Best-known as the irresistible Schmidt on the hit sitcom ‘The New Girl,’ Max Greenfield is getting serious… seriously dark for ‘American Horror Story: Hotel.’  While bits and pieces have been revealed about the setting and other characters, Greenfield’s role has been under wraps.  But creator Ryan Murphy has finally shared some info about Greenfield’s role.

“He plays an addict who checks into the hotel and tangles with Sarah Pauslon,” Murphy explained.  Paulson had previously revealed that her role was that of another addict Hypodermic Sally, so entangling these two characters makes sense.  “I’ve always loved him as an actor, I love him in ‘New Girl’.  I always just wanted to work with him. He’s been doing comedy and I said, ‘I have a feeling that you can and want to do something really f***ed up,’ and he said, ‘How did you know?’”

The first thing to go?  Greenfield’s good looks.  The actor has already been snapped in public with badly bleached blond hair.  As Murphy stated, “He cut off his beautiful hair and dyed it and we had to let the roots grow in.”

On ‘The New Girl’, Greenfield donned a fat suit and prosthetics for flashbacks to his character’s chubby college days (right).  For ‘AHS,’ he’s going in the opposite direction.  Murphy said, “I think he’s lost 30 pounds. Yesterday I talked to him and his waist is down to a 27, he’s really committed to it.”

There is obviously more to Greenfield than playing the jokester.  Not only is he physically transforming, but be prepared to see a much darker side to him.  As Murphy states, “[He is] at the center [of] the most disturbing scene we’ve ever done.”  That’s saying quite a lot, considering the disturbing scenes viewers have already witnessed on the horror anthology.

“He really pushed himself as an actor.”

While Murphy describes the new season as being “incredibly terrifying,” expect things to get spicy as well.  The producer said, “I think it’s sexier than any season we’ve done… By far, the most sex of any season.”

He reiterated that characters from previous seasons will pop up at the ‘Hotel’, beginning in episodes 7 and 8.

Also of particular note is the two-part Halloween episode, entitled “Devil’s Night” which Murphy insisted on directing himself.  “Our Halloween episode this year is called ‘Devil’s Night.’ I’m directing it because I love the script so much, I said I can’t give this to anybody else.  Lily Rabe is coming to that episode and she’s playing Aileen Wuornos, which is really fun and bizarre. I will tell you that she’s at the centerpiece of that Halloween episode.”

Rabe is a recurring ‘AHS’ player, having appeared in the first three seasons of the show.  (While she wasn’t a regular on Season 4, she did reprise her role as Sister Mary Eunice from season two in one episode.)  Aileen Wuornos is a real life serial killer, who murdered seven men in Florida in 1989-90.  Her life was adapted in the 2003 movie ‘Monster’ for which Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Academy Award for playing Wuornos.

As the new season creeps closer, more information should be revealed.

Are you ready to check in?

‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ opens for business on Wednesday October 7th on FX.  This installment also stars Lady Gaga as Elizabeth, Sarah Paulson as Hypodermic Sally, Kathy Bates as Iris, Angela Bassett as Ramona Royale, Wes Bentley as John Lowe, Matt Bomer as Donovan, Chloë Sevigny as Alex Lowe, Denis O’Hare as Liz Taylor, Cheyenne Jackson as Will Drake, Evan Peters as Mr. March, Finn Wittrock as Tristan Duffy, Richard T. Jones as Detective Hahn, plus  Emma Roberts, Helena Mattsson, Naomi Campbell and Mädchen Amick.

Source: Zap2it