[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from The Beauty season one finale, “Beautiful Betrayal.”]
Evan Peters finally got to play a nice, normal guy in a Ryan Murphy show. But that didn’t get him a happy ending — not with that cliffhanger finale on Wednesday night.
The longtime Murphy collaborator has appeared in nine seasons of American Horror Story and will return for its 13th installment. He’s often taken on Murphy’s darkest roles — most recently, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in 2022’s Monster, which earned him an Emmy nomination.
In FX’s The Beauty, Peters plays Cooper Madsen, an FBI agent investigating supermodel deaths linked to a mysterious drug that can be injected — or transmitted through sex — that transforms users into more physically perfect versions of themselves.
His partner, Jordan Bennett, initially played by Rebecca Hall, transforms into a different person in episode two after contracting the drug in Rome; Jessica Alexander takes over the role from there. As the case intensifies, Cooper and Jordan finally move beyond their friends-with-benefits dynamic and admit their feelings.
When Dr. Diana (Ari Graynor) unveils a plan to stop Byron (Ashton Kutcher) and his trillion-dollar empire from taking the drug public in episode nine, Cooper volunteers to take it himself to bypass facial recognition at Byron’s corporation. Instead of injecting it, he contracts it by sleeping with Jordan — leading to the season’s most brutal sequence, as his bones crack and his body contorts. But rather than becoming an unrecognizable adult, Cooper transforms into a young boy.
In the finale, desperate to change back, Cooper tries a test reverse version of the drug. The episode ends with Jeremy (Jeremy Pope), The Assassin (Anthony Ramos) and Jordan staring in shock at the unseen result.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Peters reflects on filming that painful transformation, the finale’s twists and how it sets up a potential second season. He also teased what fans can expect from the upcoming “greatest-hits” season of American Horror Story and shares how “shocked” he was to learn Jessica Lange would be returning ahead of The Beauty’s premiere. (Click here for that info.)
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The transformation scenes from taking “The Beauty” drug are really intense and physical — how did you prepare for that, and what was the hardest part to shoot?
Mark Fichera and Jason Mello are our stunt team, and they worked really hard to develop a previs with a lot of different moves, a lot of wire work. They had contortionists. Ryan worked very hard to fine-tune it. The main note was just pain, writhing pain, (laughs) thirst and a fever that is unlike any you’ve ever had before. It was intense, but ultimately fun to shoot. It was hard, but interesting. I’ve never done anything like that before, and I did not know I could do a backbend. (Laughs.) I can’t ever do one again. There’s a take where I did bend and actually, I think I pulled my back. I was screaming like, “That’s real!” (Laughs.) That pain is really, really real.
Your transformation had a huge twist — you turned into a young boy. What was your reaction when you found out that was happening? As an executive producer on the series, did you have any say in that decision?
Oh, no, no. There are a lot of executive producers, but really, there’s only one, and that is Mr. Ryan Murphy. I didn’t see that coming. I was like, “So, what are we gonna do? Who’s gonna play [me]? What’s happening?” And then he told me it was going to be a little boy. I was open to anything, and the fact that it was that was shocking and exciting. I’m curious to see how the audience responds. I think it’s funny, especially Jessica [Alexander]’s performance, after the love of her life turns into a little boy. So there’s a lot of a lot to play around with in there. I’m curious to see how people take that.
Hudson Barry as young Cooper in The Beauty episode 11.
Jeffrey Neira/FX
The show ends with young Cooper trying to reverse things without revealing whether it actually worked. Was that always the plan to end the season that way, or did it evolve over time?
I honestly don’t know. We didn’t know until we got those scripts midway through. So I think Ryan and the writers were developing that idea as they went along, and then settled on it. But it sets it up for season two. The episodes are very short and generally end on a cliffhanger. You really want to know what’s happening, so it makes you want to binge it. Personally, I really want to know what season two looks like. What the world looks like with “The Beauty” everywhere now, and people getting it on purpose and what that feels like. I think it sets it up for that nicely.
What do you want to see for Jordan and Cooper’s relationship in the future? Are you hopeful for them?
The whole series — the beginning of the series, and in the scenes that [Rebecca Hall] shot as Jordan — you’re rooting for them the whole way through. You want them to express their feelings, be together and stop the fronts, which is why you should do it right out of the gate. Just say how you feel, be with the person you’re supposed to be with. Speak your truth. I hope that for them, they can do that.
Jessica Alexander and Evan Peters in The Beauty episode eight.
FX
Were you on set for scenes after your character transformed, and did you give any pointers to the actor who took over playing Cooper for the remaining episodes?
I didn’t get to meet the young Coop. And, you know, he didn’t need any help from me; the kid was great.
Since The Beauty isn’t an anthology series and seems to be ongoing, have you and Ryan Murphy had any early conversations about what you envision for its future? And do you have ideas for your characters’ arcs in mind?
I don’t know. The comic book series starts with the world already having “The Beauty” out for a while. So there’s a lot of different aspects to it, like an Oprah type talk show host who has “The Beauty” who is an advocate for people with “The Beauty” and all these different things. And then there’s this underground sex club where people are actively going down there to get infected with “The Beauty,” and just what does that world look like? I’m curious to see how Ryan would develop that and put that on the screen, because it’ll be interesting. Fingers crossed.
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All episodes of The Beauty are currently streaming on Hulu. Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter‘s The Beauty coverage here, including our premiere interviews with Ashton Kutcher, Bella Hadid, Rebecca Hall and finale interviews with Kutcher, Jeremy Pope and Anthony Ramos and a full cast and characters list.
