Joey Pollari Talks Landing the Lead in American Horror Story and the Twist Ahead of the Season 13 Finale

Joey Pollari says he still remembers the phone call in which Ryan Murphy told him he would be the lead of the next American Horror Story. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the season 13 finale, set for Oct. 29, the actor said the news left him speechless. Pollari, who also starred in American Crime, plays Ben DeSoto, a character who starts the season as a boyfriend with a crippling fear of the number 13 and ends up revealed as the son of Satan.

Pollari said he did not know that twist when he signed on. He was told only that Ben would be the entry point for meeting the show's returning characters. The surprise arrived with a script in which Ben has "616" branded on his lower back. He called it a shock, and said an even bigger one came when Ben, after meeting his father, tells the coven, "I believe you're looking for me."

His connection to Murphy began in an unlikely place. During the extended pandemic, Pollari worked as a production assistant at premieres and awards-campaign events. In August 2024 he was assigned to the premiere of Murphy's Doctor Odyssey, where he vacuumed the blue carpet and handed out markers and water bottles. Forty minutes later, Murphy walked that carpet.

Six weeks to the day after that premiere, Pollari was called to audition for Monster: The Ed Gein Story, his first in-person audition in four years. Roughly five weeks later Murphy phoned to tell him he had the part. Work in Italy followed, and about six months after that, Pollari met Murphy at the Roman ruins, where the creator suggested dinner. He described the relationship as a real kinship and a collaboration, and said he is unsure about the word "muse."

When Murphy offered him the AHS role, he said, the creator told him he would share many scenes with Jessica Lange and be the gateway to the returning characters. Pollari had seen pieces of the show online and had watched the pilot years ago, but not all of Murder House. He viewed his newcomer status as an advantage, since Ben is also new to this world and to Constance Langdon. He later watched Coven and then found himself on the Miss Robichaux's Academy set with those characters.

He also praised Emma Roberts, whose Madison Montgomery shares one of the season's bottle episodes with Ben. The two clicked immediately, he said, and while the episode included some improvisation, the writing and their chemistry did most of the work. Joking about a scene in which both smoke on a bed, he recalled saying he could do it all day, and Roberts replying that he was lucky because they had been. Pollari said he worked with nearly the whole cast except Kathy Bates, who has one scene, and that the veterans were welcoming even as he felt like part of a different show.

The twelfth episode ended with a major reveal: Lange's characters Fiona Goode of Coven and Constance Langdon of Murder House are sisters separated at birth, and Sister Jude of Asylum is their biological mother. Their father, the story notes, is Satan. The episode also left Cordelia, played by Sarah Paulson, and Queenie, played by Gabourey Sidibe, in danger, and the outlook for Ben looked grim as well.

Pollari said the cast was excited to see the lore explained, but would not reveal what happens next. He said only that not everything is what it seems and that more is still to come, adding that "it's not over until it's over." Asked whether Ben could return in future seasons, he said that decision belongs to the writers, though he would be interested. On the characters' fates, he said "mum's the word."

Asked about real-life fears, Pollari said he is not particularly superstitious despite warnings from others before he took the job. He found it fun to play a paranoid character who sees meaning everywhere. The American Horror Story season 13 finale airs at 9 p.m. Thursday on FX and streams the next day on Hulu.