13’ Star Joey Pollari on Joining Jessica Lange’s ‘AHS’ Family & Falling for Emma Roberts’ Madison

For most of American Horror Story: 13, Ben DeSoto (Joey Pollari) was just a terrified young man trying to survive a seemingly endless string of horrors. But as the season approaches its finale, he’s gone from being afraid of the number 13 to becoming one of the most powerful figures in the franchise’s mythology. And considering his father is literally the Devil, family drama doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Episode 12 revealed even more about Ben’s twisted family tree, connecting him to American Horror Story favorites Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange), Constance Langdon (still Lange), and Sister Jude Martin (Lange yet again). Meanwhile, his newfound powers have made him both a potential savior and a serious threat to the coven — and because things apparently weren’t complicated enough, he’s also caught the eye of Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts).

So, is Ben destined to save humanity, destroy it, or become just like the father he’s determined to defeat? TV Insider spoke with Pollari about Ben’s shocking family connections, his unexpected romance with Madison, and the dangers of fighting evil with evil. Plus, the actor reflects on his character’s transformation from a frightened everyman into a major player in the American Horror Story universe.

In Episode 12, we learn that Ben is the brother of Fiona and Constance, with ties to Sister Jude, placing him at the center of American Horror Story mythology. What does Ben bring to this established lore, and what has it meant to you to become such a major part of the franchise?

Joey Pollari: Well, to answer the last part of your question first, it’s meant a great deal to me to be a part of this show that has inspired so much love and adoration for what has been created and for the characters that these actors have inhabited. So to stand alongside them as a small part, or as you say, at the center of it, is an experience I’m very grateful for. I admire these actors and these creators, these people who’ve worked on this for such a long time, so to be a part of it is amazing.

I think it’s important that Ben’s character is truly that of the everyman. Here is someone who has been deeply confused about the tragedy of his life, and to find himself of great importance to not only the story in 13, but, as you say, the larger story of American Horror Story, I think points to the ways that destiny has bigger plans for even the most regular of people.

American Horror Story has always had an interest in the way that larger, bigger-scale evil tends to infect anybody, any real person. That’s basically the idea behind horror, right? Rosemary is just a woman trying to have her baby in Rosemary’s Baby, and we need to see the way that horror can affect anybody.

I think that’s what’s interesting about this character, the everyman aspect that gets transformed in these later episodes.

Ben’s first encounter with the coven is with Madison Montgomery, and there’s an immediate attraction (after she throws him). Given Madison’s history, what makes them a good match, and what does Ben see in her beyond the darkness that initially draws him to her?

I think it’s perfect for Madison to end up with the world’s biggest bad boy. And he gets to subvert it in some way, because he has been forced to confront the ways that darkness also has to meet a choice to do something better and bigger, which is Madison’s goal as well.

Eric Liebowitz/FX

I think he sees that in her, that they share something that’s beyond darkness and beyond the persona, or what has been foisted upon them in terms of destiny. I think he falls for her because he knows that there’s something else beyond the quick-witted, snappy remarks. He knows that there’s something deeper between them.

Ashley (Elle Chapman) also said that she recognized the darkness in Ben, but as we later see, that didn’t get her very far.

Oh, Ashley.

Ashley tried to manipulate Ben, while Madison appears to embrace him for his darkness. Is there a distinction between why Ben trusts Madison compared to Ashley?

I think he immediately knows Madison pulls no punches. She’s so clear. When he is betrayed by Ashley, the betrayal is so deep that he needs to twist her head off. But with Madison, I think it’s more clear.

He also needs to be close to someone over there because he needs community, especially as refuge from his satanic father.

When Ben discovers that his father, Satan (Paul Anthony Kelly and Fedor Steer), deliberately engineered all the suffering in his childhood, his immediate response after gaining his abilities is to go after him with a similar venom and cruelty. Do you think there’s a danger of Ben becoming more like the person he’s determined to destroy?

I think that’s always the risk of righteous anger and revenge. There is a risk, and I think that’s what Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) is assessing: whether this person is really in control of the darkness that he claims to know and says he’s encountered.

So it’s yet to be seen how he can actually make good on that promise to be in control of his anger and his wish for revenge and not let it overtake him.

Eric Liebowitz/FX

Do you think Ben has a genuine desire to protect humanity, or is he just fueled by revenge? Or a little column A, a little column B…?

I think the pull that Ben is under is like a teenage rebellion. “I will not be my father.” And the hard part of a teenage rebellion is sometimes you go so far in one direction, you end up on the same side, sort of, in relation to that person you’re trying to rebel against. So that is, in these episodes, what the show is looking at.

I think Ben has lived a life caring for people. And I think when he tells his father, “I could do good things with this power,” there’s a real inner dilemma there that he is laying out.

Do you think Ben has a real understanding of who he wants to be outside of everyone’s expectations of what he’s supposed to be?

Oh, Lord. That’s a great question. I’m just thinking about how difficult that is for anybody.

I don’t know if Ben has an encounter of what it’s like to be for himself. I think that is the task that is set for him when he is told that he’s the son of Satan. Responsibility is foisted upon him, and he is trying his best to wonder if there’s something else he can do with that responsibility. Whether that responsibility will consume him, whether that darkness will consume him or not, is the show’s interest. And it was so fantastic to play what these writers gave me.

At the end of Episode 12, Ben seems like the hero, saving the day. He comes in, resurrects Myrtle (Frances Conroy), saves Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) from Hell, does all this incredible stuff, and then is immediately foiled when he tries to take on his dad. What happened there that made Ben the greatest liability for the coven?

I think it’s possible that the greatest liability for the coven is the ways that evil might subvert them. So Ben being an arm of that is the show’s question. Is he leading them into more danger? I think the show is very interested in the ways that evil subverts us, and we can subvert evil. I’m going to stay tight-lipped…

Ben starts this entire series terrified of his own shadow, terrified of the number 13, and suspicious of everything. Now he’s become one of the most powerful players on the chessboard. What was it like to follow the evolution of Ben from beginning to end and see him become such an important part of the show’s lore?

All I could think when I was doing it was to embrace the moment that was happening for Ben at that time, and what’s fantastic is to know that amidst all that fear is genuine possibility for change.

When these scripts finally came in, not knowing anything about the trajectory of this character, and being given a new script and seeing that, wow, here’s a person who has lived a life of traumatic fear and is now being invited to something greater… I think that’s mythological, you know? That’s the great call from within. That’s what he is avoiding in his life, that call. And the show is interested in whether that call is towards darkness or towards light.

It’s hard to express. It really was an interesting experience to be in the dark myself as an actor. Where is this going? And not knowing that that’s the character’s journey, and finding, bit by bit, that there’s something there. OK, I’m going to cross over into the Coven world. I’m working with all these actors. I’ve watched this season. It was a parallel experience in a lot of ways. I found that extremely meaningful, and I think the fans will, too.

American Horror Story, Season 13 Finale, Thursday, October 29, 9/8c, FX and Hulu