20 Secrets About American Horror Story’s Evan Peters That He Would Rather Take To The Grave

Evan Peters shot to fame on American Horror Story, where he blew television audiences away with his terrifying ability to transform into different characters in the anthology series. Having debuted in the TV chiller in 2011, more small and big-screen credits followed for the 31-year-old, including a prominent role as Quicksilver in the X-Men franchise. However, when Peters is not in character, he is – thankfully, if you are familiar with any of his American Horror Story parts – a very different person. And, furthermore, the St. Louis, Missouri-born actor has plenty of interesting, and occasionally quite hilarious secrets to share.

20. Scary movies used to be a freaking nightmare

“I wasn’t a huge horror movie fan before, because they kinda stress me out,” Peters informed People magazine in 2011. But, in light of this, if anything could cure a person of such anxiety, appearing on American Horror Story surely would. “Since working on the show, I’ve definitely gotten into it a lot more…” the star continued. “I used to look at horror movies as being really real, and it would totally freak me out and give me nightmares. Now I watch and think, ‘Whoa! How’d they do that?’”

19. He tried out for The Hunger Games

When it was announced that Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games novel would be adapted for the big screen, young actors’ ears pricked up all over Hollywood. In fact many stars were super keen to play Peeta – the love interest of Jennifer Lawrence’s lead character, Katniss. Reportedly, among those hopefuls to audition for the 2012 role were Alex Pettyfer, Lucas Till, Hunter Parrish… and Evan Peters. But, as we know know, our hero did not win through in the end – the job went to Josh Hutchinson instead.

18. His mom and dad can’t bear to watch

As many TV fans have witnessed for themselves, watching American Horror Story can be extremely hard-going. After all, most of the staples of the horror genre – blood, guts, bodies, clowns… you name it – feature heavily in the series. Psychological horror is very much a part of the picture too, and unfortunately this can be too much for more sensitive viewers. When People asked Peters in 2011 what his folks thought of the show and his character, he answered candidly. The actor revealed, “My mom can’t watch it. My dad told her, ‘Don’t ever watch [the school shooting] episode.’”

17. He’s totes not into, like, modern slang, bae

For the most part, Peters is quite the hit with younger women. But, never mind the fact that the actor has a huge fan base of teenage girls, he is on record as saying he does not understand the way they talk. And, apparently, “Bae” is a particular bugbear to say nothing of certain other shortened words. “I only learned about it a couple of years ago. I was like, ‘What the hell are you saying? Is that babe?’” Peters told Cosmopolitan magazine in 2015. “Teenage girls don’t finish words. Like “amaze” and other things I just can’t think of right now… Oh, totes. Ah, there you go – totes.”