Mia Farrow Regrets Turning Down 'American Horror Story' Season 1 Role

Mia Farrow
Netflix

Farrow eventually teamed up with Ryan Murphy for the hit true-crime series 'The Watcher.'

In a special roundtable hosted by Ryan Murphy, the women of The Watcher sit down to talk about the hit true-crime series as well as their respective careers onscreen. And for Mia Farrow, who plays one of the neighborhood's eccentric characters, Pearl Winslow, that includes one major regret: not taking Ryan Murphy's offer for a role in the first installment of American Horror Story.  

"I've been trying to work with you since 2010," Murphy says during the 30-minute segment, In Conversation: Ryan Murphy Talks with the Women of The Watcher, which is now streaming on YouTube, before revealing that he wrote a part specifically for Farrow, who quickly turned him down. 

"When I wrote the pilot of American Horror Story, I won't say what it was, I wrote a part for you and begged your agents to get it to you. And they were like, 'Mia doesn't want to work right now,'" Murphy recalls, before thanking her for deciding to do The Watcher. "I'm so thrilled and it was so fun to work with you."

Netflix

"I'm really sorry I didn't do that. I regretted it," Farrow says much to Murphy's surprise. "Yes, I regretted not doing it and I also jumped at the chance when you said via our friend, Ronan, 'I got this thing for your mother. She can wear all black and it will be really interesting.' And I'm like, 'Sure.'"

In The Watcher, Farrow is one of many peculiar residents living in Westfield, New Jersey, where a family (led by Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale) has just brought their idyllic home. Though, within days of moving in, their dream becomes a waking nightmare after they start receiving increasingly menacing letters from a mysterious stalker who dubs themself "The Watcher." 

The series marks Farrow's rare turn on TV, following a recurring part on the NBC crime drama Third Watch from 2000 to 2003 and her starring role as Allison MacKenzie on 1964's Peyton Place. When it comes to the big screen, the actress who broke out with the hit film Rosemary's Baby, last appeared in 2011's Dark Horse

American Horror Story, meanwhile, debuted in 2011 with Murder House, starring Jessica Lange, who would go on to star in several installments of the horror anthology before also appearing in Murphy's other series, Feud: Bette and Joan and The Politician


RELATED CONTENT: