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* ButIPlayOneOnTV: Creator/AlexandraBreckenridge would later say that after her role as the extremely seductive Young Moira, she got hit on by ''three'' actors.
-->'''Breckenridge:''' There are three particular people who went through people I knew. One went through my agent and said, "Oh, I want to work with her on a project," and it was very much so not that. I was like, "Just tell him I have a boyfriend," and they were like, "We told him that, he's not interested in that, blah blah blah." So I said, "OK, I'll meet with him." And then I met with him and then he starts texting me and I was like, "Oh God, no, no, no."
* TheDanza: [[spoiler:Jessica ''Lang''e as Constance ''Lang''don. Both "Langdon" and "Lange" are derived from the German word for "long", so its close enough]]
* DawsonCasting: 24-year-old Evan Peters and 32-year old Bianca Lawson play high school students. Averted with Violet, played by 17-year-old Taissa Farmiga.
* EnforcedMethodActing: According to Ryan Murphy, Taissa Farmiga's reaction in the scene where her character Violet finds her own body was a genuine reaction, as Farmiga didn't see the prosthetic body until the scene was shot.
* RealitySubtext: Creator/ZacharyQuinto playing a gay man has quite a bit of this. At the time he filmed the season, he didn't publicly reveal that he was gay, but he came out in October 2011, which was right around the time that the first episode featuring his character aired.
* ViralMarketing: Several videos, referred to as clues to the show's content, have been released on the show's Website and Website/YouTube channel. These directly hint towards Vivien's miscarriage, her later pregnancy, and the rubber suit man's involvement, among other things. There was also a chance to sign up for a "house call" to come face-to-face with one of the show's characters.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Ryan Murphy confirmed on the audio commentary for the pilot that Constance's fourth child - about whom nothing but his/her (former) existence was ever revealed on the show - was originally intended to be an adult son who would have a significant recurring role in the season. In keeping with Constance's statement that there was something "wrong" with each of her children, he was to be an albino. However, the character was cut early in production for unknown reasons, as too was the "handsome albino" line Constance was meant to say as a reference to him in the salon scene during the finale. {{Fanon}} seems to have adopted him, but for several seasons in the official canon there was no indication of who the fourth child was, except for a line describing Adelaide as Constance's last surviving child that implies s/he is dead. As of ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse'', Constance's canonical fourth child is confirmed as a daughter named Rose whose affliction is the total loss of both of her eyes due to unknown causes. Judging by her ghost's appearance, she died as a young child.
** More about the deleted albino son: he would have been played by Stephen Thompson, who appears in very early promotional material for the season, and the casting call for the character described him as "a handsome albino man in his twenties or thirties". Visibly a scene with him was shot for the pilot episode, but only a few pictures of it remain - one of which can be seen in the ending credits of the Pilot episode. He would have met Tate in the nursery, spooking him by appearing from behind while the latter was looking at a crib with a set of creepy dolls hanging above it. Stephen Thompson can be notably seen wearing a fur coat and a pearl necklace, evoking the possibility of his character being a CreepyCrossdresser. An extract from the end of this scene does appear in an early promo for the season, with Tate beating his head while screaming "Get out of my head!".
** Originally, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk wanted to have the murals of the house stay throughout the entire season. However, after shooting a few episodes with them, they decided they felt a bit too much and too on-the-nose, so in-universe Vivien had them covered again.
** In the audio commentary for the pilot, it was revealed that the omnipresence of hedge clippers in the opening credits, and the sight of a hedge clipper-holding man in the basement, were references to a subplot that they never could include in the season proper.
** During Tate's initial DreamSequence in the pilot, there was supposed to be a shot acting as an homage to Film/TheShining, with blood pouring down the staircase of the high school. The scene was filmed (and can even be found in the DVD behind-the-scene footage), but was never included in the episode.
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