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“What is the secret to American Horror Story’s success?” The Hollywood Reporter’s Jackie Strause asked at the first panel of this year’s PaleyFest. “Jessica Lange!” an audience member called out to a round of applause. The interaction was representative of the evening in general. Sure, this was a star-studded AHS panel with actresses from throughout the show’s run: Sarah Paulson, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, and Leslie Grossman, plus costume designer and co-executive producer Lou Eyrich, all dressed in black. But Lange was the real star of the show, and everyone in the room knew it.

On fire from the beginning, Lange almost immediately admitted she has “never watched any of” the series. While reflecting on shooting Freak Show, her favorite season and favorite role, she complained about the late-night shoots: “We would drive ourselves at 4 in the morning and park on some street in the French Quarter and find our way home, because they were too fucking cheap.” Later, she admitted it’s “not fun at all” to go into a season blind without an outline, forced to rewrite and change lines on the fly. She did relish the chance to briefly play Margaret Thatcher this season, calling her a “miserable, monstrous human being. What she did to the Irish …” Even after expressing her gratitude for AHS mastermind Ryan Murphy and the cast of repertory players he has cultivated over 13 seasons, she acknowledged, “Certain stories were better than others. We had better writers on some.”

Throughout the panel, the cast was playful and self-aware about the show’s gonzo tendencies, especially 13 seasons in. Sidibe was the biggest defender of the tone: “None of this is real. It’s high camp. [Jessica] had two heads.” And after Paulson gave AHS: Roanoke a big thumbs-down — “fucking hated Roanoke” — Sidibe called it her favorite season. Still, everyone onstage seemed amused and accustomed to Lange’s bluntness. “Sorry, Jessica, people like it,” Sidibe said after Lange seemed surprised by the season’s high viewership. “I know you don’t.”

As far as AHS’s future, the panel knew nothing, though Lange maintains that this season will be her last. (“Doesn’t it close the series? I thought that’s what was promised to us. We’re not going to keep bringing these old bitches back.”) According to the cast, though, last night’s episode is where the Coven sequel story becomes much more central to the season — and knowing where 13 ends, both Lourd and Eyrich said they strongly believe the Coven story isn’t yet complete. Sorry, Jessica.

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