which the actress plays conjoined twins, though the twins' personalities are more complicated than just good and evil.

While it is a common trope to have the "good twin" and the "evil twin" in movies and television, Paulson recently told Entertainment Weekly that her two-headed character(s) Dot and Bette Tattler are more complex than that.

"It's not as simple as nice and evil. It's more complicated in true Ryan Murphy style," Paulson revealed. "One has more darkness in her but not darkness of evil -- darkness of depression, of knowing what's out in the world. The other one is more of an innocent. It's innocent and more cynical. Even though they share a body, they have different brains and different hearts. They experience everything differently from each one another."

Dot is the one suffering from the darkness of depression while Bette is innocent, getting wrapped up in the glamour of the freak show owner, Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange).

Discussing what type of relationship the twins have with Elsa, Paulson said the relationship between Dot and Elsa was similar to the contentious Sister Jude (Lange) and Lana Winters (Paulson) one in American Horror Story: Asylum.

"It's more reminiscent to me of Jude/Lana, certainly between Dot and Elsa," she explained. "Between Bette and Elsa, Elsa represents so much glamour and so much beauty that Elsa to Bette is like the most glamorous thing she's ever seen. Bette is such an innocent. There's so much wonder in her. It's a very different kind of relationship."

Elsa finds the Tattler Twins during the premiere episode and puts them in her freak show in order to drum up business. Taking place in 1952, the freak show is gradually going out of style amid the advent of television, so Elsa will desperately try to stay in business, along with all of her performers, who have nowhere else to go.

American Horror Story: Freak Show is set to debut Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.

Watch the promo for American Horror Story: Freak Show here:

Tags
American Horror Story, Television, Fx